[xclite]

With the extreme availability of resources on the internet, many people don't even consider using books to further their knowledge of modern languages. However, books are a fantastic resource and reference, and can double as office decoration or door stops.

What are your favorite books for working with Ruby, Rails or any other Ruby technologies?

The traditional Rubyist's book is the Pickaxe Book.

It has various sections depending on your level of mastery, and takes an approach of revisiting and diving deeper into previously covered topics as you become more and more experienced with the language. Further, the thickness and density of the book make it an excellent self-defense tool in times of need.

This post has been edited by xclite: 10 February 2014 - 08:02 PM

[jon.kiparsky]

The Well-Grounded Rubyist has been quite enlightening for me. I wouldn't say that I've given the language enough attention to achieve any sort of mastery yet, but I really appreciate its focus on the underlying details of the language.
I suspect that if I had a little more time to work on Ruby, this book would probably get me a long way.

As for the avoidance of books, I can understand it for some topics - for example, Django has been a moving target, with major changes between versions, so any printed book is out of date very soon, and its examples become frustratingly useless. This will probably stabilize at some point, but it's horrible for the beginner who has no idea why the code from the book doesn't work. In that case, your best bet is to go to the language reference and hope they have some explanatory material. (and to be fair, the django people do)

But if there's a good book about a relatively stable technology like ruby or a mature field like algorithms or compiler design, there's no better way to get the whole story from end to end.

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 10 February 2014 - 08:23 PM

[Lemur]

Legend:
(E) - Easy
(I) - Intermediate
(A) - Advanced
(G) - Guru

Ruby

(E) - The Well Grounded Rubyist

A good introduction to programming in general. Easy on newer programmers.

(E) - Eloquent Ruby

A good introduction to Ruby and its' style. Slightly more in depth than the Well Grounded Rubyist as far as language tricks.

(I) - Wicked Cool Ruby Scripts

Get a feel for some more practical Ruby usage

(I) - Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby

The next logical step, an in depth explanation of the proper way to work with Object Orientation. It covers a lot of common misconceptions and teaches good habits that will save you an immense amount of headaches in the future.

(I) - Design Patterns in Ruby

The Gang of Four patterns plus a few more, this one will give you a high level overview of various design patterns in Ruby and how they're commonly applied.

(I) - Confident Ruby

Learn how to write Ruby confidently, avoiding patch hacks and ugly kludgery.

(A) - Exceptional Ruby

Making code work is one thing, making it behave itself with failure? Learn about Ruby exceptions and their power.

(A) - Metaprogramming Ruby

Want to learn some black magic in Ruby? All of that meta-goodness that you've heard about explained in depth.

(A) - Understanding Computation

Learn the foundations of Computer Science in Ruby.

(G) - Ruby Under a Microscope

Take a look at what makes Ruby tick, all the way down to its' compilation.

(G) - Kestrels, Quirky Birds, and Hopeless Egocentricity

If you thought that Metaprogramming Ruby was trippy, stay away. This book covers functional combinators in depth in Ruby and gives you a view of what lambdas can really do. Not for the faint of heart, this book has some incredible ideas and writing.

RSPEC

One of the most popular testing frameworks in Ruby

(I) - The RSPEC Book

The traditional standard in RSPEC, and for good reason.

(A) - xUnit Test Patterns

Not about RSPEC per-se, but xUnit, its' parent. Learn about common test patterns, and what to avoid.

Rails

(To Do)

---------------------

I'll add more as I have time, this is going to be a long week.

This post has been edited by Lemur: 10 February 2014 - 08:49 PM

[jon.kiparsky]

Dammit, I've got stuff I should be doing, and now I want to just sit down and learn me some ruby. Y'all is bad people.


#notreallymadjustplayingthanksfortherecslemur

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 10 February 2014 - 09:04 PM

[Lemur]

Said Guru books have given me headaches and warrant reading slowly. When I say that, I mean it. I'll fill in the Rails section tomorrow night.

[mccabec123]

How can you forget Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby?

Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby

It's free and funny Makes for a good read even if you don't intend on learning Ruby. But it goes through almost everything a Rubyist will need.

This post has been edited by mccabec123: 11 February 2014 - 08:35 AM

[greenlinux]

Hi,

Are you going to add more Ruby Books?

Thanks

[5thWall]

I'll put in a +1 for Confident Ruby, Practical Object Oriented Design in Ruby, and Metaprogramming Ruby. Though, personally, I'd stick Metaprogramming in the intermediate camp; it does a nice job of explaining the magic and once you've got a handle on the ruby object model lots of fun things fall into place.

I'll add a couple:

Ruby Science

A good list of code smells, solutions, and principles.

Rebuilding Rails

Want to understand Rails "magic"? This book goes through the process of building a rails-like ruby micro-framework focusing on the magic bits. The actual Rails solutions are much more robust than the ones presented in the book, but this will make you familiar with their basic underlying concepts.