Ruby In A Nutshell (Paperback)

by Yukihiro Matsumoto (Author)
Key Phrases: inherited class, last pattern match, def foo, Required Library, Library Reference, Class Methods (more...)

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)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 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: #588,850 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

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

By	Garance A. Drosehn "ScatterbotsNY" (Troy, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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 "casillas8" (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.

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