Ruby Programming for the Absolute Beginner [Paperback]

Jerry Lee Ford Jr. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 159863397X | ISBN-13: 978-1598633979 | Publication Date: October 11, 2007 | Edition: 1

Want to learn the fundamentals of Ruby programming but aren't sure where to start? Look no further! Ruby is a free, easy-to-learn, yet powerful scripting programming language that can run on any operating system. These attributes have made Ruby an extremely popular language in recent years for almost any programming task. Ruby Programming for the Absolute Beginner teaches you the basics of computer programming with Ruby through the creation of simple computer games. Not only will this "learn by doing" approach provide you with an instant sense of accomplishment, but it's also a fun way to learn. In addition to learning Ruby, you'll also learn the basics of computer programming, so you'll have a solid foundation from which you can confidently jump to other programming languages.

Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (October 11, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159863397X
• ISBN-13: 978-1598633979
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #652,944 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jerry Lee Ford, Jr. is an author, educator, and an IT professional with over 18 years of experience in information technology, including roles as an automation analyst, technical manager, technical support analyst, automation engineer, and security analyst. He is the author of 23 other books and co-author of two additional books. His published works include AppleScript Studio Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Microsoft Windows PowerShell Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Visual Basic 2005 Express Programming for the Absolute Beginner, VBScript Professional Projects, Microsoft Windows Shell Scripting and WSH Administrator's Guide, Microsoft Windows Shell Scripting for the Absolute Beginner, Learn JavaScript in a Weekend, and Microsoft Windows XP Professional Administrator's Guide.

Ford has a master's degree in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia and has over five years of experience as an adjunct instructor teaching networking courses in information technology.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ruby dumbed down, August 14, 2008

By 

Marius van Handel (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ruby Programming for the Absolute Beginner (Paperback)

I bought this book to get a better understanding of how to write classes, handle exceptions, and use the debugger. I achieved all three, so I suppose that I got my $24 worth.

The idea of the book is a dumbed down approach to Ruby, so that any beginner can understand it. Unfortunately, it is dumbed down so far that the beginner will not be much wiser at the end of the book. I disagree with the author's approach. The difficulty of most beginners is not inability to understand syntax, but lack of knowledge of computer science. The author does little to help, preferring to give example after repetitive example.

The editing of this book is one of the sloppiest I have ever seen in a commercial book. All the errors were in code, not in the text; therefore, it is the author who let us down, not the publisher. On page 118, the author explains that you can use the colon (:) instead of the "then" keyword in a case statement. However, the "then" keyword is not used in case statements (unless you adopt the poor form of putting the entire case statement on one line). On page 122, we read about "x|| or x ||0" and "x|| yyx||0" as examples of the OR operator. These are such bad typographical errors that I have not yet been able to guess what the author meant. On page 49, we read (as an example of Ruby calculations) that 0*7*4/3-4%3+8 will return 16. It doesn't and it shouldn't. The expression equals 7.

The author frequently cuts and pastes whole sections to repeat them, often forgetting to change those texts that need to be changed. Thus we find the greeting for the 8-ball game in the middle of the Typing Challenge. And the example of the "while" modifier cut and pasted to be an example of the "until" modifier (the example has reads "while" instead of "until".) We read that the ? modifier "matches zero or none [should be 'one'] of the preceding characters." The book is full of screen captures which are too small to see, and which provide no useful information.

All of this shows lack of attention to detail by the author. The book is so dumbed down, however, that it will not hinder the reader. On page 90, we read about converting strings to floating point numbers with the "tp_f" method. That may hinder the reader. The correct method is "to_f".

An irritation: the author makes self-conscious use of sexist pronouns throughout. I thought we were past that stage.

If you need a beginning Ruby book, start with beginner's tutorials on the internet, then get Peter Cooper's Beginning Ruby from Novice to Professional. Same price as this book, much, much more value.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good source for the beginners, May 19, 2009

By 

Vladimir Belorusets - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ruby Programming for the Absolute Beginner (Paperback)

I disagree with the reviewers who gave this book only one star. In my opinion, the book fulfills its obligation by providing a clear and concise introduction to Ruby for the beginners. Ruby is a popular scripting language used in many test automation tools, for example, Watir and Selenium. As a QA Manager, I was looking for a book that I could recommend to my team who has no experience with Ruby. This book is my choice for them. It covers basic syntax of Ruby in a good structured manner. It's easy to follow and the examples are short and illustrative.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ruby for the absolute beginner. No skills gained, May 18, 2008

By 

Riccardo Audano (Chiavari, Italy) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ruby Programming for the Absolute Beginner (Paperback)

Now, I like the idea. Ruby is an excellent choice for teaching newcomers to programmers, and what better strategy to lure a newbie into the depths of programming than using little games as examples? Only, this grand plan is horribly spoiled by its realization. The material presented in the various chapter is definitely too sparse and insufficient even for a beginner, and the example game programs are basically the same, stale, squalid , little program that 'ask permission' to start, gather some inputs, spits some output and says bye bye and thanks before closing.The same code is presented over and over with maniacal repetition, even the comments and few "puts line" that invariably greet the poor player at the beginning of every script. Sickening. I think the right subtitle is not "No experience required" but "No skills gained".
If you want to learn Ruby I think the mandatory text is:
The Ruby Programming Language by David Flanagan and Yukihiro Matsumoto
Here you have an author who;s has proved himself writing some of the most useful Java books ever written and the author of the language. What more can you wish for? If you, really, really (but really.. it's not a difficult book to master...) find it a bit too intimidating, maybe give a read first to the Apress "Beginning Ruby" book.