Customer Reviews

The Ruby Programming Language

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book lives up to the hype. This is a phenomenal book that talks about ins and outs of Ruby programming language.

I worked with Ruby and Ruby on Rails for over a year and several years of other programming languages, but I never really delved into the Ruby language itself. I was just picking up different tricks here and there along the way. I was able to get stuff done, but I felt like I was missing the big picture. This book was perfect for my need in building my Ruby understanding ground-up.

Buyer Beware!!!

This is not a beginner's book on programming. This book might not even be the best book to begin programming in Ruby. This position is clarified by Matz and Flanagan early on in the book.

"It is easy to program in Ruby, but Ruby is not a simple language. Because this book documents Ruby comprehensively, it is not a simple book (though we hope that you find it easy to read and understand). It is intended for experienced programmers who want to master Ruby and are willing to read carefully and thoughtfully to achieve that goal."

The book assumes intermediate knowledge in programming and object oriented programming in general. In order to fully appreciate the book, it's best if you are already an experience programmer.

If you are a beginner looking to get started, do not buy this book.

"The Ruby Programming Language" is a great read. In the past, I've read Rails-specific books, and understood the basics of Ruby. However, this book introduced me to a lot of new things that I didn't know were possible with Ruby.

I'd recommend giving this book a read even if you've written full Rails apps in the past. There's lots of useful information in this book.