Head First Rails: A learner's companion to Ruby on Rails (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Ready to transport your web applications into the Web 2.0 era? Head First Rails takes your programming -- and productivity -- to the max. You'll learn everything from the fundamentals of Rails scaffolding to building customized interactive web apps using Rails' rich set of tools and the MVC framework.

By the time you're finished, you'll have learned more than just another web framework. You'll master database interactions, integration with Ajax and XML, rich content, and even dynamic graphing of your data -- all in a fraction of the time it takes to build the same apps with Java, PHP, ASP.NET, or Perl. You'll even get comfortable and familiar with Ruby, the language that underpins Rails. But you'll do it in the context of web programming, and not through boring exercises such as "Hello, World!"

Your time is way too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First Rails uses a visually rich format designed to take advantage of the way your brain really works.

About the Author

David Griffiths began programming at age 12, after being inspired by a documentary on the work of Seymour Papert. At age 15 he wrote an implementation of Papert's computer language LOGO. After studying Pure Mathematics at University, he began writing code for computers and magazine articles for humans and he is currently an agile coach with Exoftware in the UK, helping people to create simpler, more valuable software. He spends his free time traveling and time with his lovely wife, Dawn.

Product Details

• Paperback: 462 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc. (January 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596515774
• ISBN-13: 978-0596515775
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #270,756 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The O'Reilly Head First Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars To each his own - This one is not for me., January 10, 2009

By	Bharat C. Ruparel (Newton, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Normally, I do not like to a) write negative reviews and b) return books that I buy. This is an exception.
I have come to expect outstanding quality and value in the Head First series, but was disappointed in this book. First, the book is aimed at rank beginners not even intermediate Rails programmers so if you have any Rails experience at all, don't bother. There are much better starter books available, e.g., Simply Rails 2.
Second, this is far more serious. The author uses old Rails best practices! Case in point, now a days, REST is an established practice in Rails. An example of this is to use Restful routes, e.g., map.resources. Instead, the author ends up using map.connect for more than three quarters of the book! I fail to understand it.
Also, simple concepts in Rails are dragged on in many pages whereas at the most one paragraph would have been sufficient. I have many Head First Books including HTML/CSS and Design Patterns so I am not critiquing the style followed in the series. I enjoy it, but this one is very light, too light on substance and I do not believe that it has been reviewed by anyone who is half-way up to speed with current Rails best practices.

This is an honest but constructive critique to warn the future buyers. If you have no Rails experience, you might like/enjoy it. If you have any, look elsewhere.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good sanity check even for intermediate Rails developers, February 1, 2009

By	Kent S. Rancourt - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have seven years of professional experience as a web developer- mostly with Java- and became interested in Rails about two years ago. In that time I've been through several books and struggled through a few Rails apps of my own. More than anything else, my struggles stem from the frustrations of dealing with a dynamic language where your IDE doesn't give as much context help as you'd hope for. Worse- although Ruby and Rails both follow the "principle of least surprise," I often find myself struggling to recall proper syntax and semantics for certain things. Routes, RJS, validation, various helper methods, etc. are all difficult to master when you do not use them every single day.

All that said, the big benefit I got from Head First Rails was a sanity check. Its easy-to-digest explanation of core Rails concepts really cemented my understanding of the framework- which had been cobbled together from various books, blogs, and screencasts. The book is repetitive at times, but when you're trying to learn something, that can be a good thing. Despite being repetitive, the book certainly is NOT boring; in fact- it's quite a pleasure to read.

My chief complaint is that the book could stand to be twice as long. An introduction to the Ruby programming language would make for a good first chapter- or maybe an appendix. This would be better than the old "we'll learn Ruby as we go along" approach. Also, the book completely neglects to address test-driven development practices except for a few brief paragraphs towards the end. This is funadamental and even beginners need to learn this!

Overall, I think it's a great book if you don't know much about Rails or if you are an intermediate Rails developer looking to cement your understanding of the framework. Definitely plan on adding a few others to your library though to supplement this.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally a Rails book to begin with. , April 1, 2009

By	C. Nielsen (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Over the last year, I have picked up a few books on Ruby on Rails but the information exits me as soon as it enters. Creating a Rails book in the Head First style is what I needed personally. This is a beginners book, but when a book is subtitled "A learner's Companion", one shouldn't expect anything advanced. For those who are looking for an advanced book, then they should check out The Rails Way by Obie Fernandez.

Ruby on Rails is an interesting and controversial framework, and is often difficult to get beginners help for. There are quite a few elitists who frown on designers and newbies like us trying to learn a framework, so we can make our designs more interactive. But you know what...Tough. There are countless cases where an engineer falls short at the CSS/DOM level and the designer has to take over. This leads to designers having to learn a bit of engineering....

The best thing to do is start at the beginning and practice a lot. Head First Rails covers a lot of projects (interesting) instead of just one (an easy way to lose interest).

In a nutshell, Head First books are designed for a certain type of person. Some don't understand, and complain about them..."theres a lot of pictures", etc... but they miss the point of the books. They're for beginners who want to learn fast and want to retain. They're designed as an educational experience and not a reference. For reference, there's plenty of books by O'reilly and Addison Wesely and others to cover that.

One reviewer here claims that this book teaches old conventions, i.e. the doesn't teach the RESTful method. This is not true. There is an entire chapter devoted to REST, and the project is mashing up a Google map. REST is a trendy term, and can be learned in an hour. As a matter of fact, it took about an hour to do the Google/Ajax map mashup in Head First Rails... sure beats the typical digg/fake bookstore projects in the other Rails books.

Head First Rails has been a joy to read. Its one of those rare books that I carry around with me. If you want to learn rails not just in the modern style but also historically (and thats a big deal, there's tons of Rails 1.x sites out there that need updating), this is the one to start with. After this book, i recommend learning Ruby itself, either in "Learn to Program" by Chris Pine (for beginners) or "Programming Ruby" by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt. After that, I reccomend "The Rails Way" as a reference by Obie Fernandez if you plan on staying in Rails. The Rails Way has everything one needs to know, but is definitely not for beginners. Start here.