Gems Among Ruby Books
Written by Kay Ewbank   
Thursday, 09 November 2017
Article Index
Gems Among Ruby Books
Working with Ruby
Ruby on Rails

 

Ruby on Rails 3 Tutorial

Author: Michael Hartl
Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 2010
Pages: 576
ISBN: 978-0321743121

 

As indicated in its title, this is a tutorial-based introduction to Ruby on Rails 3. Rails is now at Rails 5 which is covered by the latest 4th edition of the book.

Ian Elliot starts his review with

Ruby on Rails 3 isn't an easy topic and I can't imagine a book for the 100% beginner. You need to have a reasonable grasp of Ruby and you need to understand how dynamic website work.

You need to be willing not only to follow the examples but also to set everything up as specified before you even get started including using specific versions of the downloads even if they are not be the latest or the ones you already have.

 

The book uses test driven development throughout the book - something which makes it both realistic and demanding.

Awarding it a rating of 4.5, Ian concludes:

Overall the book is well written and nicely paced - but remember the earlier warning that the author doesn't try to make the job seem simple by stripping it down to its bare essentials and there are lots of potentially new ideas to master. As long as you like the "learn by doing" method and are prepared to actually do then this comes highly recommended.

There is also a "Livelessons" edition of the book from Informit which bundles a DVD with 18+ hours of video instruction and will be a welcome alternative approach for some readers.

Rails 3 In Action

Author: Ryan Bigg & Yehuda Katz
Publisher: Manning 
Pages: 592
ISBN: 9781935182276

Nikos Vaggalis felt that this book lives up to its "In Action" title which can be a little overwhelming. He considers that a good approach would be to read the early chapters, apply what you’ve learned, get experience and after that go back and read the more advanced stuff. His rating of 4.5 is given on the grounds of being a:

thorough guide which covers everything from setting up to deploying an industrial strength real world applications

which is easy to follow and very accessible.

There's now an updated edition covering Rails 4.

 

railsinaction

 

Ruby on Rails for Microsoft Developers

Author: Antonio Cangiano
Publisher: Wrox, 2009
Pages: 480
ISBN: 978-0470374955

 

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As it title suggests, this book is aimed specifically at for C# and .NET programmers who are interested in dynamic typing th. Ian Elliot comments:

For a .NET developer, Ruby and Rails should be revelations in just how easy things can be - as long as you want to do more or less what the framework wants you to.

He concludes that this book, rated 4.5, is a good introduction to Rails, and to a lesser extent to Ruby itself.

Rails AntiPatterns

Author: Chad Pytel and Tammer Saleh
Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 2010
Pages: 400
ISBN: 978-0321604811

With the subtitle "Best Practice Ruby on Rails Refactoring" this book addresses some very high level concerns. Mike James warns "you need to be a good Rails programmer to get anything much from the book" and that it is unsuitable if you are looking for a practical cookbook as it is is "about deep thinking and principles".

 

Giving it a rating of 4.5 he concludes:

I would say it is ideal for any Ruby on Rails programmer who has read the introductory books and is capable of building a Rails system. You need to be fairly sophisticated and know something about the ideas of good object-oriented design and having a some knowledge of patterns makes the book feel more like familiar territory. If you fit the profile then this is very well worth reading.

 

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 09 November 2017 )