Ruby in Practice [Paperback]

Jeremy McAnally (Author), Assaf Arkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 4, 2009

Ruby in Practice increases your productivity by showing you specific Ruby techniques you can use in your projects. The book offers detailed strategies for using Ruby in a large-scale environment. You'll see concrete examples of integration, messaging, web development, and databases, all presented in a clear Problem/Solution format. This book won't help you push your deadline back, but it will help you get the job done in less time.

Above all, Ruby in Practice is a practical book for developers who want an in depth understanding of the Ruby language and its toolset. The book is divided into three major parts.

The first part concentrates on issues that developers face both from within their organizations and from their peers. The authors weigh the costs and benefits of using Ruby in enterprise development projects, the over-riding theme being that every developer should always aim to use the right tool for any particular job. The authors then examine the pros and cons of developing with Ruby, and where appropriate, compare Ruby to other languages, both conceptually and in code.

The second part discusses techniques for communication and integration of systems. The authors describe how libraries and techniques are used to facilitate messaging, web development and communication automation. They also focus on how the strategies in the first section can be used with these libraries to make development more flexible and efficient.

The last part shows how to manage data and integrate with existing data using Ruby. The authors describe techniques for using existing Ruby libraries that either replace popular Java libraries or can interface with existing data in a different way. They go on to show you how strategies covered in the first section can be used to enable Ruby to interact with existing assets or to build new data systems.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jeremy McAnally has been programming for about eight years and doing graphic design for four years. He is curerntly a freelance Ruby and Rails developer, consultant, and author. He has over three years' experience with Ruby and two years' with Rails; in that time has has developed a number of small, localized intranet systems and mediumt- large-scale systems in Ruby.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications; 1 edition (April 4, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933988479
• ISBN-13: 978-1933988474
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #224,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Computers & Technology > Databases > Database Design

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good Ruby Read, May 28, 2009

By 

Nicholas Sardo (LAS VEGAS, NV United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ruby in Practice (Paperback)

I actually picked this up at a local Borders.

I have been programming with Ruby, and Rails, off and on for going on two years. I find it disappointing that there are not more good books on either subject. Naturally, as each book comes out, I eagerly turn the pages.. hoping. Sadly, many of the books are O.K, a few a bit lame.

This book was an enjoyable read for me. The author covers a nice spectrum of different uses for Ruby, including but not limited to, Rails. This is what I like most about the book. It's not a "cookbook". The author actually delves into each subject, giving you more details than you would find in a "cookbook" type of book. While not giving exhaustive coverage in any of the areas it discusses, it gives more than enough to form a foundation for future discovery.

I definitely learned from this book, and it has found a permanent place in my library.

I would say, though, that it is not for someone new to either Ruby, or to Rails. This book is more for someone at what I would term intermediate level with Ruby. It doesn't start "from the ground, up" in any of the areas it discusses, but certainly at a level that someone with a bit of time in the language can pick up and run with.

In my opinion, the book is a keeper, and is recommended.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ruby in Practice - review, May 13, 2009

By 

Wicher Krzysztof (London, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ruby in Practice (Paperback)

Ruby in Practice written by the Jeremy McAnally and Assaf Arkin is a solid book about Ruby programming language. It is divided into three parts which address the most common applications of Ruby. Firstly, it describes in details basic characteristics and strengths of Ruby such as metaprogramming, usage of duck typing, testing, and reporting. Second part covers usage of Ruby for internet communication, emailing and for web application creation and deployment using Rails. In third part, authors discuss techniques for data and document based applications and Ruby application in searching and indexing or parsing of different document types. All addressed problems are explained using well chosen and informative examples which can be utilized in real world situations.
Although, book is written in rather simple and comprehensive way it is not meant for beginners and requires from a reader at least the intermeddiate knowledge of core Ruby, Rails techniques and understanding of quite a number of other programming concepts.
All together, Ruby in Practice is a must in the library of every Rubyist aspirating to the advanced level.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth it, February 3, 2011

By 

Michael Kohl - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ruby in Practice (Paperback)

Jeremy McAnally and Assaf Arkin tackle lots of different topics of interest to developers. The book is structured in 3 main parts:

*) Ruby techniques: Gives a general introduction to Ruby's strength (which sometimes reads as a bit of a sales pitch), BDD and TDD, as well as scripting with Ruby (including OLE and OSA).

*) Integration and communication: This part covers Rails, web services in general (HTTP, REST, SOAP), automating communication with email and IM, asynchronous messaging and deployment options.

*) Data and document techniques: This part talks about databases, structured text, authentication, searching, indexing and document processing.

Chapters usually present the reader with a problem, then show an example solution which usually makes good use of existing libraries and then finish with further discussion on the topic (alternative ways to implement it, pitfalls in using the shown solution in 'real life' scenarios etc.). For people with previous knowledge of Ruby this book is a good read, which shows how the dynamic nature of the language combined with the quite big amount of readily available libraries enable developers to quickly and efficiently find solutions to common problems. I sometimes do have minor quirks with some of the code, but that's just personal preferences and being nitpicky. All in all it's a very solid book which I enjoyed quite a lot.