The Open Source Zone

This book is not only poorly written and poorly edited, it's riddled with factual and conceptual errors. If you're a practicing Ruby programmer, I need only point you to the inchoate section on Blocks on pages 57-59 to convince you that the author didn't have the slightest idea of what he was writing about. Nearly every sentence in the introductory paragraph has something conceptually wrong with it.

If you want a good Ruby book, pick up Programming Ruby or The Ruby Way.

This has to be the strangest computer book I have ever read, the book should have become a classic as an introductory text to the Ruby language. This book has a great layout and format. The author(s) present the language through a series of case studies that help put the various elements of the language in an understandable context. It is apparent that the author(s) have a deep understanding of their subject matter. So what's the problem? The author(s) obviously speak English as a second language and the book was not edited. This book appears to be a first draft that was slapped together and shipped. The editors (Ben Ryan, Kathryn Malm, Pamela Hanley and Brian Snapp) should look for another line of work. 5 stars to the author(s), 0 stars to the editors. Too bad this book wasn't published by O'Reilly.

May be good for total beginners, but very wordy and repetitive presentations of basic concepts. I really wanted to like this book, but it's poorly edited. Disappointed at Wiley, it has more of the slapped together feel of one of those doorstop publishers (without the bulk). If you've ever programmed in perl/python, java, C, you won't learn much from the first 100 pages. The sections starting with exceptions are worth reading, however, with useful code examples<p>Also, there are some bad typos, in regular expressions, they've confused $' and $`.

Working in the field of mathematics, I had heard a lot about Ruby, but had no experience with it prior to reading this book. It really helped me understand the applications of the language and how I could use it to solve specific problems I had been struggling with. A great find.

This book provides a good introduction to the Ruby language for anyone looking to understand its basic features. The approach was very practical and hands-on, with helpful examples throughout. A good way to get started with Ruby.