Hi --

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007, John Joyce wrote:

>
> On Oct 9, 2007, at 9:40 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
>
>> Giles Bowkett wrote:
>>>> What books would you recommend for a course on Ruby and Ruby on Rails?
>>>> I am currently evaluating books for a course I'm teaching next
>>>> semester and am trying to get a good sample before I make any
>>>> decisions.  I'd be happy to have separate books for Ruby and RoR.
>>> My favorite Ruby book is still "The Ruby Way." "Ruby By Example" is
>>> also excellent, especially if you want to cover basic functional
>>> progrmaming. "The Rails Way" is aiming to be the dominant reference,
>>> currently that position belongs to "Agile Web Dev w/Rails," which is
>>> the default book. I'd say go with both there also and you can't go
>>> wrong.
>> The only single book I know of that *adequately* covers *both* Ruby and 
>> Rails is David A. Black's "Ruby for Rails". Some folks think it's light on 
>> Rails and heavy on Ruby, but I disagree.
>> 
>> If you're going to go with separate books, I'd stick with the Pickaxe and 
>> AWDR. There just aren't any substitutes worth talking about.
>> 
> Ruby for Rails is great, but it is very light on a lot of Rails things, but 
> that's because it's a few years old, and more importantly, its focus is Ruby 
> more than Rails. Actually, Ruby in the context of Rails.

Not quite a few years old -- it was published in May, 2006 :-)

> It could certainly use a sequel. Lord knows, Mr. Black could probably write 3 
> sequels to that book without batting an eye.

/me tapes eyeballs open.... :-)


David

-- 
Upcoming training from Ruby Power and Light, LLC:
   * Intro to Ruby on Rails, Edison, NJ, October 23-26
   * Advancing with Rails, Edison, NJ, November 6-9
Both taught by David A. Black.
See http://www.rubypal.com for more info!