Howdy all,
I’ve noticed an influx of “What book should I buy?” questions lately,
so I thought I’d put together a number of bibliographies/curriculums
based on experience, role, and so on. You can view them at:
I want this to be a resource to point people to, so if one of these
becomes out of date or you have a better suggestion, then please tell
me. I’ll try my best to keep it up to date.
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Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.
I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
for that reason.
···
On 10/15/07, Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally@gmail.com> wrote:
Howdy all,
I've noticed an influx of "What book should I buy?" questions lately,
so I thought I'd put together a number of bibliographies/curriculums
based on experience, role, and so on. You can view them at: Mr. Neighborly: A Ruby and Rails bibliography of sorts
I want this to be a resource to point people to, so if one of these
becomes out of date or you have a better suggestion, then please tell
me. I'll try my best to keep it up to date.
*sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh?
Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
of conditionals and want to see how Ruby works.
--Jeremy
···
On 10/16/07, Giles Bowkett <gilesb@gmail.com> wrote:
Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.
I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
for that reason.
On 10/15/07, Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally@gmail.com> wrote:
> Howdy all,
> I've noticed an influx of "What book should I buy?" questions lately,
> so I thought I'd put together a number of bibliographies/curriculums
> based on experience, role, and so on. You can view them at:
> Mr. Neighborly: A Ruby and Rails bibliography of sorts
>
> I want this to be a resource to point people to, so if one of these
> becomes out of date or you have a better suggestion, then please tell
> me. I'll try my best to keep it up to date.
>
> Thanks!
> Jeremy
>
> --
> http://www.jeremymcanally.com/
>
> My books:
> Ruby in Practice
> Ruby in Practice
>
> My free Ruby e-book
> http://www.humblelittlerubybook.com/
>
> My blogs:
> http://www.mrneighborly.com/
> http://www.rubyinpractice.com/
>
>
Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.
I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
for that reason.
I was given a pre-release version of Ruby By Example, and found that it it gave misleading ideas about types and classes in Ruby.
For example, this was described as "casting":
s = 12.to_s
There were a few other things along those lines, and I was told that the idea was to present concepts in terms that were familiar to a Perl or Java developer. The end result, though, was that said Perl or Java developer would not actually understand Ruby, though they might learn how to write Perl or Java using Ruby syntax.
Perhaps the final version of the book is different, but I would never recommend the book I saw.
···
--
James Britt
"If you don't write it down, it never happened."
- (Unknown)
It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.
SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
a fundamental level.
HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
discuss.
The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
serve very different purposes.
···
On Oct 16, 9:36 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.")
It is like casting.
You could (and often would) make a very similar line of code using type-casting in many languages.
However, it is Ruby so it isn't casting.
As for the book, Ruby by example is a nice book. It covers a variety of interesting topics. The sad part is that it doesn't go deeply into any of them. The only thing that's kept me from rushing to add it to my Ruby library is that it doesn't go deep.
I'm still waiting for books that introduce topics from Ruby completely.
I'd love to see a CGI book that is all through Ruby. ( for example ) Rather than needing a Perl book to learn the Ruby
···
On Oct 16, 2007, at 12:03 PM, James Britt wrote:
Giles Bowkett wrote:
Sorry Jeremy, I can't help myself: it's curricula.
I'd say "Ruby By Example" is worth a look strictly for its chapters on
functional programming. My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.") This
would have been much gentler. I'd even put it in the Java guy section
for that reason.
I was given a pre-release version of Ruby By Example, and found that it it gave misleading ideas about types and classes in Ruby.
Perhaps the final version of the book is different, but I would never
recommend the book I saw.
I skipped all that stuff and just read the chapters on functional
programming. There was good stuff on lambda and map. I don't know
about the rest of the book one way or the other.
It is minutiae. When you use Latin nouns in English everything gets
turned into the normative case. Otherwise people would go nutty in the
head.
My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.")
It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.
SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
a fundamental level.
HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
discuss.
The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
serve very different purposes.
I've not read HOP, but I've read SICP, and I'd wager there are few other books that would do a better job of improving one's Ruby skills.
Ruby Reading List:
- Pick-axe
- Ruby for Rails
- SICP
And maybe start with SICP ...
···
On Oct 16, 9:36 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
--
James Britt
"Discover the recipes you are using and abandon them."
- Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, Oblique Strategies
Portions of HOP appear to have been directly translated, nearly word
for word, from the material in the SICP lectures. I've only watched
the lectures, not read the book, and I never even got all the way
through the lectures, so I could be totally off. However the first few
chapters of HOP cover material nearly identical to the material in the
first few lectures, with near-identical examples and near-identical
code.
···
On 10/24/07, Deven Ullman <mjdominus@gmail.com> wrote:
On Oct 16, 9:36 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> My first intro to map, et al., was
> "Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.")
It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.
SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
a fundamental level.
HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
discuss.
The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
serve very different purposes.
I'm thinking minutias here. Accusative plural. But it's been a while
···
On 10/16/07, Alex Young <alex@blackkettle.org> wrote:
Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> *sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh?
>
> Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
> Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
> of conditionals
Minutiae, surely?
--
Alex
--
Chris Carter
concentrationstudios.com
brynmawrcs.com
As for the book, Ruby by example is a nice book. It covers a variety of interesting topics. The sad part is that it doesn't go deeply into any of them. The only thing that's kept me from rushing to add it to my Ruby library is that it doesn't go deep.
I'm still waiting for books that introduce topics from Ruby completely.
I'd love to see a CGI book that is all through Ruby. ( for example ) Rather than needing a Perl book to learn the Ruby
I believe that three of the books in this picture:
are CGI books, though I can only spot "CGI" in two of the titles.
Anyway, that was 2002, so they may not still be in print -- and you'd
have to learn Japanese
But it's all to say that, as with so many things in the Ruby world,
lots has already happened in Japan even though outside of Japan it's
sometimes hard to pick up on. I too hope that there will be lots of
books, in many languages, along the lines of "XYZ with Ruby".
David
···
On Wed, 17 Oct 2007, John Joyce wrote:
--
Upcoming training by David A. Black/Ruby Power and Light, LLC:
* Advancing With Rails, Edison, NJ, November 6-9
* Advancing With Rails, Berlin, Germany, November 19-22
* Intro to Rails, London, UK, December 3-6 (by Skills Matter)
See http://www.rubypal.com for details!
My first intro to map, et al., was
"Higher-Order Perl." (Basically a Perl translation of "SICP.")
It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.
SICP is the textbook for the MIT introduction to computer science
class, and as such addresses a lot of important foundational issues at
a fundamental level.
HOP, on the other hand, is a manual of techniques for programming in
Perl. It was never intended to address the important and significant
basic issues that SICP addresses, or to provide a basic education in
fundamental principles of programming or computer science, except as
far as is necessary to support the specific techniques that it does
discuss.
The two books are directed at completely different audiences, and
serve very different purposes.
I've not read HOP, but I've read SICP, and I'd wager there are few other books that would do a better job of improving one's Ruby skills.
Ruby Reading List:
- Pick-axe
- Ruby for Rails
- SICP
And maybe start with SICP ...
The problem with starting with SICP (or "The Little Schemer", or any other Scheme book, for that matter) is that you may not *want* to learn another language -- ever. If you want to learn Ruby, do yourself a favor and start with a Ruby book.
Scheme (and Forth) are addicting as all get-out. They're hardly "gateway drugs" to other languages. BTW, I've looked at HOP a number of times but I've never wanted to buy it -- too many good Scheme books around.
···
On Oct 16, 9:36 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > My first intro to map, et al., was
> > "Higher-OrderPerl." (Basically aPerltranslation of "SICP.")
> It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.
Portions of HOP appear to have been directly translated, nearly word
for word, from the material in the SICP lectures.
I will assume that you did not intend to accuse me of plagiarism, and
just say that you are completely mistaken. What you say is
impossible. HOP was written and published before the SICP lectures
were publically available. I did not attend MIT. To this day I have
never seen the lectures.
I could be totally off.
You are totally off.
However the first few
chapters of HOP cover material nearly identical to the material in the
first few lectures, with near-identical examples and near-identical code.
Many of the early examples are quite standard and can be found in
many, many places. There must be dozens of books that begin their
discussion of recursion with factorial, towers of Hanoi, and Fibonacci
numbers. See, for example, Lawrence Paulson's book "ML for the
Working programmer", which (like SICP) was an inspiration for HOP.
I think even a casual comparison of the tables of contents of HOP and
SICP will reveal more differences than similarities.
As for the "near-identical code", I can't imagine what you might mean,
since the SICP code is
Scheme and the HOP code is Perl.
···
On Oct 25, 1:08 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
On 10/24/07, Mark Dominus <mjdomi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Oct 16, 9:36 am, "Giles Bowkett" <gil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > My first intro to map, et al., was
> > "Higher-OrderPerl." (Basically aPerltranslation of "SICP.")
> It really isn't very much like a Perl translation of SICP.
Portions of HOP appear to have been directly translated, nearly word
for word, from the material in the SICP lectures.
I will assume that you did not intend to accuse me of plagiarism, and
just say that you are completely mistaken. What you say is
impossible. HOP was written and published before the SICP lectures
were publically available. I did not attend MIT. To this day I have
never seen the lectures.
I could be totally off.
You are totally off.
However the first few chapters of HOP cover material nearly identical
to the material in the first few lectures, with near-identical
examples and near-identical code.
Many of the early examples are quite standard and can be found in
many, many places. There must be dozens of books that begin their
discussion of recursion with factorial, towers of Hanoi, and Fibonacci
numbers. See, for example, Lawrence Paulson's book "ML for the
Working programmer", which (like SICP) was an inspiration for HOP.
But I think even a casual comparison of the tables of contents of HOP
and SICP will reveal more differences than similarities. Both tables of
contents are on the web:
In Boston, with it's plentitude of colleges and universities, it's not
uncommon for grad students to moonlight. Joe was a Harvard classics
scholar who worked part time as a cab driver.
He once picked up a far at Logan Airport, a businessman from the
mid-west, travelling alone, on his first trip to Boston. Looking
forward to some good New England food, he eagerly asked Joe:
"By the way, where the best place in the area to get scrod?"
Joe, pondered this for a few seconds and then said: "You know, that's
the FIRST time anyone has ever asked me that in the pluperfect
subjunctive!"
···
On 10/16/07, Chris Carter <cdcarter@gmail.com> wrote:
On 10/16/07, Alex Young <alex@blackkettle.org> wrote:
> Jeremy McAnally wrote:
> > *sigh* Grammar nazi! That'll teach me to learn Latin, eh?
> >
> > Thanks for the suggestion; I think you're probably right about Ruby by
> > Example. It's a good book for guys who don't care about the minutia
> > of conditionals
> Minutiae, surely?
I'm thinking minutias here. Accusative plural. But it's been a while
I will assume that you did not intend to accuse me of plagiarism, and
just say that you are completely mistaken. What you say is
impossible. HOP was written and published before the SICP lectures
were publically available. I did not attend MIT. To this day I have
never seen the lectures.
> I could be totally off.
You are totally off.
Sorry! My bad. The similar examples in the early chapters must be due
to many of the standard examples ultimately deriving from the same
source. Calling HOP a SICP translation was intended as a compliment,
but if it's not accurate, then all it means is that if you want to
find the earliest instance of some of these standard examples that I
personally know of, that's where you should look.
