Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Great introduction to the next big dynamic language
Review: As much as I liked the first edition of this book, I like this one even more. Dave has written a wonderful introduction to programming with the Ruby language which will stand up to use as a reference even after you've got a handle on the language.

The sections on unit testing and profiling are great, and the library reference at the end is worth the price of the book alone.

Rating:
Summary: A smart book for a smart language
Review: Brought up to date for Ruby version 1.8, and expanded with some 200+
additional pages, the second edition of the much-loved Pickaxe book is
definitely a must-have for anyone interested in the Ruby programming
language.

This book provides an extensive Ruby tutorial, a concise language guide, a
comprehensive reference to the built-in classes and modules, a useful set
of synopsis pages for the entire standard library, and a great deal more.
But the book doesn't merely try to be all these things, it succeeds at
being all of these things, and very well indeed, while all along imparting
healthy doses of practical Ruby programming wisdom.

Well written, and nicely printed and bound (lay-flat binding), this is a
first rate book in every respect.


Rating:
Summary: Worthy successor to the indispensable original
Review: Dave has done it again. Taking what was already an excellent first edition and growing it by 50%. He has updated all of the original chapters, the language walkthrough and the library reference.

Like most language books Programming Ruby starts with installing Ruby and then goes into a language reference; strings, classes, blocks, regular expressions, etc. It's all covered step by step with examples. The second part, Ruby and It's World, is a grab bag of chapters on more complex Ruby topics like graphical user interfaces, Ruby GEMs, and embedding Ruby.

Part III is a concise reference for Ruby that is handy when you already know the language but need a refresher. And the final part is a library reference with examples of using each method. This is the invaluable reference that you will use in every Ruby project.

This is the book to buy to learn Ruby, and to use as a desk reference. There is no question about that.

Rating:
Summary: outstanding reference and tutorial!
Review: Thanks Dave, Andy, Chad, Matz! This is a wonderful book for learning arcane details of ruby. Also, of all the (100s of) books i have on C, perl, java, python, TCL, etc., the best indexed & most usable reference by far (35 page index!) Ruby 1.6 was pretty well documented in 1st edition pickax, "Ruby Way","Teach Yourself 21 Days" books and on the web. Also Herrington's "COde Generation" book is a great tutorial/reference on reg exp's, XML & templated code/text generation. ruby 1.8 raises bar substantially, with huge increase in expressiveness of the language (smaller delta than python 2.2 vs 2.0 but still substantial) but with possibility of deeply nesting algorithmic and data structure complexity.

Being pure object-oriented language, ruby's more complex than perl or python, you must have decent grasp of O-O design,& design patterns to use it effectively, and you have to spend time learning how the object model descends from Object, Module, Class classes and Kernel, Comparable, Enumerable modules to know where to find classes/methods referenced. ANd it has enough smalltalk-y influence that perl, python, java people have to step back and re-think iterators and control structures, for example, and spend some time learning a different set of debuggers, profiling/unit testing libs, IDEs or emacs/vi setup, etc.

So if you're picking up the Rails framework, or building apps from scratch, or just evaluating ruby vs. python, java, C#, buy/borrow this & a couple ruby 1.6 books, look up web resources, there's lots of mail lists, forums and blogs now.

Rating:
Summary: A definitive reference to the programming language
Review: The collaborative effort of Dave Thomas (who is personally responsible for many of the innovative directions and initiatives associated with Ruby) with the added assistance of Chad Fowler (codirector of Ruby Central, Inc.) and Andy Hunt (a founder of the Pragmatic Programmers and the Pragmatic Bookshelf), Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide is composed of four major sections: a "user friendly" tutorial on employing Ruby; a definitive reference to the programming language; a complete documentation of all build-in classes, modules, and methods; and a complete and definitive description of all 98 standard libraries. This newly expanded and updated second addition also addresses coverage of installation, packaging, and documenting Ruby source code; threading and synchronization; and enhancing Ruby's capabilities using C-Language extensions. Of additional value are the new chapters on XML/RPC, SOAP, distributed Ruby, templating systems, other web services, and unit testing.


Rating:
Summary: All you've ever wanted to know about Ruby...
Review: This was another book that I picked up with the expectation that it would introduce me to a whole new programming language. It did. And it did it well. The overall quality of the writing is top notch and the pragmatic approach simply works. Not too much memorizing the language syntax, not too much talk about the history of computers. Instead, the book jumps to the Ruby world head on.

So I just said "not too much memorizing the language syntax". What does that mean? Well, the first part of the book does indeed teach the reader to write syntactically correct Ruby code. However, the way it accomplishes this is not by focusing on the syntax but on the function behind the syntax. Also, the authors have paced the chapters so that you won't be spending too long a time reading about some single specific thing. For me, this approach fits like an old glove. I usually read books in short sprints, be it in a bathtub, a bus, or in bed. Having said that, I do believe that you can get the most out of this book by alternating with reading the book and the interactive Ruby interpreter. There is a downside to the fast pace, though. At times, a specific chapter doesn't quite give you the kind of sense of belonging as the others around it do.

Looking at the wide range of topics listed in the table of contents, the book definitely looks like it covers everything under the Sun. Some of the topics got me panting, almost. Developing web applications with Ruby (one of my motivations behind deciding to read the book in the first place) and unit testing Ruby classes, for example, were topics that I was a bit disappointed about not getting more focus.

Another thing I didn't like too much is the size. At 800+ pages, you're not likely to carry this book around with you. I would've personally preferred putting the 300-page the language/API reference online and left it out from the hardcopy. With the size thing out of my way, I have to admit that the reference certainly looks great compared to what I've seen in most Java books, for example.

All in all, I'm confident that this is one of the best Ruby books out there if not the best, even. Regardless of the few gripes I listed above, there's more than enough absolute gems hidden within these covers. I am certain you won't have second thoughts picking this one to get started on your Ruby way.

Rating:
Summary: Worth consideration
Review: Yet another scripting language. Originating in Japan, its inventor (Y Matsumoto) claims that it is more powerful than Perl and more object oriented than Python. Somehow, I imagine proponents of those languages might vociferously disagree.

In any event, Thomas does a nice job of documenting Ruby, for the benefit of a newcomer. A key strength of Ruby seems to be what it calls containers, blocks and iterators. This includes a nice ability to have hash tables. Certainly, you have more to start with than in a bare bones language like C. Veterans of Java will recognise and appreciate this native Ruby functionality. The importance of these functions can be seen in the unusual order in which they appear in the book. Thomas discusses these in a chapter that precedes talking about mundane and simpler things like the standard variable types, operators and loops. Most texts of any language would reverse the order.

Overall, I am ambivalent about Ruby. Not so much because I disagree with what Thomas says, as simply because I'm quite comfortable in Java. Nonetheless, if you are casting around for a strong OO scripting language, Ruby might be worth consideration.