The book, written by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt (Dave & Andy), is the first (and probly still the only) book written in english on the Ruby Language.
The book is very thourough and insightful, especially for how young Ruby is. It covers the language itself, both from a 'first language' perspective, and from the slant that a programmer should learn a new language at least once a year. The first few sections are dedicated to explaining how Ruby works, an object oriented programming refresher course, if nothing else. However, the bulk of the book is a reference guide to the classes and modules that come standard with Ruby.
The beginner's secions were a bit lacking. Dave & Andy write for experienced programmers. They make good effort at trying to teach a newbie, but it's really only passable due to the simplicity and beauty of the language they're teaching. It's definitely written with an assumed knowledge base.
The intermediate secions are very well written. They fill these sections with the concepts and implementations for many intermediate topics with a completeness that would remove any need for previous mastery of said concepts.
The reference section is very complete. I compared some parts to the code being documented itself, and found nearly immediate validation for all the code in the text.
Overall, i'd highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to increase their programming skills and knowledge, and as a must for anyone programming in Ruby (in English, at least).
ISBN # 0-201-71089-7
Published by Addison-Wesley (on recycled paper)
If you can't find it at a book store, try online, in particular, i got my copy from but do not endorse or promote said site as anything other than a place i know to carry this book. "If you think you're too small to make a difference, try spending a night in a closed tent with a mosquito."
The book is very thourough and insightful, especially for how young Ruby is. It covers the language itself, both from a 'first language' perspective, and from the slant that a programmer should learn a new language at least once a year. The first few sections are dedicated to explaining how Ruby works, an object oriented programming refresher course, if nothing else. However, the bulk of the book is a reference guide to the classes and modules that come standard with Ruby.
The beginner's secions were a bit lacking. Dave & Andy write for experienced programmers. They make good effort at trying to teach a newbie, but it's really only passable due to the simplicity and beauty of the language they're teaching. It's definitely written with an assumed knowledge base.
The intermediate secions are very well written. They fill these sections with the concepts and implementations for many intermediate topics with a completeness that would remove any need for previous mastery of said concepts.
The reference section is very complete. I compared some parts to the code being documented itself, and found nearly immediate validation for all the code in the text.
Overall, i'd highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to increase their programming skills and knowledge, and as a must for anyone programming in Ruby (in English, at least).
ISBN # 0-201-71089-7
Published by Addison-Wesley (on recycled paper)
If you can't find it at a book store, try online, in particular, i got my copy from but do not endorse or promote said site as anything other than a place i know to carry this book. "If you think you're too small to make a difference, try spending a night in a closed tent with a mosquito."
