Customer Reviews

The Ruby Programming Language

5 star:		(39)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Originally planned as a second edition to Ruby classic, Ruby In A Nutshell, The Ruby Programming Language is a new book by David Flanagan and Yukihiro Matsumoto (a.k.a. Matz - creator of Ruby) and published by O'Reilly. The book covers both Ruby 1.8 and 1.9 and with its esteemed authors and technical approach, is sure to become a new "Bible" for Ruby developers.

As of the start of 2008 this book is REALLY fresh and up to date. Its style is very direct and matter-of-fact; well suited for existing Ruby developers and proficient developers coming from other languages. The examples are clear and logical and the explanations concise; this is a well edited and authoritative book.

The structure of the book is a delight with ten well-defined chapters (with titles such as Reflection and Metaprogramming, Statements and Control Structures, and Expressions and Operators) that each contain a tree of sections. Consider Chapter 4, Expressions and Operators. A sample dive down to section 4.5.5.2 takes us through 4.5, Assignments; 4.5.5, Parallel Assignment; and finally to 4.5.5.2, One lvalue, multiple rvalues. This is a breath of fresh air in a Ruby reference work.

The only downside, in terms of the thousands who might be browsing Amazon looking for a single Ruby book to start off with, is that this book is so well focused on documenting the core elements of the Ruby language, it doesn't work either as a tutorial / beginner's introduction to Ruby, or as an exhaustive reference work (as, on both fronts, the Pickaxe attempts to be.) This lack of dilution may be an ultimate strength, however, since anyone above the station of "beginner" will be able to learn Ruby thoroughly from this book, use it as a general reference, and then be able to use the exhaustive documentation that comes with Ruby itself to cover the standard library and built-in classes.

In conclusion, whether you're an existing developer or a newcomer to Ruby, you need just three things to be up and running with Ruby in the book / documentation department. Buy this, the Ruby Way (by Hal Fulton), and learn how to use the documentation that comes with Ruby.

This book will act as the "Bible" for Ruby, the Ruby Way will make you an expert, and learning how to use the documentation that comes with Ruby will mean you're not using information that's out of date within a couple of years. The perfect combo! It'll last you for years.

This book is quite simply one of the finest software development books ever written. The style, the length, the scope, and the structure are all absolutely perfect. The balance creates a reading experience that seemingly opens a channel to your brain and feeds the information in.

Flanagan is a master author of technical books, especially languages. His JavaScript book is equally well done. Matsumoto's unique technical mastery here leaves no stone unturned. And even the artwork by "why the lucky stiff" added a fun element that just rounded out the book as the best in its class.

If I could forget the whole thing, just so I could read it again, I would. It is that good.

'The Ruby Programming Language' is one of 'those' O'Reilly books that become staples in the family of GREAT texts that have come before. At 400+ pages, the following content is discussed:

01. Intro
02. Structure of Ruby Programs
03. Datatypes & Objects
04. Expressions & Operators
05. Statements & Control Structures
06. Methods, Procs, Lambdas, Closures
07. Classes & Modules
08. Reflection & Metaprogramming
09. Ruby Platform
10. Ruby Environment

Logically laid out, wonderful writing, clear and concise examples with a length that is 'just right' (this is so hard to not find bloated books) this is perfect for those that know some Ruby and/or programming in general. If you are new to software development, this book probably is NOT for you as it's not a "learning" text. There are other Ruby books that cover said topic though so make sure to pick those up as well.

Awesome job O'Reilly for this relatively new and fast growing language that is used on the web and wherever you want!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I bought this book after reading the other reviews here. All the people I know personally who work with Ruby learned from the Pickaxe but from the reviews I came to the conclusion that this could be actually a better book for learning the language. So, I didn't read the Pickaxe and cannot really make a comparison but from what I heard and comparing with this one I would get the Pickaxe if I should choose again.

After finishing reading this book I can say that there are a lot of topics that I really don't remember anymore and lots of doubts that I still have. The major flaw here is that there are no exercises anywhere in the book. All the best programming books I read in the past have very good exercises to evaluate what you've learned (I could give as examples Learning Perl, C++ Programming Language, Core Java, etc). I think that without exercising what you learned it's really hard to judge how much you have really learned.

Another thing which is not described in the book is how to organize a big project. I'm used to working in large projects in C and C++ and I really have no idea of how to organize a large project in Ruby, how to organize classes in files, etc. I will start studying Rails now, and will get the Rails code and read it to make sense of how to organize a large project but be aware that this is not described here.

Also some sections of the book, are really "dry", like the one who talks about functional programming which is really hard to follow (this one is the first that came to my mind but there are a lot of sections which are hard to follow or don't make a lot of sense when reading first time). These sections are clearly targeted at advanced Ruby programmers.

I'll rate this book with 4 stars because despite the flaws I mentioned, the explanation of the language in general is really good.

This book does for Ruby what Kernighan & Ritchie's "The C Programming Language" did for C. It provides a concise, accessible introduction to the Ruby programming language.

Starting out with a tour of Ruby, you are then taken on a deeper dive into chapters on "Structure and Execution", "Datatypes and Objects", "Expressions and Operators", and "Statements and Control Structures". Some of the real power of Ruby is revealed in chapters on "Methods, Procs, Lambdas, and Closures", "Classes and Modules", and "Reflection and Metaprogramming".

The book closes with chapters on "The Ruby Platform" and "The Ruby Environment". The chapter on the Ruby Platform is like a condensed API guide to Ruby's core library. The chapter on the Ruby Environment will help you navigate through the Ruby interpreter's command-line arguments and environment variables as well as a grab-bag of extra Ruby topics that were not covered earlier in the book.

The book is well organized and easy to read. Each chapter is peppered with code samples. If you are serious about learning Ruby, get this book! It sits on my bookshelf, next to a copy of the Pickaxe book and The Ruby Way. Bonus: each chapter of the book starts with a work of art by why the lucky stiff!

For a long time now Dave Thomas' Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, Second Edition (aka. The Pickaxe) has been the standard in the Ruby community as the book to learn Ruby from. Unfortunately the Pickaxe is not the best programming book ever written. In fact, its bulk and slowness almost killed my inspiration to learn Ruby. I respect Dave Thomas a lot for what he does for the Ruby community but the Pickaxe and I just did not click.

Since I didn't find the Pickaxe to be excellent reading material, I had been eagerly anticipating David Flanagan's The Ruby Programming Language to come out and unseat The Pickaxe as the de facto book to recommend to newcomers to Ruby.

I am happy to say that The Ruby Programming Language did not disappoint. I picked up this book solely expecting to just review it since I already comfortable programming in Ruby. However, once I started reading the book I found myself frequently learning things about Ruby that I didn't know before. Not like little things either like, "oh that's interesting". I'm talking significant things like "holy crap that's sweet!".

This book covers both Ruby 1.8 and Ruby 1.9. Initially this concerned me because as impressive as it is, it must have been quite a headache for the authors and was not sure how they were going to pull it off. It turns out to be pretty much a non-issue. The authors make a note of what is 1.8 or 1.9 only and it does not disturb the flow of the book since it doesn't come up too frequently. I do hope though that after Ruby 1.9 stable is released they upgrade the book and tear out all the 1.8 specific material. Since I currently use 1.8 on a daily basis I don't mind having 1.8 material in there but after everything has shifted to 1.9 it would be rather irksome.

The style of the book is fairly straightforward. It starts with an introduction to how Ruby programs work and then goes into an explanation of Ruby datatypes and objects. The later chapters cover advanced topics like reflection and metaprogramming. The authors opted not to go the tutorial route, which I think, was a good approach since the book is not designed to be an "intro to programming" text.

In the preface of the book, the authors state:
> [The Ruby Programming Language] is loosely modeled after the classic C Programming Language (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Software) by Kernighan and Ritchie and aims to document the Ruby language comprehensively but without the formality of a language specification. It is written for experienced programmers who are new to Ruby, and for current Ruby programmers who want to take their understanding and mastery of the language to the next level.

O'Reilly is hoping that The Ruby Programming Language becomes the equivalent of K&R's The C Programming Language for Ruby and I hope it succeeds. I think that every language needs their own K&R book for people to turn to as the definitive authority. That's something that I feel like the Java programming language never had and it creates something of a hurdle when browsing for a Java book.

The third edition of the Pickaxe is in beta and will be coming out soon. I really hope it makes a strong showing when it hits the press because after the bangup job Flanagan and Matz did with The Ruby Programming Language, there is no reason to look at the Pickaxe till then.

While the book is great -- the formating of the kindle edition leaves much to be desired. If you wish to purchase this e-book know that the code is horribly formated and wraps lines even in the smaller font sizes.

I only began learning Ruby in earnest a few weeks ago, and I really appreciate how quickly I can go in depth with this book. I examined many well-known Ruby language offerings at the bookstore, and there really was no comparison in terms of readability and comprehensiveness.

True, the book can be fairly exhaustive in detailing langauge specifics; no doubt this will turn some readers off. The problem with other books is that they often avoid detail at the expense of clarity. For my money, this book makes learning the minutae required for competent programming that much easier, by being so complete and well-organized. There's no need for readers of this book to turn to any sort of "supplementary text," as is so often the case with less well thought-out books.

One caveat: if you are coming to Ruby as a very inexperienced programmer, then this book is probably not the place to start (perhaps try "Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional" by Apress? I haven't read it, but it seems to have good reviews...)

Originally a "Nutshell" offering, written by Ruby creator Yukihiro Matsumoto, the new edition (written along with David Flanagan) retains the laudable grittiness of a "Nutshell" book, but can be read cover-to-cover. The very first chapter takes readers on a tour of the language, then presents a nifty Sudoku solver consisting of just 129 lines. It's startling how well the program reads, and how quickly one begins comprehending Ruby code. The approach gives readers a feel for Ruby's succinct, efficient syntax, as well as its expressiveness and power.

Highly recommended.

I was familiar with Dave Flanagan through his Javascript book. Seeing his name on the cover of this book was all I needed to buy it. And of course it doesn't hurt that Matz -- Ruby's creator -- was the other author. But to be fair, I had seen Matz' work in O'Reilly's "Beautiful Code" -- an essay called "Treating Code as an Essay." It was not only the best piece of writing in that book, but one of the best essays on programming I've ever read. It prompted me to scour the Internet for more of his writing, which lead to some great interviews on artima.com.

Although I could not tell you who wrote what, the combination in general is perfect. Flanagan's writing is always concise, practical, and to the point, with good examples. Like the late W. Richard Stevens -- he has a knack of anticipating your questions as you read and answering them. Matz insists on breathing life and humanity into what could otherwise result in dry technical treatment. His personality is to make things fun, which is why Ruby is such a wonderful language. While I am hardly a language aficionado, of the few languages I do know -- C/C++, Lua, Perl, Python, Ruby and Javascript -- Ruby is by far the most enjoyable, readable, concise, powerful, and overall easy to use of them all.

The book is solid all the way through. And it lived up to Ruby's prime directive: it made this programmer happy. There are some other Ruby books out there that are very good indeed. But if I was limited to only one, this would be it.

This book is focused, straight to the point, dense, fun to read and enjoyable with it's strong logical flow of ideas, language construct details and intuitive presentation of the core Ruby language features and fundamentals that take the reader very confidently into a knowledge rich journey inside the programming language of Ruby and its core philosophy only to yield the willing reader an expert Ruby programmer.

Right from the first chapter:introduction. You are hooked! time passes by and you never notice, as the elite writers of this book (Why the lucky stiff, Flanagan, and Matz), concisely and deeply describe the language and then start enjoying us with more elaborate knowledge on Ruby structure, Data types and objects, expressions and operators, control structure, methods, classes, and reflection in the following chapters.

May I say that, with all the known elegance and appeal of the Ruby language, this stunning book comes with it's unique clear style of writing, richness and deep coverage while concise, that is in my opinion the best ever written programming language book so far.

Remarkable!