Recommendations for books (Ruby on Rails)

titchard · 22 Aug 2008 at 12:33

Hey guys,

I am looking to purchase some Ruby on Rails books later today or tomorrow and would like the great people of OCUK to recommend me which RoR books are the best in your collective opinion as a good base point.

I am currently looking at...

Agile Web Development with Rails: A Pragmatic Guide (Pragmatic Programmers) .

&

Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide, Second Edition: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide.

I was also looking at Ruby on Rails for Dummies but felt that it may not be that great.

The first two I was looking at seemed to compliment eachother, but are there any other books you guys recommend?

Thanks in advance,

Rich

nav... · 22 Aug 2008 at 16:08

I presume you've read that free online ruby book by why?

Solaris · 22 Aug 2008 at 16:12

Why do you want to learn ruby on rails so bad? TBH other scripting languages are much better.

Una · 22 Aug 2008 at 16:28

nav... said:
I presume you've read that free online ruby book by why?

He's asking about rails, why_'s book is about Ruby the language. I assume he knows that already. I personally find why's book really annoying, good for a beginner but if your coming from other languages first you want something a little less crazy and more to the point imo

You have pretty much covered what I would recommend: Agile Web Development with Rails (Pragmatic Programmers) .. I would just go with that.

Solaris said:
Why do you want to learn ruby on rails so bad? TBH other scripting languages are much better.

If your going to make comments like that it helps if you actually get the terminology correct else you just look stupid. Rails is a framework, Ruby is a scripting language.. It's like comparing CakePHP to Python, nonsensical. Apart from that I would love to hear your reasons why you think other scripting languages are better...

nav... · 23 Aug 2008 at 04:38

Una said:
He's asking about rails, why_'s book is about Ruby the language. I assume he knows that already. I personally find why's book really annoying, good for a beginner but if your coming from other languages first you want something a little less crazy and more to the point imo

I was feeling in a helpful mood last night and I tried to read that book once... and seen it recommended a lot.

I'm dyed in the wool php

titchard · 23 Aug 2008 at 08:19

I have read Why's guide to RoR yes, but I prefer to actually have a book I can refer to than a webpage I find it easier to read and follow than a site.

And too solaris, I don't want to turn this into a "which is better" discussion I just want to find out what books people recommend for RoR - I will probably look at other languages at a later stage.

So no recommendations yet? I will be ordering this today otherwise I think.

Rich

punky_munky · 29 Aug 2008 at 10:49

I have read Agile Development with Rails and if you've never worked within an MVC framework before then it is a bit confusing.

Rails for PHP Developers is absolutely brilliant if you're coming from a procedural programming background.

Why's guide is great for learning Ruby which you should definitely do before you attempt Rails, mostly just so you can appreciate what the framework is actually doing for you and which parts are part of the magical Ruby language.