I'm thinking of picking up these two books and was wondering if anyone
here had any experience with these. If so how would you rate these
two publications? Do you have other preferred books that deal with
these topics in depth?
Links for those who haven't heard of them:
http://pragprog.com/book/ager/exceptional-ruby
http://pragprog.com/book/ppmetr/metaprogramming-ruby
The metaprogramming book is fantastic. I can only imagine the exceptional
ruby book being fantastic as well. Avdi really knows his stuff
Andrew McElroy
TryRuby.org
On Aug 8, 2011 8:43 PM, "Kevin" <darkintent@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm thinking of picking up these two books and was wondering if anyone
here had any experience with these. If so how would you rate these
two publications? Do you have other preferred books that deal with
these topics in depth?
I've read Metaprogramming Ruby. I'd probably give it 3.5 stars. It was good,
but didn't need to be as long as it was, and I didn't feel that the "story"
added anything (in fact, I was often annoyed by the snarky coworker). I
didn't think it did a good enough job making the object model clear (I later
went back to look at the diagrams, and couldn't really make sense of them),
but I did have several moments of clarity while reading it, and at one point
realized "oh, it's so simple".
The code examples are pretty good, and it does a good job of covering a
topic that can be confusing to the uninitiated. If you've found yourself
evaling code written in a string, after giving up on trying to do it all in
Ruby, then you are probably in a good place to learn a lot from this book.
If you don't know what a singleton class is, or don't feel comfortable with
it, then you'll probably get a lot out of this book.
There are also a set of screencasts by Dave Thomas that cover this material,
which I also enjoyed.
http://pragprog.com/screencasts/v-dtrubyom/the-ruby-object-model-and-metaprogramming
On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 8:42 PM, Kevin <darkintent@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm thinking of picking up these two books and was wondering if anyone
here had any experience with these. If so how would you rate these
two publications? Do you have other preferred books that deal with
these topics in depth?
Haven't read exceptional ruby, but metaprogramming ruby is very good. Probably one of my top two ruby books. Second is probably ruby best practices.
Sent from my finger. Forgve typoos
On Aug 8, 2011, at 9:47 PM, andrew mcelroy <sophrinix@gmail.com> wrote:
On Aug 8, 2011 8:43 PM, "Kevin" <darkintent@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm thinking of picking up these two books and was wondering if anyone
here had any experience with these. If so how would you rate these
two publications? Do you have other preferred books that deal with
these topics in depth?The metaprogramming book is fantastic. I can only imagine the exceptional
ruby book being fantastic as well. Avdi really knows his stuffAndrew McElroy
TryRuby.org
Josh Cheek wrote in post #1015615:
I
didn't think it did a good enough job making the object model clear (I
later
went back to look at the diagrams, and couldn't really make sense of
them),
Opposite opinion here. If you didn't understand the authors
description's and diagrams, I don't see how you could ever understand
ruby's object model.
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.
Like Ian and Andrew, I really liked Metaprogramming Ruby and have not
read Exceptional Ruby. As Ian mentioned, Ruby Best Practices is also
excellent.
The original question was about "preferred books" about "these topics",
by which I suspect you mean exceptions and metaprogramming. I have found
that, perhaps surprisingly, Eloquent Ruby is actually a stellar
introduction to metaprogramming in Ruby -- so stellar, in fact, that even
after doing some metaprogramming in Ruby from time to time it should
still be a great (re)introduction to the subject. I'd add it to your
list of choices for metaprogramming in Ruby, along with Metaprogramming
Ruby and (to a notably lesser extent) Ruby Best Practices.
--
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
I got a lot more out of reading this blog post (
http://carboni.ca/blog/p/Modules-How-Do-They-Work\) and doing a few
experiments to cover what isn't in it's domain than I did trying to decipher
the Metaprogramming Ruby diagrams.
On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 1:55 AM, 7stud -- <bbxx789_05ss@yahoo.com> wrote:
Josh Cheek wrote in post #1015615:
> I
> didn't think it did a good enough job making the object model clear (I
> later
> went back to look at the diagrams, and couldn't really make sense of
> them),
>Opposite opinion here. If you didn't understand the authors
description's and diagrams, I don't see how you could ever understand
ruby's object model.--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.
Some people just don't do well with diagrams in cases like this, I think.
On Tue, Aug 09, 2011 at 03:55:26PM +0900, 7stud -- wrote:
Josh Cheek wrote in post #1015615:
>
> I didn't think it did a good enough job making the object model clear
> (I later went back to look at the diagrams, and couldn't really make
> sense of them),Opposite opinion here. If you didn't understand the authors
description's and diagrams, I don't see how you could ever understand
ruby's object model.
--
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
Maybe you are overthinking it.
Watch Dave Thomas' "The Ruby Object Model" presentation given at
Scotland on Rails 2009:
On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 8:55 AM, 7stud -- <bbxx789_05ss@yahoo.com> wrote:
Opposite opinion here. If you didn't understand the authors
description's and diagrams, I don't see how you could ever understand
ruby's object model.
--
Phillip Gawlowski
phgaw.posterous.com | twitter.com/phgaw | gplus.to/phgaw
A method of solution is perfect if we can forsee from the start,
and even prove, that following that method we shall attain our aim.
-- Leibniz
The Pickaxe, which is honestly the best Ruby book that exists (despite its
formidable size), also has a chapter about metaprogramming. As it's less
than 50 pages long, you might start there.
On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 12:03 AM, Chad Perrin <code@apotheon.net> wrote:
The original question was about "preferred books" about "these topics",
by which I suspect you mean exceptions and metaprogramming. I have found
that, perhaps surprisingly, Eloquent Ruby is actually a stellar
introduction to metaprogramming in Ruby -- so stellar, in fact, that even
after doing some metaprogramming in Ruby from time to time it should
still be a great (re)introduction to the subject. I'd add it to your
list of choices for metaprogramming in Ruby, along with Metaprogramming
Ruby and (to a notably lesser extent) Ruby Best Practices.
The pickaxe, I has it. 
I'm reading it straight through now in fact.
On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 1:52 AM, Josh Cheek <josh.cheek@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 12:03 AM, Chad Perrin <code@apotheon.net> wrote:
The original question was about "preferred books" about "these topics",
by which I suspect you mean exceptions and metaprogramming. I have found
that, perhaps surprisingly, Eloquent Ruby is actually a stellar
introduction to metaprogramming in Ruby -- so stellar, in fact, that even
after doing some metaprogramming in Ruby from time to time it should
still be a great (re)introduction to the subject. I'd add it to your
list of choices for metaprogramming in Ruby, along with Metaprogramming
Ruby and (to a notably lesser extent) Ruby Best Practices.The Pickaxe, which is honestly the best Ruby book that exists (despite its
formidable size), also has a chapter about metaprogramming. As it's less
than 50 pages long, you might start there.