Ruby

[contitego]

My background with programming:
I aced java 1 and java 2 at my school. I understand Java pretty well.

What I would like to do:
Learn some ruby.

I picked up: "The ruby programming language". I got it half off at borders.

Any other suggestions for books or guides?

i am taking a web applications programming class in the fall, it deals with C#.

 

[LuminaryJanitor]

The best Ruby tutorial I've seen (possibly the best I've seen for any language) is the Ruby Koans.

why's (poignant) Guide is pretty popular, but I found it a bit frustrating, as the amount of Ruby involved drops off pretty sharply...

 

[odoe]

Koans are a great way to get familiar with Ruby. I haven't read the O'Reilly book, but I have Programming Ruby 1.9 (via pragmatic) and really like it.

 

[contitego]

Koans are a great way to get familiar with Ruby. I haven't read the O'Reilly book, but I have Programming Ruby 1.0 (via pragmatic) and really like it.

The O'Reilly one is 400pgs. A pretty good size good. The C# book I am looking at is 1000pgs. Just not a fan of the tome size books.

 

[ameoba]

The O'Reilly one is 400pgs. A pretty good size good. The C# book I am looking at is 1000pgs. Just not a fan of the tome size books.

Don't worry - most of it's filler, fluff and crap. They just make them big enough that you actually see them on the shelves at bookstores.

 

[odoe]

Yeah, half the Programming Ruby 1.9 book is the Ruby docs, so it's not even that long.

 

[contitego]

Don't worry - most of it's filler, fluff and crap. They just make them big enough that you actually see them on the shelves at bookstores.

I am not a huge fan of reading the API/docs that I can pull up online.

 

[kencheeto]

Ruby is definitely a great language to get some experience with now- I just graduated and I can't imagine an easier job search after having had a great RoR internship with a local consulting firm.

Koans are a great tool, but you can also do things like practice implementing algorithms in Ruby or doing code katas: http://codekata.pragprog.com/

If you're wanting to look into the Rails framework, getting the Agile Web Development with Rails book would be a great step too.

 

[contitego]

I bought the pick-axe book on friday.