Just wanted to let everyone know and of course if you’re a member of ChicagoRuby… don’t forget to use your discount code for some extra discount!

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[amazonify]0596529864::text::::Learning Ruby[/amazonify]

• Author: Michael Fitzgerald
• ISBN 10: 0-596-52986-4
• ISBN 13: 9780596529864
• Reviewer: Matt Polito

Learning Ruby is exactly what the title says. This book offers a great ‘introduction’ to Ruby as a fun, powerful language. Now I would say that as a Ruby user, I’m not quite advanced but not really a beginner. I would have to say that this book is definitely catered to someone very new to the Ruby world. The books author, Michael Fitzgerald, uses a very easy to read style of writing that, to me, made this read far easier than a normal technical book. He uses this same easy to follow/read style in Ruby Pocket Reference and Learning XSLT as well.

Inside you will find small easy to digest chapters that give a quick explanation on what you’ll need to know such as: blocks, arrays, loops, functions. The basic stuff that will lay the groundwork. I believe that the books description may be the most accurate depiction of this book. It does not lie about it’s intent. Going in you will know that this is a book that will show you how to get started and really primes you for other more in-depth books (The Ruby Way).

Personally I didn’t really understand why at the end of the book you get an extremely brief introduction to Rails. The only reason I think is because on the cover you get a tag line of ‘The Language That Powers Rails.’ So they kind of needed to put something in there. That is really the only grief I found with the book. While doing some searching for other reviews of this book… I found that many people didn’t like it, but I truly believe that those people may have already been using Ruby for a bit. Then of course this book would seem like a waste. It is what it is and that’s a beginner’s introduction.

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