# Pickaxe **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 7, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559 "2006-07-07T22:26:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 10:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559/1 "2006-07-07T22:26:09Z")
I’ve been reading the pickaxe book the last few days. As a newbie to both Ruby and programming I have to say it’s packed with an incredible amount of information. I’m still in part 1 and just going through the section on Regular Expressions. I find this section in particular to be quite a challenge. Two questions then: Is the book more of a reference, read through and always come back too ? Is is a good idea to have a project started at some point , perhaps after the first section ? TIA Stuart ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559/2 "2006-07-07T22:38:59Z")
2006/7/7, Dark A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid): > I’ve been reading the pickaxe book the last few days. As a newbie to > both Ruby and programming I have to say it’s packed with an incredible > amount of information. I’m still in part 1 and just going through the > section on Regular Expressions. I find this section in particular to > be quite a challenge. > > Two questions then: > Is the book more of a reference, read through and always come back too ? > Is is a good idea to have a project started at some point , perhaps > after the first section ? Yeah, your intuition is probably right. It’s not exactly an introduction to programming in general - although those can also be found on the web (“learning to program” etc.). And I definitively use it as reference quite often. Cheers robert ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2006, 10:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559/3 "2006-07-07T22:51:38Z")
Weren’t you a contributor ? Stuart ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559/4 "2006-07-08T19:28:44Z")
Dark A. wrote: > Weren’t you a contributor ? Yes, I proofread the multithreading section and I think I also provided some input on the code samples. ``` robert ``` ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 8:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559/5 "2006-07-08T20:30:44Z")
There’s a good book by the same company, and available online, called “Learn to Program”. Perhaps you might want to skim through it before you dive into the Pickaxe book? You can find “Learn to Program” here \>\> [http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/](http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/) I hope this helps a little. James H ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2006, 11:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559/6 "2006-07-08T23:25:53Z")
Thanks James, I have Learn to Program and have been using it but thought I’d diversify a bit in between those incredibly difficult programming challenges in Chris P.'s book. For me Learning to Program is a great book primarily because of the exercises. I wish more books had assignments in them. I came to Ruby after checking out Rails at first and wish that a book like Agile Web D. had some exercises to allow newbs to get their feet wet. I’ve always found the “tutorial/working through building an application” approach to be limited in some ways, just my personal taste I guess. Stuart Stuart ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2006, 12:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559/7 "2006-07-10T12:36:47Z")
On 7/8/06, Dark A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > For me Learning to Program is a great book primarily because of the exercises. Thanks! > I wish more books had assignments in them. Well, it took me a really long time to come up with challenging (but hopefully not _too_ hard) exercises that weren’t totally boring. I bet I spent at least half of the time just coming up with exercises, trying them, throwing them out… Maybe I’m just a better programmer than I am a creative thinker, but I found coming up with the exercises much harder than solving them (or even writing the rest of the book). Chris ---
**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/pickaxe/97559/8 "2006-07-10T13:28:49Z")
On 7/10/06, Chris P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Well, it took me a really long time to come up with challenging (but > hopefully not _too_ hard) exercises that weren’t totally boring. not _too_ hard would be a relative phrase. I refer to some of your exercises as brutal. Not sure how that would translate into hard. Stuart