From: Chad Perrin <code@...>
Date: 2012-09-29T01:25:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Good book for getting started with Ruby?

On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 11:05:25PM +0900, Dami�n M. Gonz�lez wrote:
> Good question, there's many books about Ruby, now I'm apart from the
> books(not in my house right now), but I never forget about two, the
> first one you have to read is a masterpiece by _why and it's free:
> 
>  >> why's poignant guide to ruby
> 
>  And the one you should have is another masterpiece by Dave Thomas and
> company.
> 
>  >> Programming Ruby 1.9
> 
>  Also the one that become with the ruby installer for windows(by Luis
> Lavena) called The Book Of Ruby(by Huw Collingbourne) is good.
> 
>  Have fun in this journey!

I have to disagree.  The Book of Ruby is a bucket of bad habits presented
to unsuspecting new Rubyists as good practices.  It should not be read by
anyone who has not already been a Rubyist for several years, involved
with the community at least to some degree, and competent to write
production code -- possibly with a couple of published gems to one's
credit.  At that point, the person would probably see all the problems
with the book and refuse to read the whole thing, anyway.

. . . and I'm not just talking about the version that was delivered with
the installer.  I'm talking about the version that was actually fixed up
and edited for publication by No Starch Press.

None of this should be taken as deprecating the Ruby Installer for
Windows at all.  It and its developers are to be commended on quality
software, I believe.

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]