Customer Reviews

Programming Ruby 1.9: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide (Facets of Ruby)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm coming at this as a Ruby beginner but experienced software developer. The book really got me up and working with Ruby very quickly. It's great for easily finding topics to explain code I'm reading and does a great job of explaining how features work that I'm new to (I'm coming mostly from C++ and am blown away by what Ruby can do!)

I asked a very close trusted friend for a recommendation on a Ruby book, if I could only have one book which one should I get. His response was "The Pick Axe Book".

He was 100% correct. I already know, Java, C, C++, Python, Erlang, Bash and all the Microsoft languages. This book was perfect, it told me what I needed to know without being too introductory and patronizing and without being overly assumptive that I already knew what they were explaining.

If you can only have one Ruby book, get this one!

Michael Feathers once tweeted, "Pair a good Java programmer with a good Ruby programmer and the Java programmer will start programming Ruby in a week", after I read this book, it makes total sense now. I've been programming Java for more than 10 years. I have bought some Ruby on Rails books, but there were some gaps that I needed to fill regarding the Ruby language. This book filled some of the gaps I had, along with examples. For example, I wanted to know how Ruby handles multithreading in its new Ruby 1.9.2 and its previous releases. The book explained with detail exampled. Good work guys!

I've been using Rails for a few years, but I never dug deeply into Ruby. This book is one of the best technical books I have read, it keeps you engaged, which is very touch to do with such a dry subject matter. I read cover to cover (except the reference in the back) and I feel very confident in my Ruby skills. I learned something new in every chapter, and have a more grounded understanding of Ruby. I have already used this book as a reference, and I expect to do the same for quite a while.

If you are using Ruby in any way, this book should be in your library.

I used to work with PHP, C++ and Java, until I found Ruby! This book is a great pass to a bright future for programmers. Since I bought it and started developing Ruby and Rails applications, my developments skills keep getting better and the amount of time I spent coding is getting always smaller. Ruby is great to performe Agile Programming and is really a language to look for!
Highly recommended!

This book was purchased for a class in the digital humanities. The book was very helpful when writing programs for the class, but as a beginner, I would have been lost using the book alone! Sometimes it's written in such dense tech-speak that us non-techies in the class needed a translator. By the end of the class, I found this book invaluable and it earned a spot on my "keeper" bookshelf.

Some of the reviews here are accurate in that this book is not a simplified explanation of the Ruby language. When I started looking into this technology for one of our projects I was amazed at how Ruby enthusiasts portrayed both the Ruby Language and Ruby on Rails as easy and straight forward. The truth is there is a lot to know about a programming langauge and a technology that will be used in a real life application, and the Ruby technology is not the exception.

That being said, the authors of this book do a great job explaining the syntax, the constructs, and other aspects of Ruby. The authors make sure to give updated (version 1.9 as of today) notes. There is even a reference section at the end.

The following book might be a bit easier to understand for a beginner: "The Ruby programming language By David Flanagan, Yukihiro Matsumoto". The book has great reviews and it's very thorough. I recommend looking at the contents through the online viewers before purchasing.

For quick, off the ground, training on Ruby I would recommend various tutorials and videos on the Web, in particular the ones on the Ruby and Ruby on Rails Web Sites. YouTube also has some very good tutorials.

The book offers lots of detail and theoretical/algebraic examples. Very dense even on simple facets of ruby, but then gets lost in theory trying to explain moderately difficult aspects. I am a firm believer that when an individual masters a topic they can explain even the most difficult aspects in a clear way....no present contrived examples that are almost formulaic in there presentation. I'v had to read a few sections several times only to undercover the author was just trying to explain a very trivial aspect of the language.

Great 'must read' book. Really appreciated all the hard work for authors to write this book. Highly recommend for reading.

I really didn't enjoy this book. I purchased this book based upon the reviews and my hope was to use it to get up to speed on Ruby in a rapid manner. The author makes all kinds of assumptions that the user already should know certain things. While there are many examples, they are very dense and theoretical in nature. The author spends more time giving every possible theoretical way of using a particular feature of the language and does not offer many real world examples.

I am already an experienced programmer having mastered Java, PHP, C, and Visual Basic. Still, I find the syntax of Ruby hard to understand and this book does not help. I am not going to give up on Ruby. I will keep this book as a reference and seek out some other instructional guide for learning the language.

My advice to those wanting to learn Ruby for the first time - buy a different text.