From: Daniel Carrera Date: 2003-03-24T14:09:17+09:00 Subject: Re: exiting a loop On Mon, Mar 24, 2003 at 01:13:33PM +0900, Chris Pine wrote: > Have you tried reading chapter 18: The Ruby Language? I think I've read it (or at least skimmed it) in the past. Thanks for the pointer. However, one chapter is hardly a full reference. Gavin is right. I was mistakenly expecting PickAxe to be a reference, but that's not its purpose. > Plus, their class reference has been invaluable. Do you use a different > class reference? The class reference is good. When I need a class reference I usually use one of the following: 1) PickAxe class reference 2) Ruby's "ri" program. 3) To learn about class 'SomeClass': ruby -e 'puts SomeClass.new.methods.sort' | less You'd be surprised how often I end up doing (3). But I think that (2) is the most common. > I'm sure that, even though you may not like the book for whatever > reasons, you are probably indebted to it in some way, though you were > never asked to spend a dime for it. Oh, I never meant to "bash" the book. It's a great addition to the Ruby community. Yes, I've learned much from it. It just happens that, as Gavin pointed out, what I most often want from a book is not what PickAxe was meant to provide. > How is it that you know about Ruby in the first place? Most likely it is > because of the Pragmatic Programmers, either directly or indirectly. Someone wrote an article in "Linux Managinze" (or was it "The Linux Journal"?). Since I was looking a replacement for Perl, I decided to investigate. > You probably read the Dr. Dobbs article, or heard about Ruby from > someone who read it. Maybe it was him (her?). What does this have to do with PickAxe? > Credit where credit's due, Certainly. But I don't see how my saying that I don't like it discredits the book in any way. I have honestly struggled to learn from it, and have been frustrated at finding so few alternatives. My frustration with Ruby documentation is part of my motivation for writing an introductory tutorial. I am very grateful to David Thomas and Andrew Hunt for the work the put in in creating this book. My personal preference in writing style and book format does not, in any way, diminish the value of this contribution, or my gratitude for it. -- Daniel Carrera Graduate Teaching Assistant. Math Dept. University of Maryland. (301) 405-5137 -- dudgeon: dudgeon (DUHJ-uhn) noun A feeling of anger, resentment, indignation, etc.