Agile Web Development with Rails : A Pragmatic Guide (Pragmatic Programmers)

Ajax in Action

Web Programming

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition

Format: Paperback
Author: Dave Thomas
ReleaseDate: 01 October, 2004
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Rating:

Not a Good Introduction or Reference


"Programming Ruby" is supposed to be a combination of primer and reference for the Ruby language. Ruby and the Rails framework (Ruby on Rails) have gotten major attention in the past year, primarily as an alternative to the complexities of using Java and J2EE APIs for typical N-tiered web applications using a Model / View / Controller framework. Compared to some of the "classics" in programming such as "Programming PERL" (Larry Wall), "The C Programming Language" (Kernigan & Ritchie) or "The C++ Programming Languate" (Stroustrup), this book falls way short as both a primer or reference.

First of all, if you're interested in Ruby at this point, you're probably interested in using the Rails framework built using Ruby. This book provides NO information about Rails at all. This isn't a fault of this book, it's just something you need to know because many code examples you'll find on the web aren't "Ruby" examples per se, they are examples of using APIs within the Rails framework. Another book by this author is due out shortly covering Rails but based on the organization of this book, I would browse it in a bookstore before buying.

I've learned multiple programming langues over the years (Pascal, C, C++, a bit of Assembler, UNIX shell, PERL, Java) and I think most programmers expect any book on a programming language to tackle the material in the following order:

* installing the language
* running or compiling a basic program
* data types for the language
* variables, assignment and data structures / objects
* conditional expressions / control structures
* unit / module organization for source code
* advanced class / object concepts
* standard libraries for DB, network, security functions, etc.

As another reviewer stated, this book doesn't explain the Ruby language's use of symbols (:somesymbol) until page 323, even though it would be logical to explain symbols at the same time Ruby's hash type is explained. The difference between thisvariable, @thisvariable and @@thisvariable is explained very early but seems out of context because the scope of these variable types isn't clarified until the reference section. I think most experienced programmers will find the sequencing of chapters in this book confusing.

You can definitely learn key aspects of Ruby from this book but this will definitely not be the only book you'll want or need if you are learning Ruby to use Rails. Rails itself definitely shows some promise for simplifying some aspects of web development but I presume it will take another 2 years or so for the framework to stabilize and useful documentation to emerge. It definitely isn't clear from this book how Ruby as an underlying language for the Rails framework was a better or needed choice over implementing something like Rails with PHP or PERL that have already achieved wide familiarity.

Good both for learning Ruby and comparing it to other OO languages
If you don't already know object orientation I think you'll be lost. This book is an excellent one on learning the Ruby language if you already know object-oriented programming and are coming from the C++ or Java world in particular, since the authors often compare how you do something in Ruby to those two languages. This is a book not only about the Ruby language and its syntax, but Ruby and its environment. There is an entire chapter entitled "When Trouble Strikes" that talks about the ruby debugger, interactive Ruby, profiling to look for code bottlenecks, and a common list of mistakes that Ruby programmers make. In "Ruby and the Web" the book shows how easy it is to write HTML forms using Ruby, and in a reverse move, how easy it is to embed Ruby in HTML by using eRuby. In "Extending Ruby" it is shown how Ruby itself can easily be extended by writing extensions in the C programming language.
This book also helped me compare Java and Ruby as languages to the point that I can now see the various advantages that Ruby has over Java. For example, built-in lists/arrays and hashes/dictionaries in Ruby are a big win over Java and its library-based collections. Java 5. 0 fixes some of this but, in Java, collections still seem tacked on rather than integrated as in Ruby. Another big win of Ruby over Java is its ability for dynamic code loading. You can do it in Java but again, it seems tacked on. Also, Ruby object-oriented completeness over Java's dichotomy between primitive types vs. objects is a big plus for Ruby.
If I have any criticism of this book, it is that although complete, the chapters seem somewhat out of order. In particular quite a bit of the material in part 3, "Ruby Crystallized", seemed to only be repeating material in part one. However, it is still the best book out there for getting a detailed look at the language and its environment. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents for this book, so I do that here:
PART 1- FACETS OF RUBY
1. Getting Started
2. Ruby. New
3. Classes, Objects, and Variables
4. Containers, Blocks, and Iterators
5. Standard Types
6. More About Methods
7. Expressions
8. Exceptions, Catch, and Throw
9. Modules
10. Basic Input and Output
11. Threads and Processes
12. Unit Testing
13. When Trouble Strikes
PART 2 - RUBY IN ITS SETTING
14. Ruby and Its World
15. Interactive Ruby Shell
16. Documenting Ruby
17. Package Management with RubyGems
18. Ruby and the Web
19. Ruby Tk
20. Ruby and Microsoft Windows
21. Extending Ruby
PART 3 - RUBY CRYSTALLIZED
22. The Ruby Language
23. Duck Typing
24. Classes and Objects
25. Locking Ruby in the Safe
26. Reflection, ObjectSpace, and Distributed Ruby
PART 4 - RUBY LIBRARY REFERENCE
27. Built-In Classes and References
28. Standard Library
APPENDICES
A. Socket Library
B. MKMF Library
C. Support
D. Bibliography.

Teaches the Language, which is Great!
I am unable to concentrate on online book reading. I wanted a paper book to learn the language of Ruby.

This book gave me exactly what I wanted:
* Taught me the language and how Ruby "works".
* Gave me references to Modules that Ruby uses.

This is exactly what you are looking for if you are looking to learn the Ruby language. It doesn't do much else, which is GREAT!

Get this if you want to learn Ruby.