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comp.lang.ruby

A Ruby/Rails bibliography

Jeremy McAnally

10/15/2007 11:43:00 PM

Howdy all,
I've noticed an influx of "What book should I buy?" questions lately,
so I thought I'd put together a number of bibliographies/curriculums
based on experience, role, and so on. You can view them at:
http://blog.mrneighborly.com/2007/10/ruby-and-rails-bibliography-of-...

I want this to be a resource to point people to, so if one of these
becomes out of date or you have a better suggestion, then please tell
me. I'll try my best to keep it up to date.

Thanks!
Jeremy

--
http://www.jeremymca...

My books:
Ruby in Practice
http://www.manning.com...

My free Ruby e-book
http://www.humblelittlerub...

My blogs:
http://www.mrneigh...
http://www.rubyinpra...
17 Answers

Giles Bowkett

10/16/2007 1:37:00 PM

0

Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.

I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
for that reason.

On 10/15/07, Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally@gmail.com> wrote:
> Howdy all,
> I've noticed an influx of "What book should I buy?" questions lately,
> so I thought I'd put together a number of bibliographies/curriculums
> based on experience, role, and so on. You can view them at:
> http://blog.mrneighborly.com/2007/10/ruby-and-rails-bibliography-of-...
>
> I want this to be a resource to point people to, so if one of these
> becomes out of date or you have a better suggestion, then please tell
> me. I'll try my best to keep it up to date.
>
> Thanks!
> Jeremy
>
> --
> http://www.jeremymca...
>
> My books:
> Ruby in Practice
> http://www.manning.com...
>
> My free Ruby e-book
> http://www.humblelittlerub...
>
> My blogs:
> http://www.mrneigh...
> http://www.rubyinpra...
>
>


--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.bl...
Portfolio: http://www.gilesg...
Tumblelog: http://giles.t...

Jeremy McAnally

10/16/2007 4:25:00 PM

0

*sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh? :)

Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
of conditionals and want to see how Ruby works.

--Jeremy

On 10/16/07, Giles Bowkett <gilesb@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.
>
> I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
> functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
> "Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
> would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
> for that reason.
>
> On 10/15/07, Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Howdy all,
> > I've noticed an influx of "What book should I buy?" questions lately,
> > so I thought I'd put together a number of bibliographies/curriculums
> > based on experience, role, and so on. You can view them at:
> > http://blog.mrneighborly.com/2007/10/ruby-and-rails-bibliography-of-...
> >
> > I want this to be a resource to point people to, so if one of these
> > becomes out of date or you have a better suggestion, then please tell
> > me. I'll try my best to keep it up to date.
> >
> > Thanks!
> > Jeremy
> >
> > --
> > http://www.jeremymca...
> >
> > My books:
> > Ruby in Practice
> > http://www.manning.com...
> >
> > My free Ruby e-book
> > http://www.humblelittlerub...
> >
> > My blogs:
> > http://www.mrneigh...
> > http://www.rubyinpra...
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Giles Bowkett
>
> Blog: http://gilesbowkett.bl...
> Portfolio: http://www.gilesg...
> Tumblelog: http://giles.t...
>
>


--
http://www.jeremymca...

My books:
Ruby in Practice
http://www.manning.com...

My free Ruby e-book
http://www.humblelittlerub...

My blogs:
http://www.mrneigh...
http://www.rubyinpra...

James Britt

10/16/2007 5:04:00 PM

0

Giles Bowkett wrote:
> Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.
>
> I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
> functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
> "Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
> would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
> for that reason.

I was given a pre-release version of Ruby By Example, and found that it
it gave misleading ideas about types and classes in Ruby.

For example, this was described as "casting":

s = 12.to_s

There were a few other things along those lines, and I was told that the
idea was to present concepts in terms that were familiar to a Perl or
Java developer. The end result, though, was that said Perl or Java
developer would not actually understand Ruby, though they might learn
how to write Perl or Java using Ruby syntax.

Perhaps the final version of the book is different, but I would never
recommend the book I saw.



--
James Britt

"If you don't write it down, it never happened."
- (Unknown)

John Joyce

10/16/2007 5:34:00 PM

0


On Oct 16, 2007, at 12:03 PM, James Britt wrote:

> Giles Bowkett wrote:
>> Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.
>> I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its
>> chapters on
>> functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
>> "Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
>> would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
>> for that reason.
>
> I was given a pre-release version of Ruby By Example, and found
> that it it gave misleading ideas about types and classes in Ruby.
>
> For example, this was described as "casting":
>
> s = 12.to_s
>

It is like casting.
You could (and often would) make a very similar line of code using
type-casting in many languages.
However, it is Ruby so it isn't casting.

As for the book, Ruby by example is a nice book. It covers a variety
of interesting topics. The sad part is that it doesn't go deeply into
any of them. The only thing that's kept me from rushing to add it to
my Ruby library is that it doesn't go deep.

I'm still waiting for books that introduce topics from Ruby completely.
I'd love to see a CGI book that is all through Ruby. ( for example )
Rather than needing a Perl book to learn the Ruby

Alex Young

10/16/2007 5:44:00 PM

0

Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> *sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh? :)
>
> Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
> Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
> of conditionals
Minutiae, surely? :D

--
Alex

Chris Carter

10/17/2007 3:30:00 AM

0

On 10/16/07, Alex Young <alex@blackkettle.org> wrote:
> Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> > *sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh? :)
> >
> > Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
> > Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
> > of conditionals
> Minutiae, surely? :D
>
> --
> Alex
>
>
>

I'm thinking minutias here. Accusative plural. But it's been a while

--
Chris Carter
concentrationstudios.com
brynmawrcs.com

Rick DeNatale

10/17/2007 11:14:00 AM

0

On 10/16/07, Chris Carter <cdcarter@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/16/07, Alex Young <alex@blackkettle.org> wrote:
> > Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> > > *sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh? :)
> > >
> > > Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
> > > Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
> > > of conditionals
> > Minutiae, surely? :D

>
> I'm thinking minutias here. Accusative plural. But it's been a while

In Boston, with it's plentitude of colleges and universities, it's not
uncommon for grad students to moonlight. Joe was a Harvard classics
scholar who worked part time as a cab driver.

He once picked up a far at Logan Airport, a businessman from the
mid-west, travelling alone, on his first trip to Boston. Looking
forward to some good New England food, he eagerly asked Joe:

"By the way, where the best place in the area to get scrod?"

Joe, pondered this for a few seconds and then said: "You know, that's
the FIRST time anyone has ever asked me that in the pluperfect
subjunctive!"

--
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denh...

Giles Bowkett

10/17/2007 12:20:00 PM

0

> Perhaps the final version of the book is different, but I would never
> recommend the book I saw.

I skipped all that stuff and just read the chapters on functional
programming. There was good stuff on lambda and map. I don't know
about the rest of the book one way or the other.

It is minutiae. When you use Latin nouns in English everything gets
turned into the normative case. Otherwise people would go nutty in the
head.

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.bl...
Portfolio: http://www.gilesg...
Tumblelog: http://giles.t...

Deven Ullman

10/24/2007 3:42:00 PM

0

On Oct 16, 9:36 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My first intro to map, et al., was
> "Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.")

It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.

SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
a fundamental level.

HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
discuss.

The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
serve very different purposes.

James Britt

10/24/2007 4:05:00 PM

0

Deven Ullman wrote:
> On Oct 16, 9:36 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> My first intro to map, et al., was
>> "Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.")
>
> It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.
>
> SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
> class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
> a fundamental level.
>
> HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
> Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
> basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
> fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
> far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
> discuss.
>
> The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
> serve very different purposes.

I've not read HOP, but I've read SICP, and I'd wager there are few other
books that would do a better job of improving one's Ruby skills.

Ruby Reading List:

- Pick-axe
- Ruby for Rails
- SICP


And maybe start with SICP ...


--
James Britt

"Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them."
- Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, Oblique Strategies