From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2007-03-12T18:01:07+09:00
Subject: Re: I need to learn...

On Mon, Mar 12, 2007 at 11:06:48AM +0900, Marc Heiler wrote:
> I have both. My personal opinion, and I am biased, is that
> the ruby book is very good. I (still) often use it for reference.

I have both books and I recommend them highly. The style suits me well:
logically presented, lots of examples, easy to search, minimal padding.

> The Rails book well ... I think a disadvantage _is_ that it is
> very speficic to rails.

To me, that's an advantage. When I buy a 700-page book about Rails, I want
most of those pages to be about Rails. This is the DRY principle applied to
paper :-)

The Agile RoR book has a 13-page appendix about Ruby itself, but more as a
taster than anything. If the OP is planning to buy both books, then I think
he'll be happy with both. You're right that he shouldn't just by the RoR
book by itself, unless he's already learned most of Ruby online.

Regards,

Brian.