From ruby-talk-admin@ruby-lang.org Fri Dec 16 01:00:19 2005 Received: from kankan.nagaokaut.ac.jp (kankan.nagaokaut.ac.jp [133.44.2.24]) by blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp (8.12.3/8.12.3/Debian-6.6) with ESMTP id jBFG0JZk026873; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:19 +0900 Received: from funfun.nagaokaut.ac.jp (funfun.nagaokaut.ac.jp [133.44.2.201]) by kankan.nagaokaut.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5FA425D5D; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:20 +0900 (JST) Received: from localhost (localhost.nagaokaut.ac.jp [127.0.0.1]) by funfun.nagaokaut.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id 44A5AF0488C; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:24 +0900 (JST) Received: from voscc.nagaokaut.ac.jp (voscc.nagaokaut.ac.jp [133.44.1.100]) by funfun.nagaokaut.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id EA43EF04894; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:22 +0900 (JST) Received: from beryllium.ruby-lang.org (beryllium.ruby-lang.org [210.163.138.100]) by voscc.nagaokaut.ac.jp (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACAF3630024; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:25 +0900 (JST) Received: from beryllium.ruby-lang.org (beryllium.ruby-lang.org [127.0.0.1]) by beryllium.ruby-lang.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6E0533F2F; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:21 +0900 (JST) Received: from localhost (beryllium.ruby-lang.org [127.0.0.1]) by beryllium.ruby-lang.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1380A33F32 for ; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:11 +0900 (JST) Received: from beryllium.ruby-lang.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (beryllium.ruby-lang.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 16719-02 for ; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:10 +0900 (JST) Received: from tagbomb.com (tagbomb.com [207.44.206.37]) by beryllium.ruby-lang.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5289033F2F for ; Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:10 +0900 (JST) Received: (qmail 14395 invoked from network); 15 Dec 2005 10:02:01 -0600 Received: from ip68-110-79-2.ph.ph.cox.net (HELO ?192.168.1.101?) (68.110.79.2) by tagbomb.com with (DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA encrypted) SMTP; 15 Dec 2005 10:02:01 -0600 Delivered-To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 01:00:11 +0900 Posted: Thu, 15 Dec 2005 08:59:32 -0700 From: James Britt Reply-To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org Subject: Re: Forthcoming 2nd ed. of _The Ruby Way_ To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org (ruby-talk ML) Message-Id: <43A192E4.4040103@neurogami.com> In-Reply-To: <1134655968.140192.205720@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> References: <1134601217.746672.19760@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> <1134655968.140192.205720@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> X-ML-Name: ruby-talk X-Mail-Count: 54 X-MLServer: fml [fml 4.0.3 release (20011202/4.0.3)]; post only (only members can post) X-ML-Info: If you have a question, send e-mail with the body "help" (without quotes) to the address ruby-talk-ctl@ruby-lang.org; help= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.5 (Windows/20050711) X-Original-To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org Organization: Neurogami, LLC X-Accept-Language: en-us, en X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20030616-p10 (Debian) at ruby-lang.org X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.3 (2005-04-27) on beryllium.ruby-lang.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-14.5 required=7.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,BLARS00, BLARS_SPAM00,CONTENT_TYPE_PRESENT,RCVDFRMLOCALIP,RCVD_IN_BLARS, RCVD_IN_BLARS_SPAM,RCVD_IN_BLARS_SPAMDROP,RCVD_IN_BLARS_SPAM_WEB autolearn=ham version=3.0.3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk Lines: 31 List-Id: ruby-talk.ruby-lang.org List-Software: fml [fml 4.0.3 release (20011202/4.0.3)] List-Post: List-Owner: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: X-Virus-Scanned: by AMaViS snapshot-20020531 Doug H wrote: > I'd recommend the exact opposite. If you ignore the libraries and GUI > toolkits, the book is virtually useless. Most people are using ruby to > develop _applications_, not to learn programming for programming's > sake. Coding applications in Ruby without taking full advantage of what makes Ruby Ruby is like walking up a hill backwards. You'll get where you want to go, but it could be so much nicer. A guide to libraries would be handy, but indeed many are ephemeral or in flux, and learning a set of distinct APIs for one thing or another is no substitute for a proper understanding of Ruby itself. It's the difference between being a [application|library] scripter and a Ruby programmer. James -- http://www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation http://www.artima.com/rubycs/ - Ruby Code & Style: Writers wanted http://www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff http://www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys http://www.30secondrule.com - Building Better Tools