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Ruby Cookbook, opinions?

Richard Conroy

12/18/2006 10:07:00 AM

Taking a break from Holiday shopping I found that my local bookstore
had this in stock.
http://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Cookbooks-OReilly-Lucas-Carlson/dp/0596523696/sr=8-1/qid=1166436153/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7539125-4031313?ie=UTF8&a...

I rather liked its examples based approach, which very much suits the
way I learn. What do others think of it? Is there a book like it that
is better than it?

I already have the pickaxe book, Ruby for Rails and Rails Recipes, and
I am waiting for the AWDWR 2nd Ed.
9 Answers

Peter Szinek

12/18/2006 10:27:00 AM

0

Heh, I am just writing a blog entry with the review (I am about 75%
ready, probably will publish today).

Brief redux:

You should know enough to be comfortable with some basic to
pre-intermediate stuff (in practice this means you don't need to refer
to the manual every 5 minutes if you write a bit more complicated stuff)
This should be acquired from Ruby for Rails (IMHO - there are lot of
other ways to begin, but for me this was the best)). If you need some
more, you should grab The Ruby Way and/or the Pickaxe, write a lot to
ruby-talk etc.

Once you are ready to roll your own project (which is IMHO the second
step after you have some knowledge under your belt), nothing beats the
Ruby Cookbook. I have done this myself recently. I had no idea about
documenting Ruby code, packaging the whole program into a gem, writing
unit tests (in Ruby) and automatizing these tasks (and a lot of other
things - not to mention I had no clue about Ruby-ish constructs and
idioms). However, with the Ruby Cookbook by my side, learning and
putting things into practice from writing the first line until packaging
the whole thing into a gem was a piece of cake. I have picked up a lot
of idiomatic thing as well - and I think the cookbook is the best stuff
for this.

Of course If you want to just code some smaller stuff and refer to the
cookbook sometimes, it is cool for that purpose too. It has all the
typical problems that a Ruby hacker encounters.

Conclusion: The Cookbook really shines if you are actually doing
something and would like to do it the Ruby way. Reading it from cover to
cover from the beginning might also work - never tried :)

Cheers,
Peter

p.s.: I will also send the full review once I am ready with it.

__
http://www.rubyra...

pat eyler

12/18/2006 10:41:00 AM

0

On 12/18/06, Richard Conroy <richard.conroy@gmail.com> wrote:
> Taking a break from Holiday shopping I found that my local bookstore
> had this in stock.
> http://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Cookbooks-OReilly-Lucas-Carlson/dp/0596523696/sr=8-1/qid=1166436153/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7539125-4031313?ie=UTF8&a...
>
> I rather liked its examples based approach, which very much suits the
> way I learn. What do others think of it? Is there a book like it that
> is better than it?

The Ruby Cookbook s a good book. I'm a fan of The Ruby Way (2nd Ed),
It'd be hard to go wrong with either of them though.

>
> I already have the pickaxe book, Ruby for Rails and Rails Recipes, and
> I am waiting for the AWDWR 2nd Ed.
>
>


--
thanks,
-pate
-------------------------
http://on-ruby.bl...

Julien Gaugaz

12/18/2006 1:10:00 PM

0

pat eyler wrote:
> On 12/18/06, Richard Conroy <richard.conroy@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Taking a break from Holiday shopping I found that my local bookstore
>> had this in stock.
>> http://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Cookbooks-OReilly-Lucas-Carlson/dp/0596523696/sr=8-1/qid=1166436153/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7539125-4031313?ie=UTF8&a...
>>
>>
>> I rather liked its examples based approach, which very much suits the
>> way I learn. What do others think of it? Is there a book like it that
>> is better than it?
>
> The Ruby Cookbook s a good book. I'm a fan of The Ruby Way (2nd Ed),
> It'd be hard to go wrong with either of them though.
I just finished a first reading of The Ruby Way (2nd Ed). I really liked
how it showed what is special about Ruby.
I recommend it!

Regards,

Julien
>
>>
>> I already have the pickaxe book, Ruby for Rails and Rails Recipes, and
>> I am waiting for the AWDWR 2nd Ed.
>>
>>
>
>

Ashley Moran

12/18/2006 1:47:00 PM

0


On 18 Dec 2006, at 10:07, Richard Conroy wrote:

> I rather liked its examples based approach, which very much suits the
> way I learn. What do others think of it? Is there a book like it that
> is better than it?


I've lost count of the times I've googled for ages for some ruby
trick and found it in the Cookbook in about 10 seconds. It's
brilliant, and the discussion sections always highlight something
useful. If you've got a bit of experience, it can pretty much
replace the reference section of the pickaxe.

Ashley

Chris Lowis

12/18/2006 3:28:00 PM

0

> I rather liked its examples based approach, which very much suits the
> way I learn. What do others think of it?

I like it a lot. I'm quite new to object-orientated programming, and
many other concepts in general, and have found the combination of clear
Ruby syntax and the examples in the cookbook a good way to learn about,
for example, Metaprogramming and distributed services. I can only
recommend it.

Chris


--
Posted via http://www.ruby-....

vasudevram

12/18/2006 4:52:00 PM

0


Richard Conroy wrote:
> Taking a break from Holiday shopping I found that my local bookstore
> had this in stock.
> http://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Cookbooks-OReilly-Lucas-Carlson/dp/0596523696/sr=8-1/qid=1166436153/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7539125-4031313?ie=UTF8&a...
>
> I rather liked its examples based approach, which very much suits the
> way I learn. What do others think of it? Is there a book like it that
> is better than it?
>
> I already have the pickaxe book, Ruby for Rails and Rails Recipes, and
> I am waiting for the AWDWR 2nd Ed.

Hi,

I bought the Ruby Cookbook recently - see my blog post on it here -
http://jugad.livej.../2... - and I think its really
good.
Covers *lots* of recipes in different areas (the book is quite thick,
but not like some books which try to make up for quality by
quantity:-).
The authors are Lucas Carlson and Leonard Richardson, both of whom have
done good Ruby work.

Vasudev Ram
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dancing Bison Enterprises
http://www.dancin...
http://dancingbison.bl...
http://jugad.livej...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Richard Conroy

12/18/2006 5:22:00 PM

0

On 12/18/06, Ashley Moran <work@ashleymoran.me.uk> wrote:
>
> On 18 Dec 2006, at 10:07, Richard Conroy wrote:
> I've lost count of the times I've googled for ages for some ruby
> trick and found it in the Cookbook in about 10 seconds. It's
> brilliant, and the discussion sections always highlight something
> useful. If you've got a bit of experience, it can pretty much
> replace the reference section of the pickaxe.

Ashley,
you have nailed it right there. I am at the level where I know
enough, but need to get work done, and I find in general good comprehensive
examples for Ruby tasks to be rare enough when you need them.

Understanding comes with time, but plagiarism gets you up and
running.

Anyway placed my order.

I am curious though, is the Rails Cookbook as good?

Louis J Scoras

12/18/2006 6:56:00 PM

0

On 12/18/06, Richard Conroy <richard.conroy@gmail.com> wrote:
> Taking a break from Holiday shopping I found that my local bookstore
> had this in stock.
> http://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Cookbooks-OReilly-Lucas-Carlson/dp/0596523696/sr=8-1/qid=1166436153/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7539125-4031313?ie=UTF8&a...
>
> I rather liked its examples based approach, which very much suits the
> way I learn. What do others think of it? Is there a book like it that
> is better than it?

Here's another review you might find helpful:
http://www.urbanpuddle.com/articles/2006/12/15/book-review-rub...

I purchased both the Ruby Cookbook as well as The Ruby Way (2nd Ed).
Both are pretty similar in style, but I preferred the former. The
examples seemed to be more interesting to me. That said, if your
still learning ruby, the examples in the latter may be more useful, as
they seem to map more directly to actual language features.

Like Pat said, I don't think you'd go wrong with either one.


--
Lou.

Tim Hunter

12/18/2006 8:06:00 PM

0

Louis J Scoras wrote:
> On 12/18/06, Richard Conroy <richard.conroy@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Taking a break from Holiday shopping I found that my local bookstore
>> had this in stock.
>> http://www.amazon.com/Cookbook-Cookbooks-OReilly-Lucas-Carlson/dp/0596523696/sr=8-1/qid=1166436153/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-7539125-4031313?ie=UTF8&a...
>>
>>
>> I rather liked its examples based approach, which very much suits the
>> way I learn. What do others think of it? Is there a book like it that
>> is better than it?
>
> Here's another review you might find helpful:
> http://www.urbanpuddle.com/articles/2006/12/15/book-review-rub...
>
> I purchased both the Ruby Cookbook as well as The Ruby Way (2nd Ed).
> Both are pretty similar in style, but I preferred the former. The
> examples seemed to be more interesting to me. That said, if your
> still learning ruby, the examples in the latter may be more useful, as
> they seem to map more directly to actual language features.
>
> Like Pat said, I don't think you'd go wrong with either one.
>
>
I agree heartily. I have both TRW and the Cookbook. Either would be a
good addition to anybody's Ruby library. To supplement the Cookbook
review, here's my review of _The Ruby Way_:
http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/....

Good luck!