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Ruby In A Nutshell (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: inherited class, last pattern match, def foo, Required Library, Library Reference, Class Methods (more...)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Ruby is an absolutely pure object-oriented scripting language written in C and designed with Perl and Python capabilities in mind. While its roots are in Japan, Ruby is slowly but surely gaining ground in the U.S. The goal of Yukihiro Matsumoto, creator of Ruby and author of this book, is to incorporate the strengths of other languages like Perl, Python, Lisp, and Smalltalk. Ruby in a Nutshell is a practical reference guide to the features of Ruby, including the command line options, syntax, built- in variables, functions, and many commonly used classes and modules. The book covers the current stable version of Ruby (1.6), yet is applicable to the development version 1.7 and the next planned stable version 1.8. The Ruby language syntax is thoroughly discussed, along with the core functionality built into the standard Ruby interpreter, the built-in library, and the tools that come with Ruby, including the debugger, profiler, and irb (or interactive ruby.)


Language Notes

Text: English (translation)

Product Details

  • Paperback: 230 pages
  • Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (November 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0596002149
  • ISBN-13: 978-0596002145
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #553,012 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Yukihiro Matsumoto
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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (2)
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Book does a good job as a reference, January 1, 2002
I'm just starting to learn the Ruby language, and come into it with a background of having used about 20-25 other languages (to some extent). If you are brand new to Ruby and want to learn it, then the book "Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide" is probably a better place to start than this book.

But once you have an understanding of the basic ideas of Ruby, then you're going to want a reference of all the standard Ruby "objects", and what methods are supported by each class of objects. "Ruby in a Nutshell" calls itself "a desktop quick reference", and I think it does a good job of it. It covers a lot of ground, and tries to do it in as few words as necessary.

As to the language itself, I'd say that programmers familiar with Java or Objective-C would find Ruby an easy language to pick up, and to use for projects you might otherwise use Perl for. I haven't tried to use Python yet, so I can not compare Ruby to that language.

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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars I'd skip this one., March 26, 2004
By Idiosyncrat (California) - See all my reviews
The first couple of chapters are a good, concise reference to the core language, but the library reference is too stark-- most methods seem to have only one or two lines for description. Since this library reference is the bulk of the book, I don't think it's a good buy.

The library reference in the Thomas and Hunt book (Programming Ruby: A Pragmatic Programmer's Guide) is much nicer.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Still a great reference to keep by your side, February 29, 2004
By John C. Dunbar (Sugar Land, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The book I have (2002 copyright) is based on Ruby 1.6.5. I have Ruby version 1.8.1-11. So the book is missing certain improvements to this elegant object oriented language. But that didn't seem to be a problem for me when using the book while learning the language.

I keep this book by my side when programming Ruby because, like most O'Reilly Cookbooks, the answers to the basics are a quick flip of the pages away. I also use The Ruby Way which is also good in a text book kind of way -- it offers examples.

All the basic functions and Classes are documented in this Cookbook. Its as if the originator of the language, the author Yukihiro Matsumoto, squeezed all the fluff out of the documentation and only served up the critical calling conventions for all important statements, functions and Classes.

For updates on the functions you can also use online resources or the Help file that comes with the program itself.

This review was written in February of 2004 and version 2.0 of Ruby is said to be a complete re-write. But that release will not be out for another year or so. I would then guess that this book would be valid through 2005.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many errors - wait for the second edition, if it ever comes
I've lost track of the number of times in the first two chapters where I either read a sentence that had no clear meaning, or where I saw an example that was just plain incorrect... Read more
Published on March 2, 2007 by Jamie Flournoy

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent At-Your-Fingers Quick Reference
There isn't much in-depth knowledge I can impart based on this book. It fulfills its demanded function as "A Desktop Quick Reference". Read more
Published on December 13, 2005 by Matthew K. Minerd

4.0 out of 5 stars Ruby In A Nutshell
This book is very much a brief reference for Ruby -- it is consistent with the general philosophy of the nutshell series. Read more
Published on September 2, 2005 by R. J. Fulton

4.0 out of 5 stars Slightly dated (1st printing) but good "quick" reference.
Forgotten the name of the libarary that does directory listings? Need to know the method of the IMAP libarary? This is the book for that. Read more
Published on October 14, 2004 by G. Powell

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