Hi guys!
My first book, "Beginning Ruby", published by Apress, has been released.
It's available at all the usual places now. Amazon seems to have the best
price at $26.39ish (
http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Ruby-Professional-Peter-Cooper/dp/1590597664/),
but officially I should probably point you towards the official book
site
which has some sample chapters, why the lucky stiff's excellent foreword,
and the option to buy the PDF version at a lower price. See:
http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10244
The book lives up to its name. It's not an advanced Ruby book.. it doesn't
cover oblique metaprogramming, higher order messages, or even the production
of chunky bacon. It is, however, a pretty good start for someone who's just
started to use Ruby or who is right at the bottom of the programming ladder.
It covers things like object orientation and programming concepts in an
introductory, but heavily Ruby-tainted, way.. so that people who read it can
then move on to the Pickaxe and The Ruby Way with no fear of drowning.
I hope I'm not shooting myself in the foot, but Beginning Ruby is the
"boring" introductory book that many newcomers will find reassuring before
getting to experience the joys of other Ruby publishing efforts. I mean.. it
took me months before I got to appreciate chunky bacon!
There's more information in the announcement at Ruby Inside here:
http://www.rubyinside.com/my-book-beginning-ruby-published-today-437.html
I'm planning to make some posts about how the book is going, how I'm
promoting it, and how everything works out in the near future. I want more
people to write Ruby books, and hopefully a little inspiration never hurts.
Cheers,
Peter Cooper
http://www.rubyinside.com/