Distributed Programming with Ruby

Author: Mark Bates
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2009
Pages: 272
ISBN: 978-0321638366

Ian Elliot considers that this book should be considered 'niche' because to want to read you need to already program, quite well, in Ruby and want to create distributed applications using either DRb or Rinda. If you fit into this category, this book takes a comprehensive look at Ruby libraries concerned with some aspect of distributed programming.

According to Ian Elliot the book works very well by being a logical and well written approach to the task. He gives the book a rating of 4.5 and his review concludes:

If you are interested in distributed programming with Ruby then you need a copy of this book - unless you are an expert already.

JRuby Cookbook

Author: Justin Edelson and Henry Liu
Publisher: O'Reilly, 2008
Pages: 224
ISBN: 978-0596519803

Aimed at Java programmers who want to use Ruby, this book and succeeds in being on topic.

It introduces JRuby, the version of Ruby that runs on the JVM and so can inter-work with Java, and includes plenty of Java/JRuby interop. The review awards a rating of 4 and concludes:

If you are looking for a book that will help you use JRuby in a Java environment then this slim volume has the advantage of being right on topic.

Metaprogramming Ruby 2

Author: Paolo Perrotta
Publisher:  Pragmatic Bookshelf
Pages:250 
ISBN: 978-1941222126

This book that will help you understand why Ruby programmers often claim that Ruby is special. It adopts an idiosyncratic tutorial format in which a master programmer called Bill guides his increasingly skilled assistant, i.e. you. The task is to build some software for a remarkably knowledgeable boss figure and in doing so you will go from being a Ruby novice to an expert, especially if you have migrated to Ruby from another language and are still using it as if it was another language.

Awarding it a 5-star rating and recommending it to all Ruby programmers other than complete beginners, Ian Elliot writes:

Even if you don't want to go too deeply into metaprogramming and don't want to actually make use of these "dangerous" techniques, the book will impart enough deep understanding of they way Ruby works and its philosophy for you to be a better Ruby programmer after reading it.

Eloquent Ruby

Author: Russ Olsen
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Pages: 448
ISBN: 978-0321584106

Mike James awards 5 stars to this book on the grounds that it is a:

"great guide to good style"

He writes:

Even if you don't use Ruby it is a book well worth reading. It does major on the way that you should use Ruby and how to write Ruby in a way that is true to the language, but it has so much to say about programming in general that it is worth reading for non-Ruby programmers.

His conclusion is that this is a really good book and at the end of it you can't help but write better Ruby and probably better whatever other languages you use now or in the future. In this sense it will make you a better programmer.

Read either of these two last books and you will understand why Ruby is a language that generates so much enthusiasm, and why the most common fault in a book on Ruby is that the author tends to oversell a good product.

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