# Rails 1.0 - Agile book still good? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [December 29, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274 "2005-12-29T01:25:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/1 "2005-12-29T01:25:21Z")
I’m new to Ruby and RoR but excited to learn what I can do with RoR; I have Pickaxe second edition and want to get “Agile Web D. with Rails” but I’m aware that the book was published some while before RoR version 1.0 was released. Has a lot changed since then, and would I therefore be advised to wait for a second edition of AWDwR? Many thanks in advance for your thoughts on this matter, Michael ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/2 "2005-12-29T01:37:22Z")
Don’t wait- get it, you’ll probably need it. And it’s 99.9% accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 1:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/3 "2005-12-29T01:43:24Z")
The agile book is still definatelly valid for rails 1.0. It doesn’t include some of the snazzy things that didn’t quite make it into 1.0, like rjs templates, but if you work through the examples in the book with rails 1.0 it should work fine, and will give a good understanding of _many_ thinks that you can do with rails (but certainly not all, new things are popping up all the time). So yep, I’d go buy it. Craig ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/4 "2005-12-29T02:04:34Z")
Definitely get it, but then spend some time getting up to speed on migrations and some of the new ajax stuff. From what I understand they are contemplating releasing the upgraded information for free. I’m actually pushing for a V2 book at full cost, but that’s because I think Dave deserves insane profit. 🙂 Michael ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/5 "2005-12-29T02:19:39Z")
As everyone else has said, it covers 99% of what is out there, but the book even acknowledges where parts have been updated since the original writing. They demonstrate helpers by showing you how to format numbers into currency (already done in new version), and then point out that it is a good exercise for learning helpers. It is a good tutorial/reference book, and also has some basic Ruby stuff in the back as a refresher. On 12/28/05, Michael T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) – - Nic ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 12:53pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/6 "2005-12-29T12:53:06Z")
Thanks everyone, you’ve reassured me. I’ll order it right now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/7 "2005-12-29T04:47:14Z")
It’s a damn good book, I just bought it last week and have been reading through it. It’s clearly the best $35 dollars I’ve spent in a long time. And of course I couldn’t stop there, I just had to get the Pick axe 2nd edition as well… ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/8 "2005-12-29T14:35:52Z")
On Thursday 29 December 2005 06:53 am, Michael Bannister wrote: > Thanks everyone, you’ve reassured me. I’ll order it right now. 🙂 Please let us all know what you think of the book. I ordered it 2 days ago, and I absolutely love it. It cleanly walks one through rails from theory to hello world to a complete shopping cart. SteveT Steve L. Author: - Universal Troubleshooting Process courseware - Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist - Rapid Learning: Secret Weapon of the Successful Technologist Webmaster - [Troubleshooters.Com](http://Troubleshooters.Com) - [http://www.troubleshooters.com](http://www.troubleshooters.com) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 1:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/9 "2005-12-29T13:02:20Z")
Just to repeat everyone else’s praises, BUY THIS BOOK! It is excellent, covering the basics and the more advanced stuff. After a workshop earlier in the month I deceded to get into Rails, so downloaded 1.0 and ordered the book. It has been an excellent companion and don’t know where I would be without it, especially as I’m relatively new to the whole Rails/Ruby thing. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/10 "2005-12-29T21:40:00Z")
The book is awesome, but beware that the section on accessing fixture data in unit tests is broken since 1.0 came around. Found that out the hard way the other night. You used to be able to access fixture data like @my\_product, but now it’s like products(:my\_product) Is a new PDF at least to cover the 1.0 stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/11 "2005-12-29T23:22:38Z")
On Dec 29, 2005, at 12:53, Michael Bannister wrote: > Thanks everyone, you’ve reassured me. I’ll order it right now. 🙂 Consider ordering the PDF version at http:// [www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/index.html](http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails/index.html) I had the dead tree version but bought the PDF version anyway together with the Pickaxe book as PDF. I find it much easier to read on the screen as I work my way through the code, I work with two Terminals, the PDF in Preview, TextMate, Safari and BiggerSQL open. Much faster way to work than reading a book and then switch to the screen. The hardest part is my insisting on using PostgreSQL instead of MySQL, but I manage. 🙂 And as everyone else is saying, it’s a great book. Have a nice day Morten – [http://m.mongers.org/weblog/](http://m.mongers.org/weblog/) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/12 "2005-12-30T02:53:39Z")
I picked the book up before Christmas and find it to be very thorough and enjoyable. I too am just learning RoR and the book has helped me a ton in understanding the new concepts. Sometimes I have to reread sections simply because I can’t seem to grasp some things very quickly, but that is no fault of the authors. John ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 3:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/13 "2005-12-30T03:41:49Z")
I bought the PDF + printed book combo pack back when it was a beta book. I’ve found that both versions have their uses; the PDF is easy to search for stuff, but while working on my laptop it’s much handier to have the book open beside me to refer to (this is something you’ll want to do unless you are one of the lucky few blessed with 30 inch displays). Personally, I’d get the PDF + printed book combo pack of the book. You might want to think of getting the PDF version of the Pickaxe if you don’t already have it, last time I checked it was only 10 dollars if you had the printed version already. Dave On 12/30/05, John S. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) – Site: [http://antidis.com/](http://antidis.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2006, 6:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/14 "2006-01-03T06:12:55Z")
On Dec 29, 2005, at 2:39 PM, subimage interactive wrote: > The book is awesome, but beware that the section on accessing > fixture data in unit tests is broken since 1.0 came around. Found > that out the hard way the other night. > > You used to be able to access fixture data like @my\_product, but > now it’s like products(:my\_product) > > Is a new PDF at least to cover the 1.0 stuff? We’re working out the details, but there’ll definitely be an update to cover this (and other changes since the book was written). Dave ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/90db22/32.png) [@Michael\_Bannister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Michael_Bannister)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-1-0-agile-book-still-good/51274/15 "2006-01-02T20:21:24Z")
This is simply an option which was on by default and was turned off by default but it is still a valid way to access fixture data, all you have to do is change test\_helper.rb (if you want it for all tests, or add the following line at the beginning of the testcase where you want it : self.use\_instantiated\_fixtures = true Cheers, Jean