From: Todd Gillespie Date: 2001-07-23T13:44:26+09:00 Subject: [ruby-talk:18328] Re: Ruby Book Tom Malone wrote: : Hello all! Hi! :>From what I have been told, Programming Ruby is an excellent book on Ruby. : However, I am fairly new to programming (intermediate JavaScript skills and : some PHP experience) and found it a little advanced for my experience level. : Does anyone know when another book about Ruby might be published in English, : maybe one that is geared more towards beginners? Are there any more Ruby : books out there on the horizon? Thanks. Well, if you're new to programming, and intend to be here for a while, you'll need to read more than one book on the concepts of programming, and certainly more than on one language. Try to find books that teach you more than is applicable to one language; find learn why a certain language makes the choices it does. Everyone here has a different book to push, but for my money, I'd push the Wizard book (Abelson & Sussman, "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs"). In a fit of generousity and philg fast-talking, they've also put it on the web: http://sicp.arsdigita.org/text/sicp/ There are a thousand directions to go from there, so I won't bother trying give you a 10-year reading list. But for a nominally non-CS book, Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" will make you think better about your architectural assumptions and, in corollary, how people relate to your constructions. HTH.