Everyday Scripting with Ruby: For Teams, Testers, and You (Paperback)

by Brian Marick (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Are you a tester who spends more time manually creating complex test data than using it? A business analyst who seemingly went to college all those years so you can spend your days copying data from reports into spreadsheets? A programmer who can't finish each day's task without having to scan through version control system output, looking for the file you want?

If so, you're wasting that computer on your desk. Offload the drudgery to where it belongs, and free yourself to do what you should be doing: thinking. All you need is a scripting language (free!), this book (cheap!), and the dedication to work through the examples and exercises.

Everyday Scripting with Ruby is divided into four parts. In the first, you'll learn the basics of the Ruby scripting language. In the second, you'll see how to create scripts in a steady, controlled way using test-driven design. The third part is about finding, understanding, and using the work of others--and about preparing your scripts for others to use. The fourth part, more advanced, is about saving even more time by using application frameworks.

About the Author
Brian Marick graduated in 1981 with one degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and another one in English Literature. In his early career, he continued to be confused about his identity. Sometimes he was a programmer. Sometimes he was a tester. He became better at each because he understood the other. Brian is the author of The Craft of Software Testing, which promotes test design techniques, how testers support the team, and unscripted exploratory manual testing. He was an author of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and was the second chair of the Agile Alliance board of directors. Because the Agile methods encourage cross-disciplinary work, he's once again without a fixed identity. When consulting, he sticks his nose into everything.

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf; illustrated edition edition (January 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977616614
• ISBN-13: 978-0977616619
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #420,179 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent tutorial for scripters, April 1, 2007

By	Jason Menard (Columbia, MD United States) - See all my reviews

When I first heard that the Pragmatic Programmers were putting out a book on Ruby oriented towards testers, I thought to myself that I knew a few testers who might be able to benefit. I was a bit surprised when I received the book and the focus changed from that of testing to something a bit more generic. And after flipping through it I was afraid this would be just yet another book teaching Ruby.

Despite my initial misgivings, as I read through the book its value became apparent. This is not a book aimed at teaching people who are interested in developing complex systems in Ruby; this title is aimed squarely at using Ruby for scripting. "Everyday Scripting with Ruby" is a task-oriented tutorial that will help the reader quickly become productive writing useful scripts. The examples throughout the book are truly indicative of the types of problems that scripts are written to solve, and the book doesn't waste much time on fluff or things that are otherwise not likely to be of interest to the scripter.

While "Everyday Scripting with Ruby" isn't much of a reference manual, it does work pretty well as a tutorial. Readers will typically get the most value from the book by reading it cover-to-cover and following along by getting the examples working on their own computers. Many of the chapters finish with problems for the reader to try out on their own, with the solutions to the problems being detailed in the back of the book. Through reading the text, trying the examples, and further exploration of the material through tackling the end-of-chapter problems, the reader will come away confidant that they can use Ruby to successfully write scripts to solve their problems. You can't ask for much more than that.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book available for beginning with Ruby , April 6, 2007

By	Michael Cohn "agile developer" (Lafayette, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

During the mid- and late-1980s I was was working in C and eventually C++. During that period I devoured any programming book I could get my hands on. My favorites were very practical books--those books that built real, working examples. Herb Schildt and Al Stevens were the best at this. I've often wished for such books on the newer languages as I learn them. Brian Marick has given us exactly this type of book with his "Everyday Scripting with Ruby."

I'm one of those programmers who read a little bit about Ruby and was only mildly intrigued until I read about Rails. Once I read about Rails I just dove in--I didn't bother to learn much Ruby, only looking something up in "Programming Ruby" when I couldn't figure it out by trial and error. I became proficient enough at getting things done in Rails but certainly didn't have a solid, comfortable feeling for Ruby itself. This book fills in those gaps for me. This is the Ruby book I wish I'd read first.

"Everyday Scripting with Ruby" covers four very real-life small projects, each of a decent size. The projects are small enough that you don't need to remember every detail from the prior 100 pages but are big enough that you can learn real lessons from them. This is absolutely the best beginner book on Ruby available.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book To Learn Ruby, March 8, 2007

By	Patrick Eyler "pate" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My son and I have been reading Everyday Scripting with Ruby by Brian Marick. I really like Brian's way of teaching Ruby, and plan on recommending this book widely. (I may need to just buy a stack of copies to give out at work.) This is one of the best books from the 'Facets of Ruby' series by the Pragmatic Programmers.

My favorite feature of the book is the incremental approach. In the first two sections ('The Basics' and 'Growing a Script') he writes a very pragmatic chapter showing how to do something, then a 'referency' (I know, it's not a real word) chapter that goes into more depth about the concept just introduced. The third section ('Working in a World Full of People') follows the pattern less strictly, but still pulls in both the pragmatic and the reference material.

If you're getting started with Ruby, or know someone who is, this is a great book for you.