Ruby and RoR book recommendations

Hello all,

What books would you recommend for a course on Ruby and Ruby on Rails?
I am currently evaluating books for a course I’m teaching next
semester and am trying to get a good sample before I make any
decisions. I’d be happy to have separate books for Ruby and RoR.

Also, are there any books that you think are terrible and that we
should stay away from?

Of course reasonable people will disagree, but I’m just looking for
pointers to texts I might have overlooked, particularly advanced ones.

Thanks,
Michael

On Oct 8, 2007, at 2:32 PM, Michael Schidlowsky wrote:

Of course reasonable people will disagree, but I’m just looking for
pointers to texts I might have overlooked, particularly advanced ones.

Thanks,
Michael

You can’t go wrong with Beginning Ruby, and then it leads you to a
brief Rails chapter the Sitepoing publishing book on Rails.
Both make good texts, but you’ll need to create your own assignments.
though, this should be easy to do with both books.

On Oct 8, 6:02 pm, John J. [email protected]
wrote:

brief Rails chapter the Sitepoing publishing book on Rails.
Both make good texts, but you’ll need to create your own assignments.
though, this should be easy to do with both books.

I started the Apress ActiveRecord book and i read the sample chapter
on AR from Obie F.’ Rails Way (forthcoming). They’re both
excellent.

What books would you recommend for a course on Ruby and Ruby on Rails?
I am currently evaluating books for a course I’m teaching next
semester and am trying to get a good sample before I make any
decisions. I’d be happy to have separate books for Ruby and RoR.

My favorite Ruby book is still “The Ruby Way.” “Ruby By Example” is
also excellent, especially if you want to cover basic functional
progrmaming. “The Rails Way” is aiming to be the dominant reference,
currently that position belongs to “Agile Web Dev w/Rails,” which is
the default book. I’d say go with both there also and you can’t go
wrong.


Giles B.

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

On Oct 9, 2007, at 9:40 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:

the default book. I’d say go with both there also and you can’t go
wrong.
The only single book I know of that adequately covers both Ruby
and Rails is David A. Black’s “Ruby for Rails”. Some folks think
it’s light on Rails and heavy on Ruby, but I disagree.

If you’re going to go with separate books, I’d stick with the
Pickaxe and AWDR. There just aren’t any substitutes worth talking
about.

Ruby for Rails is great, but it is very light on a lot of Rails
things, but that’s because it’s a few years old, and more
importantly, its focus is Ruby more than Rails. Actually, Ruby in the
context of Rails.
It could certainly use a sequel. Lord knows, Mr. Black could probably
write 3 sequels to that book without batting an eye.

Ruby for Rails is great, but it is very light on a lot of Rails
things, but that’s because it’s a few years old, and more
importantly, its focus is Ruby more than Rails. Actually, Ruby in the
context of Rails.

A comprehensive course on Ruby on Rails would definitely be lacking
without the final four chapters of R4R. I’d say use “Agile Web Dev”
and “Rails Recipes” as your main Rails texts, “The Ruby Way” as your
main Ruby text, the final four chapters of “R4R” for understanding
inheritance, mixins, metaprogramming, etc., and the functional
programming chapters of “Ruby By Example” to understand map, grep,
inject, etc. And the chapters from “Prototype and Scriptaculous” on
Prototype’s extensions to Object and Function.


Giles B.

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

Hi –

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, John J. wrote:

progrmaming. “The Rails Way” is aiming to be the dominant reference,
Ruby for Rails is great, but it is very light on a lot of Rails things, but
that’s because it’s a few years old, and more importantly, its focus is Ruby
more than Rails. Actually, Ruby in the context of Rails.

Not quite a few years old – it was published in May, 2006 :slight_smile:

It could certainly use a sequel. Lord knows, Mr. Black could probably write 3
sequels to that book without batting an eye.

/me tapes eyeballs open… :slight_smile:

David

Giles B. wrote:

wrong.

The only single book I know of that adequately covers both Ruby and
Rails is David A. Black’s “Ruby for Rails”. Some folks think it’s light
on Rails and heavy on Ruby, but I disagree.

If you’re going to go with separate books, I’d stick with the Pickaxe
and AWDR. There just aren’t any substitutes worth talking about.

Not quite a few years old – it was published in May, 2006 :slight_smile:
In computer years, especially Rails years, that’s like 35

Programing Ruby
the pragmatic programmers’ guide

by Dave T.
with Chad Flower and Andy H.