Highly Recommended Book: The Ruby Programming Language

I first learned about Ruby about 8 years ago, when another programmer that i only knew from some Linux-related forum (yup, i was a die-hard linux user at the time) kept claiming that it was one of the nicest and purest OO languages available. I kept thinking "yeah right, nobody is using Ruby for real stuff so it can't be good". In my defense, i was only 21 at the time and at that age a lot of people can still be quite ignorant at times (or even quite frequently). But that doesn't change the fact that i was just plain stupid.

Fast forward 8 years, and here i am: a developer who was once convinced of the virtues of static languages, but is increasingly frustrated by both the static nature of C# (regardless of the introduction of the dynamic keyword) because of the limits it places on my creativity, as well as the entire .NET world for a variety of reasons. So i figured it was time for me to learn exactly what was so good about these dynamic languages. At first, i doubted between going for Ruby and Python. I picked Ruby, mostly because it has more momentum than Python. And since i hate learning something new from some simple online tutorials, i wanted to get some good books on the subject to make sure i really learned what it was all about. The first book i ordered was The Ruby Programming Language which seems to be the definitive guide to the Ruby language. It ought to be, with that title

Books about programming languages are generally pretty boring. It's not the fault of the writers, or the language, it's just because so many boring details need to be covered when learning a new language. I was very happy to see that this book certainly minimizes those boring parts. The book starts off with a quick introduction to Ruby. It very quickly goes over some code with very brief explanations as to what the code is doing. Not sure if everyone will agree on this, but for me it was like the perfect appetizer. It really made me want to learn the language thoroughly.

The next 4 chapters aren't nearly as interesting as the introduction was. The 2nd chapter deals with the structure of Ruby code. Important, but not exactly thrilling to read. The 3rd chapter discusses some of the standard data types and you'll also learn more about how objects work in Ruby. The stuff about objects was very interesting, but the descriptions of the data types are, as they always are, pretty boring. The 4th chapter (Expressions and Operators) and the 5th one (Statements and Control Structures) are also quite boring. But then again, i can't possibly imagine how anyone could write about these kinds of topics in a way that is truly interesting, regardless of the programming language that is used. In fact, i'd say that these topics were dealt with in a manner that is at least less boring than how they're usually covered in programming books. And even though those parts are not the most interesting to read, it is great reference material if you quickly need to figure out something or need to refresh your memory while working with the language.

The next 3 chapters however were (IMO) immensely interesting. Chapter 6 tells you everything you need to know about Methods, Procs, Lambdas and Closures. You might be thinking "how could that possibly be immensely interesting?", but trust me, it is. I also think that this chapter will either strongly increase your appreciation of the Ruby language, or might be a little off putting, depending on how you generally feel about the importance of static typing vs dynamic. Most developers will see the possible dangers here and you'll either feel fear for what people can do in a method, or you'll love the power and flexibility while still recognizing the dangers (with an increased appreciation for automated tests, hopefully).

Chapter 7 deals with everything there is to know about classes and modules, and it's an absolute joy to read. At this point, i really started to feel stupid for not having learned about this years ago. Lots of interesting stuff here, and the ideas it planted in my head are surely gonna hurt me frequently while coding in C# at work. Chapter 8 was even worse in this regard... it discusses Ruby's reflection capabilities and the whole metaprogramming thing. It made my head spin, in the good way. I know i can really take serious advantage of those capabilities and i can't wait to actually experiment with it.

The 9th chapter discusses the Ruby Platform, which is basically a succinct run down of what you can do with a lot of the standard Ruby classes. I largely skipped this chapter since the next book on my reading-list (The Ruby Way) covers all of that and more, in depth. The final chapter covers the Ruby interpreter and the general Ruby environment. It's somewhat interesting, but nothing spectacular.

I generally approach programming language books as necessary reading (at least when you're learning a language) but a chore at the same time. While some of the chapters in this book suffer from a lot of the same problems that you'll find with other programming language books, it at least is less boring to read. Chapter 6 through 8 however are more than worth the cost of the book and could really change the way you think and feel about OO and if i could legally get away with it, i'd force every programmer to read those. It's certainly not going to convince everyone, but it could open a lot of people's eyes. This book is not only ideal to learn the Ruby language, it'll also be an invaluable reference resource to keep on your desk as you keep taking more steps in your Ruby journey.

I already know it's gonna take a long while before this book moves from my desk to my bookshelf.