Up to date (as of 2010) Ruby On Rails books?

Question

Hello, I've been trying to learn Rails for a while now and I just can not piece it all together with random blogs and SO questions, so I've decided I need a full book/ebook. Can anyone suggest a good one? I've been looking at Agile Web Development With Rails 4th edition. There is an old question about Ruby On Rails books but it is from 2008 and there has been new Rails releases since then. I basically would like a book that is more than a reference, but also doesn't assume I'm a non-programmer. Also, I already know a lot of Ruby.

So, what books would you recommend that is up to date and also doesn't treat me like a baby?

Answer 1

I just got done going through what you did. Yes, a lot of the rails books are behind right now because they're waiting to cash in on the release of Rails 3. There are plenty of good books out, but they're a bit behind so you have to find some other docs to make up for it.

Here is exactly what I did:

• Agile Web Development in Rails, 3rd Edition (you linked to the 4th one, which covers Rails 3 and isn't out until October 2010). This one is great, but a couple minor revisions behind. This is the Rails bible and a must-have.
• Subscribe to the RSS feed at http://railscasts.com/ and read, read read. Weekly screencasts covers new features added to rails and plugins. After you read the edge rails blog (below), check for a screencast here - you'll normally find one.
• The rails guides are a nice addition to your book. They're always up to date. They aren't as thorough as the book, but they're good for reference and a second viewpoint.
• Finally, to learn about the features that got added to rails after the book was published, check out what's new in edge rails. This site has since been extracted to its own site at http://edgerails.info/, but I found that some links were broken on the new site that aren't on the old one, so use both. Find out what version of rails was used in your book (normally in the preface or intro) and then look for all posts on this site that come after that version.
• The railscasts site itself is open source and is a good example of a Rails app. I recommend this one because you'll be using the site itself alot, and it's small and simple.
• After you feel more comfortable, check out some bigger example Rails apps.

Answer 2

Two books are coming out soon:

• Rails 3 in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference comes out June 15th.
• Beginning Rails 3 comes out May 31st, but may be too beginner for you.

The Rails Way updated for Rails 3 is coming out, but not until Sept. 6th. And at least one other Rails 3 book's in the works but won't be out for a while.

UPDATE: Here are another two which should be very suitable given your background -- just beware that some of their content will be dated. Still, for the conceptual elements alone they may be worthwhile.

• Professional Ruby on Rails (Feb 2008)
• The Art of Rails (May 2008)

Answer 3

I will be honest with you, Rails books and books on testing in Ruby tend to be out of date BEFORE they are released.

My advice? Don't bother, read the guides - sure, they aren't going to be as in-depth as any of the books, but, they cover a reasonable amount of ground and you can supplement this by looking at the API and indeed the Rails source code.

I will however say, the same is NOT true for Ruby books - especially The Ruby Way by Hal Fulton, but, being a Ruby programmer, you probably already knew that.