Re: 2011: Which Ruby books have you read? And which would you recommend?

I read and reviewed many Addison-Wesley books on Ruby lately, and my
favorites are:
-- Refactoring, Ruby Edition --
http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=3D0321603508
-- Design Patterns in Ruby --
http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=3D0321490452

They do not provide a lot of reference materials like The Pickaxe or The
Ruby Way, but they will teach you how to code in Ruby properly.

Concerning free (and recent) books, check out:
-- The Little Book of Ruby --
http://www.sapphiresteel.com/The-Little-Book-Of-Ruby
-- The Book of Ruby --
http://www.sapphiresteel.com/Blog/The-Book-Of-Ruby-free-in-depth

*Fabio Cevasco*
**=C2=BB email: [e-mail]
 <[e-mail]>=C2=BB web site: www.H3RALD.com <http://www.h3rald.com>



On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 1:26 AM, serialhex <[e-mail]> wrote:

> +1 http://rubybestpractices.com/ i'm really enjoying reading this book,
> the
> pdf is a permanent tab in chrome for me.  I'm learning a lot from this
> book!
>
> i have both the 2nd & 3rd editions of the pickaxe (rb 1.8 & 1.9 resp.
>  technically i also have access to the first - online for free)  i love i=
t
> for the reference.  i cant seem to get over needing a *physical* book to
> turn pages on.  and the fact that i can browse the std lib just by flippi=
ng
> pages.  linkage: http://pragprog.com/titles/ruby3/programming-ruby-1-9
>
> <http://pragprog.com/titles/ruby3/programming-ruby-1-9>i rather like the
> ruby cookbook by o'reilly http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596523695.  it's
> helped me learn a number of things that some people just *assume* you kno=
w.
>  though i'm sure one can learn alot thats in this book by googling or
> looking up source, having this much info at your fingertips is worth the
> $50
> IMO.  unfortunately it dosnt cover ruby 1.9 & if your an experienced
> developer it probably wont be much help, but for someone just starting i =
do
> recommend it.
>
> recently i found a book called clever algorithms
> http://www.cleveralgorithms.com/ and while it's more aimed toward people
> dealing with optimization problems & A.I. all of the example code is
> written
> in ruby (not in a very ruby-ish way, but it's minimalist implementations =
of
> the algorithms).  this book isn't necessarily for everybody, but for thos=
e
> interested in A.I. & such it's really cool.  AND it's free (print version
> ~$20).  (this especially rocks cause i found it on my B-day - which was
> saturday, and A.I. is my main field of interest, so a ruby book dealing
> with
> A.I. thats free on my B-day... who could pass that up??)
>
> lastly, the book that **REALLY** got me interested in ruby is why's
> (poignant) guide to ruby ( http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/ is
> the
> first archive i found, they're all over) and really helped me learn ruby
> when i was first starting out.  i highly recommend it to anybody who hasn=
't
> read it just because it's a very interesting artistic work (if nothing
> else)
> and an interesting way to learn a programming language.  i'd really like
> more intro-to-this-language books like this.
>
> that's really it for me.  next?
>
> hex
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 6:46 PM, James Nathan <[e-mail]
> >wrote:
>
> > I have Beginning Ruby and Beginning Rails. but no training as a
> programmers
> > the real world do not want to help us with the questions about Ruby
> > James
> >
> > --- On Mon, 1/31/11, Anurag Priyam <[e-mail]> wrote:
> >
> > From: Anurag Priyam <[e-mail]>
> > Subject: Re: 2011: Which Ruby books have you read? And which would you
> > recommend?
> > To: "ruby-talk ML" <[e-mail]>
> > Date: Monday, January 31, 2011, 1:24 PM
> >
> > > I know there are a lot of threads about books, but some of them are a=
s
> > > old as 2006 - and I think it would be nice to get a more up to date
> list
> > > of hot Ruby books, especially for anyone interested in learning the
> > > latest version of Ruby, 1.9 (it's still ok to recommend older books i=
f
> > > you feel they are still relevant).
> >
> > Makes sense :).
> >
> > > I for one will be very eager to see which of the books you have read
> you
> > > have 'fallen in love with' - they're the ones I will most likely get
> > > first :)
> >
> > I have read, and absolutely love "The Ruby Programming Language" by
> > Flannagan and Matz, and "Ruby Best Practices" by Gregory Brown. While
> > the former serves as a fantastic reference, the later deals with Ruby
> > programming practices in real projects and picking up a lot or Ruby
> > idioms.
> >
> > Another interesting book that I had a chance to lay my hands on was
> > "Practical Ruby Projects" by Topher Cyll. I found it more fun than
> > practical; even the author sub-titles it "ideas for the eclectic
> > programmer". It deals with things like: generating SVG animations,
> > implementing Lisp in Ruby (loved this chapter), creating music with
> > MIDI, Mac OS X GUI, Genetic Algorithms. Would suggest reading it in
> > leisure time, or at an intermediate level.
> >
> > Hal Fulton's "The Ruby Way" is another book that I have read. It was
> > the first Ruby book that I bought as The Pickaxe was way expensive in
> > India back then. I was able to learn a good deal from it as a
> > beginner. I would not recommend it though (not even to a beginner) as
> > you can learn the same thing (without paying for the book) from the
> > Ruby documentation, or Google. For the same reasons, I think it has
> > lost much of its significance now.
> >
> > I have done some light reading on "Enterprise Integration with Ruby",
> > and "Practical Ruby for System Administration". They contain some
> > decent examples, but have a very beginner-ish and closed feeling to
> > it. I don't think that they don't teach you anything concrete, rather
> > gives you the answer to some closed form problems that you could have
> > come up with (think, google, think, implement) with any way.
> >
> > Some books that have got good reviews, and I am looking forward to
> > read (waiting for cheaper Indian reprint to come out :)) are "Design
> > Patterns in Ruby", and "Refactoring - Ruby Edition". I think these
> > books are relevant as they teach you something concrete - patterns,
> > styles, and practices that you can apply, and reapply to different
> > problems later. Would refrain from commenting more as I have not
> > actually read them.
> >
> > tl;dr - Learn Ruby by reading "The Ruby Programming Language" while
> > get better at it by writing, and reading a lot of code (FOSS, fun
> > projects, rewriting class room assignments in Ruby). And yeah, "Ruby
> > Best Practices is excellent, and free (I love advertising it :)).
> >
> > --
> > Anurag Priyam
> > http://about.me/yeban/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>