Customer Reviews

Learning Ruby

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When I read a computer book titled "Learning (Something)" and I don't learn anything, I have to ask myself: is the fault in the book, or in myself? This time, I believe, it's the book.

O'Reilly has an excellent reputation as a publisher of technical books. The table of contents suggests a carefully organized survey of language features, but the actual discussion is flighty and shallow. The author is clearly a Ruby enthusiast. It seems as if he wanted to mention everything, but didn't have time to EXPLAIN anything. In short order, he shows us eval, methods, blocks, and procs, but in the sample code, they all just print "Hello, Matz!" There is no discussion of when or why one technique might be preferable to another.

The book is full of sample code that illustrates syntax without even slightly illuminating the reasoning behind it. To illustrate logical AND:

if a == 10 && b == 27 && c == 43 && d == -14
print sum = a + b + c + d
end

Later the same tests are shown separated with "||" for logical OR. Beginning programmers might wonder, "Why in the world would I want to do THAT?" Better sample code would use scenarios where the specified actions make obvious logical sense. Experienced programmers won't have trouble with AND and OR, but the same unhelpful style of sample code illustrates unique Ruby features and more complex topics, too. (Maybe it's not a problem if you already know all this stuff.)

Each chapter ends with several review questions. Here are a couple from the first chapter: "What is the nickname of the inventor of Ruby?" and "Who wrote the pickaxe book?" To be fair, in later chapters some of the answers might be the name of an object method or a math constant. But all the questions test the reader's ability to repeat something from the chapter, never his real understanding.

Oh, maybe I'm too harsh, saying I didn't learn ANYTHING from this book. The nickname of the inventor of Ruby? Matz.

This is a good book for someone who is planning to teach a beginners class in Ruby to others or has never seen Ruby before at all and wants to learn it themself from scratch. It does a good job on the basics, has plenty of examples, and even has review questions at the end of each chapter with answers at the back of the book. As far as learning anything past the basics of the language, including Rails and some of the more interesting things that can be done with Ruby, there are two short chapters that cover this information but do not go enough into the details. Once you read this book I suggest "Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide". That book goes into more detail as to what can be done with Ruby, but it also assumes you are not a beginner, which you won't be once you read this book. The table of contents is as follows:

1. Ruby Basics
Hello, Matz; Interactive Ruby; Resources; Installing Ruby; Permission Denied; Associating File Types on Windows; Review Questions;

2. A Quick Tour of Ruby
Ruby Is Object-Oriented; Ruby's Reserved Words; Comments; Variables; Strings; Numbers and Operators; Conditional

Statements; Arrays and Hashes; Methods; Blocks; Symbols; Exception Handling; Ruby Documentation; Review Questions;

3. Conditional Love
The if Statement; The case Statement; The while Loop; The loop Method; The for loop; Execution Before or After a Program; Review Questions;

4. Strings
Creating Strings; Concatenating Strings; Accessing Strings; Comparing Strings; Manipulating Strings; Case Conversion; Managing Whitespace, etc; Incrementing Strings; Converting Strings; Regular Expressions; 1.9 and Beyond ;Review Questions;

5. Math
Class Hierarchy and Included Modules; Converting Numbers; Basic Math Operations; Ranges; Inquiring About Numbers; More Math Methods; Math Functions; Rational Numbers; Prime Numbers; Review Questions;

6. Arrays
Creating Arrays; Accessing Elements; Concatenation; Set Operations; Unique Elements; Blow Your Stack; Comparing Arrays; Changing Elements; Deleting Elements; Arrays and Blocks; Sorting Things and About Face; Multidimensional Arrays; 1.9 and Beyond; Other Array Methods; Review Questions;

7. Hashes
Creating Hashes; Accessing Hashes; Iterating over Hashes; Changing Hashes; Converting Hashes to Other Classes; 1.9 and Beyond; Other Hash Methods; Review Questions;

8. Working with Files
Directories; Creating a New File; Opening an Existing File; Deleting and Renaming Files; File Inquiries; Changing File Modes and Owner; The IO Class; Review Questions;

9. Classes
Defining the Class; Instance Variables; Accessors; Class Variables; Class Methods; Inheritance; Modules; public, private, or protected ; Review Questions;

10. More Fun with Ruby
Formatting Output with sprintf; Processing XML; Date and Time; Reflection; Using Tk; Metaprogramming; RubyGems; Exception Handling; Creating Documentation with RDoc; Embedded Ruby; Review Questions;

11. A Short Guide to Ruby on Rails
Where Did Rails Come From?; Why Rails?; What Have Other Folks Done with Rails? Hosting Rails; Installing Rails; Learning Rails; A Brief Tutorial; Review Questions;

A. Ruby Reference
B. Answers to Review Questions

This is a great introduction to Ruby. It covers the basics without swamping the fledgling programmer in too much complexity. That's not what newcomers need. They aren't worried about the nooks and crannies of the array class; they're wondering what the heck an array is, and what makes it different from a hash. In that respect, this book strikes a nice balance.

Having read (and bought) most of the O'Reilly books on Ruby, Perl, and Python, I can honestly say that this book ranks high at the top of them--not because it is the definitive work on Ruby (it isn't and isn't supposed to be), but because it covers the core essentials in a way that you can read in an afternoon. For that reason, it is an excellent choice for a first timer in Ruby and/or programming to see why Ruby is a great language worth learning, without having to get a computer science degree first, and without having to hire a Sherpa to help them lug their book around while they read it (I'll refrain from pointing fingers at other books here).

I think that's one thing many of the reviewers missed about this book. "Learning Ruby" is designed for the newcomer who wants to get jump started in Ruby, not for the experienced programming who is just looking for a nutshell summary.

I would also like to add that at one point, I had a question about what was included with the one-click installation system and emailed the author, who very quickly investigated the problem and emailed me back with an answer. You have to admit: that's pretty impressive.

Now, there are areas of the book that should probably be expanded on for the next edition. Primarily, I'm thinking of a chapter devoted to regular expressions a la "Learning Perl", a chapter devoted to IO (this would be brief but handy) including a section on string interpolation and how to use and combine string methods (a very cool aspect of Ruby), and finally an expansion on the chapter involving classes to address a few of the things that some of the other reviewers have already identified as important but missing.

However, those are not fatal by any means, and for the first edition in a relatively new language, this book is well worth the time and money.

As a book entitled "Learning Ruby", this is a draw for new programmers looking to pick up ruby and the book's smallish size (compared to other ruby works on the market) adds to that attraction for me. The problem is that while the author wants to target both experienced programmers and novice programmers alike, it is the novice programmers who are short-sticked but I do caveat that with "...depending on what your novice needs are."

I think this book falls in wonderful place just past absolute beginner and right before intermediate programmer. Learning Ruby is short on code examples with lengthy explanations but NOT short on code OR explanations.

It is really sort of like a "hacks" type of programming book with a swiss-army knife type of utility. What this means is that the experienced programmer will immediately see the value in this book and find productivity with ruby fairly quickly if not instantly because of the concise code examples and explanations.

The novice programmer and 'Ruby Newbie' will need a little bit of ground work. At least I did. The good news though is that this really is a fantastic book for someone looking to "learn" Ruby in a short amount of time but basics only. What you will need is some basic understanding of programming concepts to read more into the short explanations of ruby programming concepts in this book. I know, to suggest some basic understand to read a book that is supposed to teach basics isn't right. That is the books weakness yet the book is truly accessible to all but the newest of new programmers.

I actually started out with Beginning Ruby by Apress, a five star book at the time of this writing. The Apress book does much more hand holding for the beginner and does an excellent and good job of it before quickly ramping up the challenge of coding.

Chapters 2 and 3 of the Apress book alone are worth the price of entry...no beginner should be without that book. With that said, Learning Ruby is a good read that has the right mix of information to make a great reference for quickly looking up Ruby programming concepts as you get started with Ruby. You will quickly get familiar with Ruby using this book.

It's not too thin and it's not too thick. It is just right but NOT right as a stand-alone work for Learning Ruby and slightly less desirable as a first work on Ruby for newbies.

Some of the examples or hacks were kind of cool to know having read the Apress book. I'm never one to tackle a new subject from a single author. I attack it from 2 or more authors at the same time with overlap of texts for a broader approach on the topic.

So to the Ruby Newbies and novice programmers like myself, if you need an additional ruby book that is much quicker to work through as a reference but also with enough explanation and code to provide a decent context for learning then this is great resource only if you've done just a bit of ruby coding before or at least understand some programming concepts or hold a basic, minimal understanding of the ruby.

This book is, though, an excellent added resource to your library of learning. The author makes a nice progression from quick hits and examples of Ruby overall to more focused topics and bit deeper dive towards the end. I would suggest however that you start with Beginning Ruby by Apress, Ruby By Example and The Ruby Way, Second Edition (in that order). It isn't a bad idea to tackle more than one book at a time, at your own pace, cross-referencing and comparing as you go.

This is a great way to accelerate your learning and understanding.

~TL

Sweet little intro to learn the coolest, most expressive, trendiest scripting language around. Yukihiro Matsumoto has done a great job choosing for his language a simple, elegant, balanced syntax that is a pleasure to learn , especially if guided by a good introductory book like this one. All the basics are treated clearly and gently enough not to overwhelm the novice. The writing style is lively and engaging without being obnoxious. Probably the best Ruby primer around. A great companion would be "Ruby by Example" by Kevin Baird. There two books do a great job of getting your feet wet and tickling your curiosity, which is exactly the job of a good intro book. If you are serious about learning Ruby you will eventually have to read more complete and advanced text like "The Ruby Way", or "Programming Ruby". As a final note, the author states that he had is targeting two potential audiences, experienced programmers curious about Ruby and true novices who want to learn how to program. While the first target is 100% on, the second is missed miserably. I really don't think this book is a good one for someone who needs to learn how to program. But then again, have you ever seen an O'Reilly book that was good for it?

I don't understand why some people complain about this book's simplicity. That's exactly what the book was done for and that's exactly what to author states in the first lines. This book is to get you up and running quickly and NOT to turn you into a Ruby master. I read the Dave Thomas book and it is complicated. It is also boring most of the time. This one is for busy developer who wants to get the basic first and teach himself the advanced stuff later. This book is thin and objective, pretty much like Ruby. If you want to start coding quickly buy this code. If you want to "entertain" yourself over some months with a bunch of theory buy Dave Thomas' book.

The chapters are tightly organized and neatly structured. The author writes clearly and directly. You'll learn a lot.

There are many short paragraphs and examples that lead to moments of "Oh, so that's how it works!" This is now my favorite book for sharpening my understanding of Ruby while expending the least effort.

The chapters cover all the basics of Ruby - strings, hashes, arrays etc. But you also go nicely beyond the basics. Chapter 9, on Classes, is the clearest explanation I've seen covering Ruby and object-oriented programming. The author also easily explains advanced topics (like Reflection) - and other real delights that are in use by Ruby programmers and hackers around the net.

There is an unexpected surprise at the end of the book, with a comprehensive but short introduction to Rails. It's not just a thoughtless bolt-on, but a natural extension to the rest of the book. As if this wasn't enough of a bonus, Appendix A presents a thorough "Ruby Reference". You'll also find an informative Glossary full of useful / practical terminology.

This may not be perfect as a first book on Ruby or programming, but no book deserves to stand alone on a bookshelf. "Learning Ruby" is certainly a great one to own if your intent is to explore and harness the power of this technology.

What other book on computer technology shows you how it works, introduces you to the culture and forces driving its development forward, and provides plenty of code for you to freely tinker with? This one does - and it's packaged in a binding that is thinner than a laptop.

It's a great book - don't miss it.

Having never been exposed to Ruby I decided on this book to begin learning the language. At first glance this book isn't a big overwhelming manual as is obvious from the number of pages, but rather a very achievable read that covers the necessary topics of learning a language.

The author starts out by discussing some basic commands, and an overview of the book. This first chapter also includes information on how to get and install Ruby on various operation systems.

By the second chapter the author is giving an overview of the Ruby language that gives the reader some idea of what to expect. And then its off to learning the syntax much as you would expect when learning any language.

For the curious the chapter subjects continue as follows. Conditional statements, strings, math, arrays, hashes, files, classes, more fun with Ruby (covers things like XML, Tk, RubyGems and Rdoc), and finishes up with a brief introduction to Ruby on Rails. The author also includes a great Ruby Reference as an appendix.

CONCLUSION
--
This is a simple book that does a great job of explaining to the reader the basics about Ruby. I liked this book and would recommend this book to those looking to learn Ruby or as a reference.

If you are new to Ruby, there is an O'Reilly title you may want to check out: Learning Ruby by Michael Fitzgerald. This book is a short and concise introduction to the Ruby programming language that will help any Ruby newbie come up to speed quickly. At 238 pages, it is a light, easy read.

Experienced programmers will find a book that jumps right in and introduces language features one after another. The basics are covered in the first chapter, followed by a fairly comprehensive 'Quick Tour of Ruby' in the second chapter. After that, each chapter spends more time with a certain aspect of Ruby, like conditional operators, strings, math, arrays and hashes, files and classes.

The detailed chapters are followed by a chapter that covers some extras like processing XML, working with dates and times, reflection, metaprogramming, and exception handling among other topics. A final chapter takes a dip into the Ruby on Rails framework with a quick, 18 page tour.

The book finishes with a 'Ruby Reference' in Appendix A and the answers to the end-of-chapter questions in Appendix B. The Ruby Reference packs a lot of info into a handful of pages and is a great shortcut to the online documentation if the book happens to be next to your computer.

I enjoyed reading this book and the author's sometimes irreverent writing style.

Michael Fitzgerald's LEARNING RUBY is the perfect programmer's guide to learning the Ruby programming language, and should be a basic reference for any library strong in computer programming resources. From the basic features of Ruby and how to use regular expressions to using operators, arrays, and modules, LEARNING RUBY is perfect for learning: each chapter concludes with review questions, making it the perfect 'course in a book' as well as a basic computer library reference.