From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2008-05-16T06:52:00+09:00
Subject: Re: What is the bes Ruby's book for beginners?

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 5:10 PM, Lee Jarvis <ljjarvis@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I personally don't think the pickaxe book is very good for learning
> Ruby from a beginners perspective. But it is no doubt a great
> reference. I would go for "The Ruby Way" or Chris Pine's tutorial to
> get you started.
>
> The new O'Reilly book co-authored by Matz is also available, but I
> haven't seen many reviews yet.

On the other hand, a lot of folks seem to like the tutorial parts of
the pickaxe, and the new O'Reilly "The Ruby Programming Language" has
very little in the way of a tutorial but is a GREAT reference.

There's really no one-size fits all recommendation for a beginner, a
lot depends on what the beginner already knows, is he a complete new
comer to programming, or someone with experience from other languages,
who needs to be de-programmed first <G>

I've heard lot's of praise for Chris Pine's book, but I've got no
direct experience.

While "The Ruby Way" get's lots of recommendations, personally I was
put off by the attempt to be overly broad in coverage, but more by
very poor proofreading. I don't know about the 1st ed, but the 2nd ed
is plagued by lots of little errors.
-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/