An advice for Christmas' gift: book about Ruby for experienced user

Ruby
1

I’d like to buy (for a gift) 1 or 2 books about Ruby for a non-novice
user: I don’t know Ruby, so I ask you an advice…

Searching on Google, I’ve found these:

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer’s Guide, Second Edition
Pragmatic Bookshelf: By Developers, For Developers

and

The Ruby way, 839 pg, 2nd edition 2006

Could be good ?

Thanks!

Simon

2

On Dec 10, 2007 6:30 AM, Simone M. [email protected]
wrote:

I’d like to buy (for a gift) 1 or 2 books about Ruby for a non-novice
user: I don’t know Ruby, so I ask you an advice…

Searching on Google, I’ve found these:

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer’s Guide, Second Edition
Pragmatic Bookshelf: By Developers, For Developers

Everyone has their own choice in books, both books you listed are
reputable. However, the Pragmatic Programmers Guide (commonly known as
‘Pickaxe’) is the traditional book; the first edition was one of the
first Ruby books out (maybe THE first). I happen to have a copy on my
bookshelf at my side.

Daniel Brumbaugh K.

3

Simone M. wrote:

The Ruby way, 839 pg, 2nd edition 2006
The Ruby Way - Slashdot

Could be good ?

Both are good books, but I’d check to see if the person has them
already. Both are standard references and most “non-novice” Ruby
programmers will have them. If the person is not a Rails programmer, you
might want to look at “Ruby for Rails” and “Agile Web D. With
Rails, 2nd Edition”. O’Reilly’s “Ruby Cookbook” and “Rails Cookbook” are
also good “second Ruby books” for people who have the basics already.

4

On 12/10/07, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky [email protected] wrote:

Simone M. wrote:

I’d like to buy (for a gift) 1 or 2 books about Ruby for a non-novice
user: I don’t know Ruby, so I ask you an advice…

Both are good books, but I’d check to see if the person has them
already. Both are standard references and most “non-novice” Ruby
programmers will have them. If the person is not a Rails programmer, you

Very valid point! Also, how long has the person been using Ruby?
There’s a lot of territory between novice and expert, and there are
more Ruby books in English than there used to be.

–
Giles B.

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