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Book Review - Ruby Cookbook by Lucas Carlson and Leonard Richardson

Category Book Reviews
Once you've gone past "Hello World" in a new language, you have to start figuring out how to do real stuff.  Ruby Cookbook by Lucas Carlson and Leonard Richardson does just that (as well as a number of other things)...

Contents: Strings; Numbers; Date and Time; Arrays; Hashes; Files and Directories; Code Blocks; Objects and Classes; Modules and Namespaces; Reflection and Metaprogramming; XML and XHTML; Graphics and Other File Formats; Databases and Persistence; Internet Services; Web Development - Ruby On Rails; Web Services and Distributed Programming; Testing, Debugging, Optimizing, and Documenting; Packing and Distributing Software; Automating Tasks with Rake; Multitasking and Multithreading; User Interface; Extending Ruby with Other Languages; System Administration; Index

I was tempted to think I wasn't ready for this book yet, as I don't have a firm Ruby foundation.  But I'm glad I ignored that thought.  For a beginner, this is a wealth of real code that does things that you will need to do in all your programs.  String manipulation, number and date processing, etc.  Those are the things that are fairly simple when you have experience, but stumbling blocks when you have to think about every step you take.  For the intermediate and experienced coder, you'll find more advanced techniques like web services or multithreading your programs.  In both cases (beginner or expert), a book like this will start to seed your imagination.  Scanning through the recipes, you're sure to have one of those "ooohh...  I didn't think about doing *that*!" moments.  

Next to the Ruby tutorial book you buy, this might be the next most important Ruby book you plunk down money for...  Definitely worth it!

If you liked this review and found it helpful, please click on the Amazon book link in the review and click the Yes (Was This Review Helpful To You?) button at the bottom of my review.  Thanks!

Comments

Gravatar Image1 - Tom, I'm glad you liked the book. One of my goals was to make it accessible to programmers who were just picking up Ruby.

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