A Ruby/Rails bibliography

[Jeremy McAnally]

Howdy all,
I've noticed an influx of "What book should I buy?" questions lately,
so I thought I'd put together a number of bibliographies/curriculums
based on experience, role, and so on. You can view them at:
http://blog.mrneighborly.com/2007/10/ruby-and-rails-bibliography-of-sorts.html

I want this to be a resource to point people to, so if one of these
becomes out of date or you have a better suggestion, then please tell
me. I'll try my best to keep it up to date.

Thanks!
Jeremy

--
http://www.jeremymcanally.com/

My books:
Ruby in Practice
http://www.manning.com/mcanally/

My free Ruby e-book
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/

My blogs:
http://www.mrneighborly.com/
http://www.rubyinpractice.com/

 

[Giles Bowkett]

Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.

I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
for that reason.

Howdy all,
I've noticed an influx of "What book should I buy?" questions lately,
so I thought I'd put together a number of bibliographies/curriculums
based on experience, role, and so on. You can view them at:
http://blog.mrneighborly.com/2007/10/ruby-and-rails-bibliography-of-sorts.html

I want this to be a resource to point people to, so if one of these
becomes out of date or you have a better suggestion, then please tell
me. I'll try my best to keep it up to date.

Thanks!
Jeremy

--
http://www.jeremymcanally.com/

My books:
Ruby in Practice
http://www.manning.com/mcanally/

My free Ruby e-book
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/

My blogs:
http://www.mrneighborly.com/
http://www.rubyinpractice.com/

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[Jeremy McAnally]

*sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh?

Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
of conditionals and want to see how Ruby works.

--Jeremy

Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.

I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
for that reason.




--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

--
http://www.jeremymcanally.com/

My books:
Ruby in Practice
http://www.manning.com/mcanally/

My free Ruby e-book
http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/

My blogs:
http://www.mrneighborly.com/
http://www.rubyinpractice.com/

 

[James Britt]

Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.

I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
for that reason.

I was given a pre-release version of Ruby By Example, and found that it
it gave misleading ideas about types and classes in Ruby.

For example, this was described as "casting":

s = 12.to_s

There were a few other things along those lines, and I was told that the
idea was to present concepts in terms that were familiar to a Perl or
Java developer. The end result, though, was that said Perl or Java
developer would not actually understand Ruby, though they might learn
how to write Perl or Java using Ruby syntax.

Perhaps the final version of the book is different, but I would never
recommend the book I saw.

 

[John Joyce]

I was given a pre-release version of Ruby By Example, and found
that it it gave misleading ideas about types and classes in Ruby.

For example, this was described as "casting":

s = 12.to_s

It is like casting.
You could (and often would) make a very similar line of code using
type-casting in many languages.
However, it is Ruby so it isn't casting.

As for the book, Ruby by example is a nice book. It covers a variety
of interesting topics. The sad part is that it doesn't go deeply into
any of them. The only thing that's kept me from rushing to add it to
my Ruby library is that it doesn't go deep.

I'm still waiting for books that introduce topics from Ruby completely.
I'd love to see a CGI book that is all through Ruby. ( for example )
Rather than needing a Perl book to learn the Ruby

 

[Alex Young]

*sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh?

Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
of conditionals

Minutiae, surely?

 

[Chris Carter]

Minutiae, surely?

I'm thinking minutias here. Accusative plural. But it's been a while

 

[Rick DeNatale]

I'm thinking minutias here. Accusative plural. But it's been a while

In Boston, with it's plentitude of colleges and universities, it's not
uncommon for grad students to moonlight. Joe was a Harvard classics
scholar who worked part time as a cab driver.

He once picked up a far at Logan Airport, a businessman from the
mid-west, travelling alone, on his first trip to Boston. Looking
forward to some good New England food, he eagerly asked Joe:

"By the way, where the best place in the area to get scrod?"

Joe, pondered this for a few seconds and then said: "You know, that's
the FIRST time anyone has ever asked me that in the pluperfect
subjunctive!"

 

[Giles Bowkett]

Perhaps the final version of the book is different, but I would never

recommend the book I saw.

I skipped all that stuff and just read the chapters on functional
programming. There was good stuff on lambda and map. I don't know
about the rest of the book one way or the other.

It is minutiae. When you use Latin nouns in English everything gets
turned into the normative case. Otherwise people would go nutty in the
head.

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[Deven Ullman]

My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.")

It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.

SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
a fundamental level.

HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
discuss.

The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
serve very different purposes.

 

[James Britt]

It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.

SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
a fundamental level.

HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
discuss.

The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
serve very different purposes.

I've not read HOP, but I've read SICP, and I'd wager there are few other
books that would do a better job of improving one's Ruby skills.

Ruby Reading List:

- Pick-axe
- Ruby for Rails
- SICP


And maybe start with SICP ...

 

[David A. Black]

Hi --

As for the book, Ruby by example is a nice book. It covers a variety of
interesting topics. The sad part is that it doesn't go deeply into any of
them. The only thing that's kept me from rushing to add it to my Ruby library
is that it doesn't go deep.

I'm still waiting for books that introduce topics from Ruby completely.
I'd love to see a CGI book that is all through Ruby. ( for example ) Rather
than needing a Perl book to learn the Ruby

I believe that three of the books in this picture:

http://www.pablotron.com/gallery/20021101-rubyconf2002/?g_show=1&g_ofs=28&g_num=1

are CGI books, though I can only spot "CGI" in two of the titles.
Anyway, that was 2002, so they may not still be in print -- and you'd
have to learn Japanese

But it's all to say that, as with so many things in the Ruby world,
lots has already happened in Japan even though outside of Japan it's
sometimes hard to pick up on. I too hope that there will be lots of
books, in many languages, along the lines of "XYZ with Ruby".


David

--
Upcoming training by David A. Black/Ruby Power and Light, LLC:
* Advancing With Rails, Edison, NJ, November 6-9
* Advancing With Rails, Berlin, Germany, November 19-22
* Intro to Rails, London, UK, December 3-6 (by Skills Matter)
See http://www.rubypal.com for details!

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

I've not read HOP, but I've read SICP, and I'd wager there are few other
books that would do a better job of improving one's Ruby skills.

Ruby Reading List:

- Pick-axe
- Ruby for Rails
- SICP


And maybe start with SICP ...

The problem with starting with SICP (or "The Little Schemer", or any
other Scheme book, for that matter) is that you may not *want* to learn
another language -- ever. If you want to learn Ruby, do yourself a favor
and start with a Ruby book.

Scheme (and Forth) are addicting as all get-out. They're hardly "gateway
drugs" to other languages. BTW, I've looked at HOP a number of times but
I've never wanted to buy it -- too many good Scheme books around.

 

[Giles Bowkett]

It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.

SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
a fundamental level.

HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
discuss.

The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
serve very different purposes.

Portions of HOP appear to have been directly translated, nearly word
for word, from the material in the SICP lectures. I've only watched
the lectures, not read the book, and I never even got all the way
through the lectures, so I could be totally off. However the first few
chapters of HOP cover material nearly identical to the material in the
first few lectures, with near-identical examples and near-identical
code.

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[Deven Ullman]

Portions of HOP appear to have been directly translated, nearly word
for word, from the material in the SICP lectures.

I will assume that you did not intend to accuse me of plagiarism, and
just say that you are completely mistaken. What you say is
impossible. HOP was written and published before the SICP lectures
were publically available. I did not attend MIT. To this day I have
never seen the lectures.

I could be totally off.

You are totally off.

However the first few
chapters of HOP cover material nearly identical to the material in the
first few lectures, with near-identical examples and near-identical code.

Many of the early examples are quite standard and can be found in
many, many places. There must be dozens of books that begin their
discussion of recursion with factorial, towers of Hanoi, and Fibonacci
numbers. See, for example, Lawrence Paulson's book "ML for the
Working programmer", which (like SICP) was an inspiration for HOP.

I think even a casual comparison of the tables of contents of HOP and
SICP will reveal more differences than similarities.

As for the "near-identical code", I can't imagine what you might mean,
since the SICP code is
Scheme and the HOP code is Perl.

 

[Mark Dominus]

Portions of HOP appear to have been directly translated, nearly word
for word, from the material in the SICP lectures.

I will assume that you did not intend to accuse me of plagiarism, and
just say that you are completely mistaken. What you say is
impossible. HOP was written and published before the SICP lectures
were publically available. I did not attend MIT. To this day I have
never seen the lectures.

I could be totally off.

You are totally off.

However the first few chapters of HOP cover material nearly identical
to the material in the first few lectures, with near-identical
examples and near-identical code.

Many of the early examples are quite standard and can be found in
many, many places. There must be dozens of books that begin their
discussion of recursion with factorial, towers of Hanoi, and Fibonacci
numbers. See, for example, Lawrence Paulson's book "ML for the
Working programmer", which (like SICP) was an inspiration for HOP.

But I think even a casual comparison of the tables of contents of HOP
and SICP will reveal more differences than similarities. Both tables of
contents are on the web:

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/toc/toc.html
http://hop.perl.plover.com/#toc

As for the "near-identical code", I can't imagine what you might mean,
since the SICP code is Scheme and the HOP code is Perl.

 

[Giles Bowkett]

I will assume that you did not intend to accuse me of plagiarism, and

just say that you are completely mistaken. What you say is
impossible. HOP was written and published before the SICP lectures
were publically available. I did not attend MIT. To this day I have
never seen the lectures.


You are totally off.

Sorry! My bad. The similar examples in the early chapters must be due
to many of the standard examples ultimately deriving from the same
source. Calling HOP a SICP translation was intended as a compliment,
but if it's not accurate, then all it means is that if you want to
find the earliest instance of some of these standard examples that I
personally know of, that's where you should look.

--
Giles Bowkett

Blog: http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Portfolio: http://www.gilesgoatboy.org
Tumblelog: http://giles.tumblr.com/

 

[Mark Dominus]

Calling HOP a SICP translation was intended as a compliment,

Oh, in that case I'll take it as you meant it. It is a great honor for
me that you to compared my book with SICP. Thanks for the kind words.