Making Use of Ruby [Paperback]

Suresh Mahadevan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 047121972X | ISBN-13: 978-0471219729 | Publication Date: July 4, 2002 | Edition: 1

Ruby is an interpreted language, capable of saving programmers considerable time during program development since no compilation and linking are necessary. It is ideal for writing text-processing applications, server-side scripts, application prototypes, mathematics, and for many everyday programming tasks.
* Reviews Ruby's clever syntax and demonstrates why that makes it a perfect choice for beginning programmers, and also shows how its multipurpose capabilities make it a sound choice for experienced developers
* Explores Ruby's uses for prototyping, text processing, and other tasks

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A hands-on introduction to a powerful, easy-to-use scripting language

Ruby's clear and clever syntax makes it an excellent choice for beginners, while its speed and extensibility makes it extremely useful for experienced developers. This up-and-coming scripting language is compact, fast, powerful, and yet, surprisingly simple to use. Suresh Mahadevan offers you a detailed introduction to this open source language and explains how it can save programmers considerable time during program development because no compilation and linking is necessary. With its built-in interfaces to Java, Perl, and Python, Ruby is well suited for writing text prototypes, mathematics, and many other everyday programming tasks. Packed with real-world examples and advice on how to move beyond the samples to tackle specific tasks, this excellent resource also includes end-of-chapter reviews and exercises to help you master the many possibilities of Ruby.

With numerous real-world examples and expert advice, this book:
* Provides a concise and task-oriented introduction to Ruby
* Helps you evaluate the suitability of Ruby for your project
* Is a practical introduction to Ruby's syntax and fundamental strengths
* Includes numerous working scripts, with information on how to adapt and extend them to meet individual needs

The companion Web site contains:
* All source code from the book
* Frequently asked questions, quizzes, and best practices
* Links to other Ruby sites

About the Author

SURESH MAHADEVAN is an engineering graduate with three years' experience in developing technical courses and Instructor-Led Training materials (ILTs). He started his career by training professionals on various technologies ranging from Microsoft to Sun. For the past two years, Mahadevan has worked with the Knowledge Solutions Business group (KSB) of NIIT, Ltd., where he is the team leader on a project to develop a successful learning solution for clients. He is also the author of other technical books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047121972X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471219729
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,359,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars slow-paced intro to a wonderful "agile" language, April 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Making Use of Ruby (Paperback)

May be good for total beginners, but very wordy and repetitive presentations of basic concepts. I really wanted to like this book, but it's poorly edited. Disappointed at Wiley, it has more of the slapped together feel of one of those doorstop publishers (without the bulk). If you've ever programmed in perl/python, java, C, you won't learn much from the first 100 pages. The sections starting with exceptions are worth reading, however, with useful code examples

Also, there are some bad typos, in regular expressions, they've confused $' and $`.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What a Shame, April 16, 2005

By 

Dragon_71 "Computer Programmer" (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Making Use of Ruby (Paperback)

This has to be the strangest computer book I have ever read, the book should have become a classic as an introductory text to the Ruby language. This book has a great layout and format. The author(s) present the language through a series of case studies that help put the various elements of the language in an understandable context. It is apparent that the author(s) have a deep understanding of their subject matter. So what's the problem? The author(s) obviously speak English as a second language and the book was not edited. This book appears to be a first draft that was slapped together and shipped. The editors (Ben Ryan, Kathryn Malm, Pamela Hanley and Brian Snapp) should look for another line of work. 5 stars to the author(s), 0 stars to the editors. Too bad this book wasn't published by O'Reilly.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Worst Ruby book ever published, December 30, 2006

By 

Jim Haungs (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making Use of Ruby (Paperback)

This book is not only poorly written and poorly edited, it's riddled with factual and conceptual errors. If you're a practicing Ruby programmer, I need only point you to the inchoate section on Blocks on pages 57-59 to convince you that the author didn't have the slightest idea of what he was writing about. Nearly every sentence in the introductory paragraph has something conceptually wrong with it.

If you want a good Ruby book, pick up Programming Ruby or The Ruby Way.