Capsule reviews of The Ruby Way, Programming Ruby, and The Ruby Developers Guide. Publishers descriptions of all Ruby books in English. Links to source code and errata for The Ruby Way.
Yukihiro Matsumoto, David L. Reynolds (Translator)
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Format: Paperback, 1st ed., 230pp.
ISBN: 0596002149
Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates, Incorporated
Pub. Date: November 2001
Edition Desc: 1ST
Barnes & Noble Sales Rank: 71,312
Another programming language? Why? Well, Ruby is powerful, expressive, simple, elegant, intuitive, consistent, flexible, cross-platform, and free. OK, some or all of those adjectives fit other languages, too. But Ruby programmers swear, above all, that Ruby is fun. It doesn't get in your way. Programs work the way you expect. There are fewer bugs. When you reread your code later, you actually understand it. Wow.
Ruby comes to us from Japan, and one of its few disadvantages has been a dearth of English-language documentation. Now Yukihiro Matsumoto, the language's creator, working with translator David L. Reynolds, has delivered the authoritative quick reference developers have been waiting for.
Ruby in a Nutshell is concise: barely 200 pages. But it covers all of the language's syntax, predefined variables and global constants, built-in functions and library, and standard bundled libraries for networking, web/email support, and database management. It addresses both the current version (1.65) and key enhancements planned for version 1.8. It also briefly introduces the Ruby debugger and related development tools.
Once you start working with Ruby, you'll keep finding more excuses to use it -- and more opportunities to wear out your copy of Ruby in a Nutshell. (Bill Camarda)
David Thomas, Andrew Hunt
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Format: Paperback, 608pp.
ISBN: 0201710897
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Pub. Date: October 2000
Barnes & Noble Sales Rank: 76,405
I had read all or nearly all of the online version of this book before I bought the book. The main advantage of having the book is that there are a lot of references to "on page xxx" or "see the diagram on page xxx" even in the online version; and the online version lacks quite a number of figures. This is a good introductory book; and it was clearly the authors' intent to write a good introductory book. About half the book is taken up by an API reference, with little in the way of additional comments or documentation on many of the methods. This is understandable, but a bit of a nuisance. I would have preferred to have more in-depth tutorial content with a separate, online, API document (using RubyDoc of course!).
My recommendation: if you're brand new to Ruby, get this book. If you've been messing with Ruby for a while, get
The Ruby Way.
Just what the world needs... another programming language. And yet, people who've discovered Ruby swear by it. The latest Japanese import, Ruby's exceptionally productive, thoroughly object-oriented, remarkably flexible, and fun.
As David Thomas and Andrew Hunt write: "Ruby doesn't obscure the solutions you write behind lots of syntax and reams of support code . . . you write programs close to the problem domain. Rather than constantly mapping your ideas and designs down to the pedestrian level of most languages, with Ruby you'll find you can express them directly and express them elegantly. Using Ruby, we are constantly amazed at how much code we can write in one sitting, code that works the first time."
In Programming Ruby, Thomas and Hunt make the case for Ruby, in detail -- and a good deal of what's here is presented in English for the first time. You'll start with a basic Ruby tutorial, learning a few concepts and terms you won't have come across in other languages; then introducing Ruby's classes, objects, types, expressions, and so forth. In Part II, you'll use Ruby to build web applications, create GUIs for Ruby applications with Ruby TK, and learn how to use Ruby in a Microsoft Windows environment (you can make native API calls, even use COM and Windows Automation).
Part III takes you into advanced terrain, such as Ruby's security features; introspection (similar to Java reflection); and marshaling. The book concludes with a 250-page Ruby library reference, encompassing its built-in classes and modules, standard library, object-oriented design libraries, network and web libraries, Windows support, and more.
If you're a developer in the mood to explore, Programming Ruby will reward you richly. (Bill Camarda)
Hal Fulton, Guy Hurst, Foreword by Yukihiro Matz Matsumoto
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Format: Paperback, 579pp.
ISBN: 0672320835
Publisher: Sams
Pub. Date: November 2001
Barnes & Noble Sales Rank: 140,068
I've read about 30% of the book so far (20 Mar 2003), and I like it. Each chapter covers one theme in detail - things like 'simple data tasks', 'structured data', 'graphical user interfaces'. Within each chapter there are many cookbook-style examples. You can pretty much find what you are looking for from the extended table of contents. Lots of code samples, and the right amount of commentary on the code. Good humored and pretty well written.
Get more "bang for your buck" using Ruby for all day-to-day programming and scripting needs.
This book assumes that the reader is already familiar with the subject matter. Using many code samples it focuses on "how-to use Ruby" for specific applications, either as a stand-alone language, or in conjunction with other languages. It covers simple data tasks, manipulating structured data, external data manipulation, user interfaces, handling threads, system programming, network and Web programming, and tools and utilities. The appendices offer instruction on migrating from Perl and Python to Ruby, and extending Ruby in C and C++.
FROM THE BOOK
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1 Ruby in Review 9
Some Words on Object Orientation 11
Basic Ruby Syntax and Semantics 16
OOP in Ruby 35
Dynamic Aspects of Ruby 43
Training Your Intuition: Things to Remember 47
2 Simple Data Tasks 65
Strings 67
Regular Expressions 94
Numbers 101
Times and Dates 121
Summary 136
3 Manipulating Structured Data 137
Working with Arrays 138
Working with Hashes 162
Working with Stacks and Queues 174
Working with Trees 186
Working with Graphs 195
Summary 202
4 External Data Manipulation 203
Working with Files and Directories 205
Performing Higher-Level Data Access 230
Connecting to External Databases 235
Summary 242
5 OOP and Dynamicity in Ruby 243
Everyday OOP Tasks 244
More Advanced Techniques 270
Working in Advanced Programming Disciplines 285
Summary 302
6 Graphical Interfaces for Ruby 303
Ruby/Tk 305
Ruby/GTK 320
FX/Ruby (FOX) 332
Other GUIs 354
Summary 356
7 Ruby Threads 357
Greating and Manipulating Threads 359
Synchronizing Threads 369
Summary 386
8 Scripting and System Administration 387
Running External Programs 388
Command-Line Options and Arguments 393
The Shell Library 397
Accessing Environment Variables 400
Scripting in Microsoft Windows 402
Working with Files, Directories, and Trees 408
Miscellaneous Scripting Tasks 412
Summary 416
9 Network and Web Programming 417
Network Servers 420
Network Clients 431
Ruby and the Web Server 447
Ruby and CGI Programming 452
Distributed Ruby 474
XML Parsing in Ruby 481
Summary 488
A From Perl to Ruby 489
B From Python to Ruby 503
C Tools and Utilities 523
D Resources on the Web (and Elsewhere) 527
E What's New in Ruby 1.8 533
Index 539
Suresh Mahadevan, Rashi Gupta, Shweta Bhasin
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Format: Paperback, 1st ed., 300pp.
ISBN: 047121972X
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Pub. Date: August 2002
Barnes & Noble Sales Rank: 430,113
Ruby is an interpreted language, capable of saving programmers considerable time during program development since no compilation and linking are necessary. It is ideal for writing text-processing applications, server-side scripts, application prototypes, mathematics, and for many everyday programming tasks.
- Reviews Ruby’s clever syntax and demonstrates why that makes it a perfect choice for beginning programmers, and also shows how its multipurpose capabilities make it a sound choice for experienced developers
- Explores Ruby’s uses for prototyping, text processing, and other tasks
FROM THE BOOK
Table of Contents
Introduction
Scenario
Ch. 1 An Introduction to Ruby 1
Ch. 2 Ruby - A Pure Object-Oriented Language 13
Ch. 3 Programming Basics 35
Ch. 4 Control Structures, Blocks, and Expressions 49
Ch. 5 Methods and Modules 75
Ch. 6 Input and Output 91
Ch. 7 Exceptions 103
Ch. 8 Multithreading 115
Ch. 9 CGI Programming 131
Ch. 10 GUI Programming with Tk 147
Ch. 11 Running Ruby on Windows 171
Ch. 12 Networking 179
App. A Ruby Extensions 199
App. B Safety Issues 207
Index 211
Yukio "Matz" Matsumoto
Format: Paperback, 496pp.
ISBN: 020171096X
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Pub. Date: June 2002
Edition Desc: BK&CD-ROM
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As far as I can tell this book is not being sold in English translation. It appears at amazon Japan, but nowhere else. Even the U.S. publisher (
Addison-Wesley) no longer seems to offer it.
Michael Neumann, Jonothon Ortiz, Robert Feldt, Lyle Johnson
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Format: Paperback, 720pp.
ISBN: 1928994644
Publisher: Syngress Publishing
Pub. Date: January 2002
Barnes & Noble Sales Rank: 139,500
This is a book with about 10 authors. As a result, it's pretty spotty. For example, there's a long and rather odd chapter on parser generators. Interesting, I guess, but I doubt that many people are using Ruby as a yacc replacement when they could just use yacc.
On the other hand, the chapters on GUI toolkits, XML, and web services were very helpful (to me). And the final chapter, covering the Ruby extension API, is outstanding. Other books I've read provide a 5 page description of the API, then basically say "read the readme.ext file". This book does a complete non-trivial example and explains things at the right level of detail.
This guide for developers describes how to create applications using the Ruby object-oriented programming language. This is not an introductory text, and it is expected that the reader has at least a basic understanding of Ruby. A sampling of topics includes using GUI toolkits; programming with Ruby's database-independent- interface; and connecting two or more applications across a network using Distributed Ruby (Drb). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
FROM THE BOOK
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Booting Ruby
Chapter 2 GUI Toolkits for Ruby
Chapter 3 Accessing Databases with Ruby
Chapter 4 XML and Ruby
Chapter 5 Web Services and Distributed Ruby
Chapter 6 WWW and Networking with Ruby
Chapter 7 Miscellaneous Libraries and Tools
Chapter 8 Profiling and Performance Tuning
Chapter 9 Parser Generators
Chatper 10 Extending and Embedding Ruby
See also:
BookRubyDevelopersGuide
--
DaleBrayden - 29 Aug 2002
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