Programming Ruby 1.9: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide (Facets of Ruby)

• #8 in Best Ruby Books

8 Reviews

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This book was purchased for a class in the digital humanities. The book was very helpful when writing programs for the class, but as a beginner, I would have been lost using the book alone! Sometimes it's written in such dense tech-speak that us non-techies in the class needed a translator. By the end of the class, I found this book invaluable and it earned a spot on my "keeper" bookshelf.

I've been using Rails for a few years, but I never dug deeply into Ruby. This book is one of the best technical books I have read, it keeps you engaged, which is very touch to do with such a dry subject matter. I read cover to cover (except the reference in the back) and I feel very confident in my Ruby skills. I learned something new in every chapter, and have a more grounded understanding of Ruby. I have already used this book as a reference, and I expect to do the same for quite a while.

If you are using Ruby in any way, this book should be in your library.

I used to work with PHP, C++ and Java, until I found Ruby! This book is a great pass to a bright future for programmers. Since I bought it and started developing Ruby and Rails applications, my developments skills keep getting better and the amount of time I spent coding is getting always smaller. Ruby is great to performe Agile Programming and is really a language to look for!
Highly recommended!

I really didn't enjoy this book. I purchased this book based upon the reviews and my hope was to use it to get up to speed on Ruby in a rapid manner. The author makes all kinds of assumptions that the user already should know certain things. While there are many examples, they are very dense and theoretical in nature. The author spends more time giving every possible theoretical way of using a particular feature of the language and does not offer many real world examples.

I am already an experienced programmer having mastered Java, PHP, C, and Visual Basic. Still, I find the syntax of Ruby hard to understand and this book does not help. I am not going to give up on Ruby. I will keep this book as a reference and seek out some other instructional guide for learning the language.

My advice to those wanting to learn Ruby for the first time - buy a different text.

The definitive guide to Ruby 1.9. There isn't another resource to looking for. It isn't neccesary..

The book offers lots of detail and theoretical/algebraic examples. Very dense even on simple facets of ruby, but then gets lost in theory trying to explain moderately difficult aspects. I am a firm believer that when an individual masters a topic they can explain even the most difficult aspects in a clear way....no present contrived examples that are almost formulaic in there presentation. I'v had to read a few sections several times only to undercover the author was just trying to explain a very trivial aspect of the language.

I have had this book in PDF in beta. I have a copy of the Second Edition but I still wanted this newer version. High quality as you'd expect.

Gostei muito do livro, fácil entendimento aborda deste coisa simples até mais complexas. Agrada a todos os gostos.