Gavri Fernandez wrote:
> On 12/15/05, James Britt <james_b / neurogami.com> wrote:
> 
> ...
>>It's the difference between being a [application|library] scripter and a
>>Ruby programmer.
> 
> 
> 'The Ruby Way' handles metaprogramming and other advanced topics in a
> very cursory manner. More than half of The Ruby Way was concerned with
> Ruby's libraries. But many of you seem to expect the second edition to
> completely shift it's focus. I don't know how that's going to happen
> just by ripping out 100 pages and adding 250 pages considering all the
> new stuff from that keyword soup is going in.
> 

I'm not arguing for Hal to change the direction of the book, just 
suggesting that focusing on library usage for the sake of those looking 
only to ship code is short-sighted.

I thought of The Ruby Way, 1st ed., as a better Ruby cookbook.  It 
showed how to do oft-needed tasks, but explained the hows and whys.  If 
certain of these tasks are best handled by an existing library, then so 
be it.  But the book helped me become a better Ruby programmer, not 
merely better-versed in various tool APIs.



> Aren't there "Advanced Ruby" books in japanese that could be
> translated? I've been hoping for a long time someone would translate
> that "Ruby Internals" book and others like it. But all I see is
> another cookbook from O'Reilly and a bunch of Rails books. There's a
> huge market here. I, for example, would buy any book that says
> "Advanced Ruby" on the cover (without even bothering to open the book
> and check out the contents) :-)

I have high expectations for David Black's forthcoming book.  I'd be 
hard pressed to name another person I'd like to see a Ruby book from.


James Britt

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