CSCI E-168

NOTE: If you buy books via these links, our group collects 4% of the purchase price, which we will spend on something edible or quaffable at the end of the semester.

Required

• Thomas, et al., Programming Ruby, 2d ed. (2004), also known as the “pickaxe.” This book covers just about everything regarding Ruby, and is strewn with interesting examples. It also includes API documentation for the built-in libraries. NOTE: You must use the 2nd edition; there is a free on-line version of the 1st edition which you may Google for, but note that it is out-of-date. [Amazon]

NOTE: Errata (fixed errors in the book) at http://books.pragprog.com/titles/ruby/errata (print this out and put it in your book) and code at http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/ruby/code/index.html

• Thomas and Heinemeier Hansson, Agile Web Development with Rails, 2d ed. (2006). All about Ruby on Rails, by its creator. This is not the easiest book, and might well be supplemented by some of the more reference-like works below. NOTE: Must be the 2nd edition; if you already own the 1st edition, I would recommend acquiring the new version. [Amazon]

Errata at http://books.pragprog.com/titles/rails2/errata and code at http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/rails2/code.html

Other Books You May Find Useful

• For Ruby Beginners
  • Peter Cooper, Beginning Ruby (2007). A beginner’s book with depth. A solid alternative to the Pickaxe. Recommended. [Amazon]
  • Brian Marick, Everyday Scripting with Ruby (2006). I really like this book; the author has a nice teacherly attitude without boring the reader or belaboring stuff. A lot of the examples are drawn from QA tasks, which typically means working with the operating system in a structured repeatable way. The book alternates discursive chapters with chapters on “facts” regarding the major topics (booleans, regular expressions, classes, etc.). [Amazon]
  • Michael Fitzgerald, Learning Ruby (2007). Perhaps less compelling than Marick’s book. Many of the examples are about out to print “Matz.” While the book is an introduction, it has quasi-reference sections, such as a list of all of the masks for chmod (!? see p. 122). [Amazon]
  • Michael Fitzgerald, Ruby Pocket Reference (2007). Similar scope to Learning Ruby, but just the facts. If you’ve inherited a Ruby project and need to become productive two weeks ago, you could do well to acquire this small guide and one of the two cookbooks below. [Amazon]
• Advanced Ruby
  • David Black, Ruby for Rails (2006). This book is topically arranged, i.e., not ordered by “what you need to know first,” or by simple-things-first, but rather by the core concepts: “Objects and variables,” “Organizing objects with classes,” etc. Black’s book tends to get into corners that are extremely important and not always understood very well (for instance, the precise nature of self). Recommended after you think you have a handle on the pickaxe and on Agile Web Development. [Amazon]
• Cookbooks
  • Hal Fulton, The Ruby Way, 2d. ed (2007). This is a great book with wonderful examples. Perhaps the best chapter on regular expressions in Ruby. Great on internationalization, dynamic Ruby . . . [Amazon]
  • Carlson and Richardson, Ruby Cookbook (2006). Another great book; lots of overlap with Fulton’s The Ruby Way. If you can afford it, buy both. It is hard to make a distinction between the two books, but I would say that Fulton’s book has a bit more on the tried-and-true in the Ruby world, and the Cookbook is a bit more about all of the various topics that a developer would encounter today in 2007. Just for example: Fulton has more on TK (GUI tooklit) which was probably perceived as more important in Ruby circles than other topics say 3 years ago. While the Cookbook seems a bit deeper on XML. [Amazon]
  • Schmidt, Enterprise Integration with Ruby (2006). So, you need to do CORBA from Ruby, or you need to access LDAP? So sorry. Go read this book! [Amazon]
• Databases
  • Paul DuBois, MySQL (2006). This is the best single resource on MySQL. [Amazon]
• Miscellaneous
  • David Berube, Practical Ruby Gems (2007). This is an important book because it shows how far you can get with “off the shelf” software in the Ruby ecosystem. Recommended. If you buy this book from Amazon and like it, review it there because the existing reviews don’t really capture the value of the book. [Amazon]
  • Clark, Handy Pocket Guide to Asian Gemstones (2004). Has a nice picture of a Ruby on the cover. [Amazon]
  • JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank. I’m including this because if one of you bought it, the Affiliate bonus would be be about $800. Nice. [Amazon]

Amazon Omakase

Here’s what Amazon’s Omakase system thinks we might be interested in: