Ruby book for advanced learner?

tags:

books
ruby

views:

476

answers:

+4 Q:

Ruby book for advanced learner?

I consider myself experienced programmer in the sense that I have been working with various different languages and abstractions all the way from asm to object-oriented C++ and object-functionalish Python code.

I'm currently looking for a book about Ruby. The ideal book would assume that the reader already knows how to program some language and just tells you what makes this language special and how to effectively use it. Stack has several questions about Ruby books but none of them seem to fit this niche. I'd appreciate if you could suggest some books fitting my criteria.

+6 A:

In this case, I would suggest two. Read The Ruby Programmng Language. This will tell you what the language is, and what neat tricks its structure and syntax allow you to do (it is by far the best book for this purpose). To link this knowledge to the world of programming problems, everyday and otherwise, read The Ruby Way.

Pinochle 2009-08-19 11:31:47

The Ruby Way is getting a bit long in the tooth, though. Aside from the obvious fact that it doesn't cover Ruby 1.9, a lot of the best practices and styles in the Ruby community have changed significantly since the book came out. Nowadays, the Well-Grounded Rubyist is probably a better choice. I actually own The Ruby Way and not The Well-Grounded Rubyist, but if I had to make that decision now instead of two years ago, I would buy the latter.

Jörg W Mittag 2009-08-19 18:25:32

Ruby Books

rahul 2009-08-19 11:32:51

+2 A:

http://poignantguide.net/ruby/

Sam Saffron 2009-08-19 11:34:18

My *favorite*. :)

Jamie Hale 2009-08-19 16:25:27

The Poignant Guide is dead, unfortunately. Apparently, _why the lucky stiff has suffered pretty vile attacks for months, enough so that he tweeted just hours ago that he had lost any interest in programming, and consequently he deleted every single one of his online properties, including his Twitter and GitHub accounts, his personal, arts, code, and projects websites, his personal, arts, and code blogs, the archives of his Ruby blog, the Shoes, Hackety Hack, Hpricot and Potion websites, Try Ruby and, yes, also the Poignant Guide.

Jörg W Mittag 2009-08-19 18:33:09

Holy crap. this is really sad for the Ruby community, there is a copy of the guide here: http://github.com/binary42/why-archive/tree/master

Sam Saffron 2009-08-19 21:46:01

Programming Ruby-The pragmatic programmer's guide
http://www.rubycentral.com/book/
The best book

Webbisshh 2009-08-19 11:35:09

+3 A:

Ruby Best Practices is a difficult book, but it covers advanced topics. It's great if you want to have a deeper understanding of the language.

Geo 2009-08-19 11:35:59

I found it very difficult to read and a collection of odds and ends

mikej 2009-08-20 11:43:36

How proficient are you in Ruby? I mentioned it's a difficult book if you don't have a good Ruby foundation.

Geo 2009-08-20 12:17:51

+4 A:

I'd second The Ruby Programming Language as a good choice, but I'd also recommend David Black's The Well-Rounded Rubyist. I've just finished this book, and it had much to offer even to someone who's been programming professionally in Ruby for more than 2 years. Its discussions of how Ruby objects are different than you might expect, and how modules, classes, and objects interact are very clear and very informative.

Clinton R. Nixon 2009-08-19 11:39:17

You may wish to try either:-

Beginning Ruby by Peter Cooper published by "Springer", it provides a task based approach to learning Ruby and is useful for those with some programming knowledge already

Ruby: Visual QuickStart Guide by Larry Ullman published by "Pearson"

This one aims to cover all levels and does start by explaining the basic principles of Object orientated programming

2009-08-19 11:40:06

I doubt the OP needs something "explaining the basic principles of Object orientated programming"

George Jempty 2009-08-19 14:13:49

The detail offered in the context of this book (compared to the other book suggested) is intended to give a clear understanding of where the book starts off, before going on to more advanced levels (which it certainly does); other users use this site and such expanded information may be of use to more than one enquirer! The originator of the question will no doubt be more than able to select from the response offered.

2009-08-19 14:51:46

I recommend Ruby Cookbook. Recipes range from intermediate to advanced and I think it's just what you're looking for.

Ray Vernagus 2009-08-19 13:42:47

I don't think I need examples but rather something about the language itself.

lhahne 2009-08-19 15:21:44

Many books for you.

<The ruby programming language>(The content looks like the classics book <The C programming language>)

<Practical Ruby for System Administration> (Very well)

Qianjigui 2009-08-19 14:08:41

Practical Ruby Projects -- Ideas for the Eclectic Programmer

Practical Ruby Gems

FXRuby -- Create Lean and Mean GUIs with Ruby

Ruby in Practice

see the full list:Books for advanced ruby learners

xain 2009-09-09 10:06:10

ansaurus

tags:

views:

answers:

Ruby book for advanced learner?

related questions