Programming Ruby, The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide

Author(s): David Thomas, Andrew Hunt, Dave Thomas
Publication date: December 2000
ISBN: 0201710897
Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc
Free License: Open Publication License v1.0

Book excerpts:

Take a true object-oriented language, such as Smalltalk. Drop the unfamiliar syntax and move to more conventional, file-based source code. Now add in a good measure of the flexibility and convenience of languages such as Python and Perl.

You end up with Ruby.

OO aficionados will find much to like in Ruby: things such as pure object orientation (everything's an object), metaclasses, closures, iterators, and ubiquitous heterogeneous collections. Smalltalk users will feel right at home (and C++ and Java users will feel jealous).

At the same time, Perl and Python wizards will find many of their favorite features: full regular expression support, tight integration with the underlying operating system, convenient shortcuts, and dynamic evaluation.

Ruby is easy to learn. Everyday tasks are simple to code, and once you've done them, they are easy to maintain and grow. Apparently difficult things often turn out not to have been difficult after all. Ruby follows the Principle of Least Surprise---things work the way you would expect them to, with very few special cases or exceptions. And that really does make a difference when you're programming.

Ruby is a transparent language. It means that Ruby doesn't obscure the solutions you write behind lots of syntax and the need to churn out reams of support code just to get simple things done. With Ruby you write programs close to the problem domain. Rather than constantly mapping your ideas and designs down to the pedestrian level of most languages, with Ruby you'll find you can express them directly and express them elegantly. This means you code faster. It also means your programs stay readable and maintainable.

Using Ruby, you will constantly amazed at how much code you can write in one sitting, code that works the first time. There are very few syntax errors, no type violations, and far fewer bugs than usual. This makes sense: there's less to get wrong. No bothersome semicolons to type mechanically at the end of each line. No troublesome type declarations to keep in sync (especially in separate files). No unnecessary words just to keep the compiler happy. No error-prone framework code.

So why learn Ruby? Because it will help you program better. It will help you to focus on the problem at hand, with fewer distractions. It will make your life easier.

Interviews:

An interview with the authors of Programming Ruby

Reviews:

Amazon.com


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