From: Eric Armstrong <Eric.Armstrong@...>
Date: 2006-05-26T09:18:50+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby for Rails Rocks!

David Pollak wrote:
> 
> Just finished reading (okay, skimming) Ruby for Rails.
> It's an excellent choice for someone who is new to Ruby and new to Rails.
> Props to David Black for writing such an excellent book.
> It is definitely worth buying.
> 
I have to add my kudos, as well. It's a spectacular effort.

For a practicing designer and developer, this book is an
ideal introduction to both Ruby /and/ Rails.

The content list looked good enough to buy it--especially
since, as someone wrote elsewhere, it spends a fair amount 
of time on "those interesting language features you wish you 
understood a little better".

So I was excited to crack the covers. But when I started 
reading it, I was even more impressed. It's beautifully 
written, and brilliantly sequenced.

It's hard to imagine how much effort went into sequencing 
the material. Here's a small example:

   In the section that introduces IRB in Chapter 1,
   the author sneaks in the little tidbit that an
   assignment is an expression that has a value. That
   point will undoubtedly become important later on, when
   more advanced concepts are discussed, so I was struck by
   how adroitly the concept was presented early on--
   innocuously, almost innocently.

In short, it's a book I wish I had written. But I'm glad 
that I have it to read.