Ruby on Rails For Dummies [Paperback]

First I want to make clear who this book is for an who it isn't. If you are a real programmer, not someone like me with just a smattering of PHP and JavaScript, you will find this book entirely too basic. It is a true Dummies book, an introduction not a complete course. If you tried the Ruby on Rails (RoR) bible, Agile Web Development with Rails, and found it a bit over your head, you should find this an kinder and gentler primer.

Ruby on Rails for Dummies assumes absolutely no prior programming experience. It doesn't even assume any command line knowledge. It does assume a decent grounding in HTML and CSS, but that's true of any web based programming book. Going directly from a visual web layout tool to RoR will be too big a leap. It would be like trying to complete a 10 K run after practicing by jogging a mile three times a week for a month or so. You might get through it but the process would be more than a bit painful. But if you have your hand coding chops but no real programming background you should find this book a gentle introduction to Ruby on Rails.

It made a number of ideas clear that the Agile book assumed I was already familiar with. It provides a nice quick start to RadRails, a free RoR development environment, which somewhat insulates you from the straight command line approach taken my more advanced RoR texts and provides a pre-packaged Ruby on Rails development environment. There is also a short introduction to the Ruby programming language. It's very basic but probably helpful.

Ruby on Rails for Dummies proceeds step-by-step through a couple of very simple RoR applications. It's enough to get your feet wet and make more advanced books approachable. It does not provide enough of a knowledge base to actually go out and start developing web applications. You'll still need to get a more advanced book but at least you will have a decent foundation on which to build.

I could not recommend RoR for Dummies more. It is an excellent book to a person who is looking for what I was looking for: a cohesive intro into RoR.

I am not a programmer and I need to learn how to develop online application, i.e. database driven website (rather than static one using HTML and CSS alone) for our business.

After thorough looking around I decided to go ahead and jump on Ruby, and ride the Rails (the framework within which online applications using Ruby language are built).

The package is playfully called Ruby on Rails, shortly RoR (the book also explains how this name originated).

I chose RoR over other available tools out there like PHP, C# in MS Visual Studio or Java with Struts, and others for the sheer beauty of Ruby. [...]

RoR for Dummies is a bit more than an intro into RoR. It is a succinct primer for the Ruby programming language itself, Rails framework, HTML(!) and RadRails. RadRails is one of the available RoR's IDEs - Integrated Development Environment. IDE refers to a software that integrates working with all the essential parts of RoR in one place (namely Ruby, Rails, HTML, CSS, and some database (MySQL is the 'native' database in RoR). Very much like 'word processor' refers to a software for writing and formatting text documents.

There are also a few paragraphs on databases spread around the book which I found very useful and informative. The book does not delve into CSS, which is understandable; CSS - albeit syntactically very simple - is a powerful formatting tool that can swiftly become challenging animal to tame if one leaves arena of coloring fonts and backgrounds. CSS is a subject matter of plethora of books.

All of the parts necessary for work in RoR are available free of charge for immediate download and use. For a novice, this may seem a daunting task but RoR for Dummies guides reader through the download and installation of all of the parts safely and painlessly. I had no problem installing any of them following the instructions in the book (running Windows XP).

The book is written in such a way that if one knows nothing about any of the topics (I think so, I cannot say about myself that I know nothing about these things), one can still proceed chapter by chapter and get all things done. There were only a handful of points in the book where I felt it was necessary to look elsewhere for additional explanations. And that was simply because I am a curious person and want to know the why's.

The book is also quite funny at times.

Of course that I have a slew of other books to go through in order to get efficient in using RoR. But again, I feel, that RoR for Dummies did excellent job in introducing me to the entire fleet of technologies involved in building an online application using Ruby, Rails, and HTML (the three covered topics).

On the margin, I have a good working knowledge of HTML and CSS. I have some knowledge of Ruby, as I am learning Ruby on my own (I have taken courses on Visual Basic and PHP to get my feet wet in terms of programming). I am also currently taking courses on databases - database design and SQL. All of these pieces are needed for building online applications.

One more thing, RoR/RadRails is not a Dreamweaver - although a huge amount of scripts is generated by Rails (hence the tremendous boost in efficiency of work), RoR/RadRails is not about dialog windows simplifying your job, it is about coding into what was prefabricated for you by Rails.

Barry Burd, Ruby on Rails for Dummies (Wiley, 2007)

You gotta love an author whose domain name is burdbrain. That said, Ruby on Rails for Dummies has exactly the same strengths and weaknesses as the rest of the Rails books I've read over the past few months. The biggest weakness, of course, is that the book is dated, like the vast majority of Rails books. Nothing to be done about it; software moves on, books are static. On the other hand, like the rest of the books, it's a solid tutorial in how to get yourself up and running on (an earlier version of) Rails. The datedness is not normally a huge thing, but since the database access methods have changed between then and now, those coming into this without some supplementary materials may find themselves confused when a number of examples error out. Still, as long as you recognize this and supplement with more recent online tutorials, this is a solid book. ***