From: James Britt <jamesUNDERBARb@...>
Date: 2004-03-23T06:16:39+09:00
Subject: Re: Need some advice on PickAxe II

Dave Thomas wrote:

> 
> So, here's the question: is this the way to go? 

Yes.


 > Are folks happy seeing
> this kind of synoptic information in the book, and then referring to the 
> online or local documentation for the details? (Don't worry about the 
> built-in stuff: I'm keeping the existing format for all of that, so 
> you'll still have the complete method listing for String, Array, and 
> friends).

Yes.  The book can't cover everything, but people need to know what else 
there is to know.  The number of online resources is growing, so it's 
fair to refer readers to other, freely available, documents.

If somebody takes an interest in Ruby, they will likely *have* an 
installation, so they'll have ri and the rdoc and the means to generate 
the HTML files, etc.  What they won't have is any idea of all that's  in 
there, so the book can serve as a road map for the more arcane features.



James