Ruby training materials suggestions required

[z]

Hello,
I am trying to learn Ruby, reading the "pickaxe" book v 2.0. It seems
pretty decent. However, I am looking for something different. Firstly, I
want something that has assignments in it - something to prove to myself
that I have grasped the concepts introduced in the preceeding chapter.

The other thing I'd like is a book that is written for a specific
IDE/editor, instead of irb. I'm used to writing in vi, but I want to get
away from that 1980s style of programming (part of my whole change of
attitude which is resulting in my studying Ruby).

I don't have a lot of money, so I can't afford to take a college course.
But, I would like that college textbook (without the college textbook
cost).

I'm experienced with C, so I don't need to be completely spoon-fed
programming. Object-orientation is still a bit new to me, but I can hack
it

 

[Timothy Hunter]

Hello,
I am trying to learn Ruby, reading the "pickaxe" book v 2.0. It seems
pretty decent. However, I am looking for something different. Firstly, I
want something that has assignments in it - something to prove to myself
that I have grasped the concepts introduced in the preceeding chapter.

The other thing I'd like is a book that is written for a specific
IDE/editor, instead of irb. I'm used to writing in vi, but I want to get
away from that 1980s style of programming (part of my whole change of
attitude which is resulting in my studying Ruby).

I don't have a lot of money, so I can't afford to take a college course.
But, I would like that college textbook (without the college textbook
cost).

I'm experienced with C, so I don't need to be completely spoon-fed
programming. Object-orientation is still a bit new to me, but I can hack
it

Welcome to Ruby!

Regarding your requirement that the book target a specific editor, I
don't think any such book exists. I suspect publishers would be afraid
of limiting their sales to such a tiny market! Besides, which editor/IDE
would you pick? Every "which is the best Ruby IDE?" post here gets 75
answers, each one advocating a different editor or IDE. (Short answer:
there is no "best.")

Check out my review of Peter Cooper's "Beginning Ruby" from Apress, on
Slashdot: http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/23/1429230.
Cooper doesn't have any "assignments" but he does have a lot of example
programs that may substitute.

 

[John Joyce]

what system do you have to work on?
That will determine your IDE / editor choices.
You have C experience? Great. Not much Object experience? No problem.
Ruby makes it more transparent than most.
You want assignments?
Me too.
So check out Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional
and there is always Best of Ruby Quiz.
Otherwise have the pickaxe handy for looking up stuff.
once you feel you got it down, start making something. Even if it is
translating an app from another language to the Ruby way. That can be
great and useful.

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

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Regarding your requirement that the book target a specific editor, I
don't think any such book exists. I suspect publishers would be afraid
of limiting their sales to such a tiny market! Besides, which editor/IDE
would you pick? Every "which is the best Ruby IDE?" post here gets 75
answers, each one advocating a different editor or IDE. (Short answer:
there is no "best.")

There may be no "best", but there's certainly a rather short list. On a
Mac, the overwhelming favorite appears to be TextMate. On Linux, I think
"vim" is more popular than "emacs", but both are often used. Other
likely candidates are FreeRide, SciTe, Eclipse, Komodo, Sapphire In
Steel, RadRails and KDevelop. The jRuby folks like NetBeans and maybe
jEdit.

That's a bunch but nowhere near 75, and I'll bet you that most Mac
Rubyists would answer TextMate, most Linux Rubyists would answer "vim"
plus "irb", and most Windows users would answer with whatever is bundled
in the One-Click Installer and Instant Rails these days. There are
probably only five serious contenders over all.

I'm guessing Komodo 4.5 will change all that, however.

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[Philip Gatt]

I'm a textmate/vim user, but I sure would love an editor with bundled
rdoc. Alt-tabbing gets annoying.

 

[Raj Sahae]

Hello,
I am trying to learn Ruby, reading the "pickaxe" book v 2.0. It seems
pretty decent. However, I am looking for something different. Firstly, I
want something that has assignments in it - something to prove to myself
that I have grasped the concepts introduced in the preceeding chapter.

The other thing I'd like is a book that is written for a specific
IDE/editor, instead of irb. I'm used to writing in vi, but I want to get
away from that 1980s style of programming (part of my whole change of
attitude which is resulting in my studying Ruby).

I don't have a lot of money, so I can't afford to take a college course.
But, I would like that college textbook (without the college textbook
cost).

I'm experienced with C, so I don't need to be completely spoon-fed
programming. Object-orientation is still a bit new to me, but I can hack
it

My personal preference happens to be the Pragmatic Programmers Ruby
book. I don't know why I like it so much. It gives the information in
a very specific, laid out format, with clear examples. It doesn't have
assignments in it, and it gives examples in irb, so it doesn't meet your
reqs there. A book I came across that had that structure (besides "Best
of RubyQuiz"), was "Everyday Scripting with Ruby" by Brian Marick. It's
not as comprehensive, but it contains questions/assignments at the end
of every section, and it's examples are geared towards more realistic,
applicable problems.

Raj Sahae

 

[Timothy Hunter]

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There may be no "best", but there's certainly a rather short list. On a
Mac, the overwhelming favorite appears to be TextMate. On Linux, I think
"vim" is more popular than "emacs", but both are often used. Other
likely candidates are FreeRide, SciTe, Eclipse, Komodo, Sapphire In
Steel, RadRails and KDevelop. The jRuby folks like NetBeans and maybe
jEdit.

That's a bunch but nowhere near 75, and I'll bet you that most Mac
Rubyists would answer TextMate, most Linux Rubyists would answer "vim"
plus "irb", and most Windows users would answer with whatever is bundled
in the One-Click Installer and Instant Rails these days. There are
probably only five serious contenders over all.

I'm guessing Komodo 4.5 will change all that, however.

I said 75 answers, not 75 editors.

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

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I said 75 answers, not 75 editors.

You said "75 answers, each one advocating a *different* editor or IDE".
75 answers, sure, 75 different editors??
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[John Joyce]

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You said "75 answers, each one advocating a *different* editor or
IDE".
75 answers, sure, 75 different editors??
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oh, let's not be nitpicky like C programmers!

Yes, Everyday Scripting With Ruby is an excellent book! Lots of great
real world examples and exercises, in a text book/tutorial format.
very practical, hands on stuff.

 

[Giles Bowkett]

I'm a textmate/vim user, but I sure would love an editor with bundled
rdoc. Alt-tabbing gets annoying.

If you're on OS X, there's also a Dashboard widget for RDoc. It might
be even more annoying than alt-tabbing, though, depending on what you
like. I dig it, though, because I don't even need to use a bookmark
and a browser to get to RDoc or the Rails API. Both pop up when I hit
F12. It's got a niftiness to it.

http://widgets.precisionis.com.au/

Anyway, speaking generally, I don't think editors are anywhere near as
important in Ruby as they are in other languages. The IDE thing is a
constant debate, but the **reason** it's a constant debate is because
so many Rubyists don't use IDEs at all. If that's what floats your
boat, go for it, more power to you, but a Ruby book which was
organized around a specific IDE, that's like a book on Chinese food
organized around the knife and the fork.