From: "J.Hawkesworth" Date: 2002-12-06T01:10:15+09:00 Subject: Re: About the Ruby book for beginners discussion ... I second this. I'm not a complete beginner - I have some perl experience but I come from a non-technical background and haven't ever studied computer science. I too nearly didn't buy the book because I just don't trust anything that claims to teach you something within a fixed amount of time. However I'm glad that I did as it was well written (even made me laugh in a few places), covered a lot of bases and has the only explanation of recursion that I've actually understood in the (not a few) programming books I've read. I should say I'm glad I own The Ruby Way and Programming Ruby too but of the 3 this is the book best pitched at novices. Jon -----Original Message----- From: Michael Vondung [mailto:mvondung@gmx.net] Sent: 05 December 2002 15:14 To: ruby-talk ML Subject: About the Ruby book for beginners discussion ... I mentioned this in response to another message (I wish the mailing list would produce correct message threading), but would like to point it out in an extra message: There already is an excellent book for beginners: Mark Slagell's "Teach yourself Ruby in 21 days". The title of the book is a definite turn-off, but the content is, in my opinion as "newbie" to both Ruby and programming (unless you count being fluent in various Basic dialects 10+ years ago), very valuable to a beginner. The author introduces Ruby, OO and programming concepts gently and the learning curve is fairly mild (at least in the first few chapters). Those who work on an online book for beginners (I understand that this is the goal? Or is it going to be a printed book?) might want to glance at Mark's work. It is probably boring for experienced programmers, but from my perspective as novice it has been an incredible help and I doubt I would have put effort into learning Ruby without this book (because I simply wouldn't have known where and how to start). -M. -- To e-mail: use the initials of my name and add "at felinism dot com". ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ This message has been checked for all known viruses by Star Internet delivered through the MessageLabs Virus Control Centre. For further information visit http://www.star.net.uk/stats.asp _____________________________________________________________________ Any views or personal opinions expressed within this email may not be those of Talis Information Ltd. The content of this email message and any files that may be attached are confidential, and for the usage of the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient, then please return this message to the sender and delete it. Any use of this e-mail by an unauthorised recipient is prohibited.