Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional)

Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional) | Peter Cooper | Great for a new programmer

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Beginning Ruby: Fr...

	Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional) Peter Cooper Apress, 2007 - 664 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Ruby is perhaps best known as the engine powering the hugely popular Ruby on Rails web framework. However, it is an extremely powerful and versatile programming language in its own right. It focuses on simplicity and offers a fully object-oriented environment.

Beginning Ruby is a thoroughly contemporary guide for every type of reader wanting to learn Ruby, from novice programmers to web developers to Ruby newcomers. It starts by explaining the principles behind object-oriented programming and within a few chapters builds toward creating a genuine Ruby application.

The book then explains key Ruby principles, such as classes and objects; projects, modules, and libraries; and other aspects of Ruby such as database access. In addition, Ruby on Rails is covered in depth, and the books appendixes provide essential reference information as well as a primer for experienced programmers.

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An excellent introduction to Ruby

I had heard quite a bit about Ruby, so I thought I would see what it had to offer. I went looking for an introductory book and found this one. I was hooked before the end of the first chapter. The author has an engaging writing style, and has done a great job of introducing the language and the community. The book is logically organized and presents the material in an easily comprehensible style. This is a great book for getting started with Ruby.

Great for a new programmer

I have dabbled in programming, but never really rolled up my sleeves to learn a language... until now. Both ruby and python seemed like great choices, and I looked for materials to play with them. Both offer some very nice features and the ability to get up and running with something useful and fun easily, yet offer plenty of room to grow. After a short evaluation period, I think I just like the "feel" of ruby better, but that's totally subjective. After settling on a language, I looked for a book.

I checked out Chris Pine's "Learn to Program", and of course _why's Poignant Guide to Ruby, and then this book. This one is, by a large margin, my favorite. Both Chris Pine's book and _why's guide have their moments, but in my opinion Cooper's book has a considerable edge in clarity and usefulness. It explains complex concepts in clear prose and then by example. I feel that I can tackle useful problems after having read the book. It seems to hit the sweet spot for being clear but not condescending, complex but not overwhelming. The examples are very applicable to many real-world problems.

This book is more of a tutorial than a reference, which is exactly what I needed as a new programmer. In addition to being a great ruby book, it's also one of the best "tech" books I've ever purchased. It's rare to see this level of quality in technical writing. I really hope Mr. Cooper continues to produce programming books.

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Your own your way!

Beginning Ruby is one of the easier books to following Ruby, and get a decent understanding Object Oriented Programming (OOP). If you don't want to fork the money over yet for this book like I did not knowing if I would understand (I just now have grown a big enough interest into programming to want to study), then I would suggest grabbing the book called Learn to Program from Pragmatic Programmer Series. In that book he runs through basic ruby syntax, and programs that actually function more or less like a BASIC application would. Once you finish the short yet insightful Learn to Program book, this book becomes even easier to follow. Once you make your way through this book though, you will want to more then likely purchase the Pragmatic Programmer Ruby book (The Red Pick Axe Book, which the 3rd version is due out in October). But from a novice programmer perspective, this is an amazing book and is always by my side.

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The best, and most comprehensive, introduction to Ruby I've seen

Every serious Ruby programmer has a copy of the venerable 'Pickaxe' (the definitive Ruby reference manual) at their disposal, but if you're just getting you're feet wet with Ruby and serious about learning it from the ground up, then Beginning Ruby is just what you need.

The tagline 'From Novice to Professional' well describes the content. But if you're looking to delve into advanced GUI programming, then this isn't for you. This book takes you into the Ruby you need to know as the foundation for helping you become a great programmer. Peter Cooper introduces you to many critical concepts that you will need to master, but does so in a logical and easy to read manner. The text is neither dry nor whimsical, but a perfect blend between reference material and hands-on tutorial.

While I had tinkered with Ruby from 2002 onward, I never gave it any real attention until I stumbled upon Ruby on Rails in 2006. When I came to the realization my programming style looked like less of a 'style' than it did a Rube Goldberg machine, it was time to get back to basics ... and thankfully this book was published.

If you're serious about looking into Ruby, now is the time to pick this book up ... then you can go get the latest edition of 'The Pickaxe'. I almost want to buy a second copy out of sheer appreciation for Peter Cooper providing a great guide to a great programming language!

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Great ruby book

I wanted to use ruby on rails for my web applications, but after some failed attempts I decided to learn a bit of the ruby programming language first. This book guided me to the language, even if you are new programmer I completely recommend it.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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