Looking for book reviewers

Hi, all.

Chris Pine is just finishing off the first draft of his "Learn to Program with Ruby" book (based on his incredibly successful web series), and I'm looking for reviewers.

However, before you all rush to sign up, there's a catch. I'm really looking for folks who are the book's target audience: folks with little or no programming experience who want to learn how to code. They'll probably be from mid teens on up, curious, and happy to give honest feedback as they go through the book.

So, if you know someone like that, and if they'd be interested in participating, have them drop me a line (dave@pragprog.com).

Thanks a lot

Dave

Dave,
I think I sort of fit this. My 11.5 y.o. son is ready to step past HTML,
and I've been wondering how to get him going with Ruby (we've already
had a couple of discussions and he seems to 'get it'). I'd love to work
with him on Chris' book.

Of course, if this doesn't fit your model, we'll just have to buy a copy when
it comes out.

-pate

···

On 10/4/05, Dave Thomas <dave@pragprog.com> wrote:

Hi, all.

Chris Pine is just finishing off the first draft of his "Learn to
Program with Ruby" book (based on his incredibly successful web
series), and I'm looking for reviewers.

However, before you all rush to sign up, there's a catch. I'm really
looking for folks who are the book's target audience: folks with
little or no programming experience who want to learn how to code.
They'll probably be from mid teens on up, curious, and happy to give
honest feedback as they go through the book.

So, if you know someone like that, and if they'd be interested in
participating, have them drop me a line (dave@pragprog.com).

Thanks a lot

Dave

--
thanks,
-pate
-------------------------

Oh, one more thing just occurred to me. If you're nominating someone under 13, please don't have them e-mail me directly. Instead, I'll need a parent or guardian to make the introduction.

Thanks

Dave

···

On Oct 4, 2005, at 11:27 AM, Dave Thomas wrote:

However, before you all rush to sign up, there's a catch. I'm really looking for folks who are the book's target audience: folks with little or no programming experience who want to learn how to code. They'll probably be from mid teens on up, curious, and happy to give honest feedback as they go through the book.

When I try to define this function with a syntax error in
the regular expression, ruby sometimes segfaults.
I'm using "ruby 1.8.3 (2005-05-12) [i686-linux]".

The obvious/easy workaround is to not have the syntax
error in the regexp :slight_smile: but I just figured I'd report
the less than perfect failure mode.

···

====================================================================================
irb(main):012:0*
irb(main):013:0*
irb(main):014:0* def ascleanstr(v)
    (v.class==String && v=~/\A\s*\Z/) ? nil :
    (v.class==Array && v[0].class==Fixnum) ? v.pack("C*").unpack("H*")[0] :
     v = v.to_s.strip.gsub(/\r/,"")
     v =~ v.length>3 && /\A[A-Z\#0-9 _\t\-\/(\)]*\Z\/ ?
         v.split(/[\t _]+/).map{|w| w=~/\d/ ? w : w.capitalize}.join(" ") :
         v
end

irb(main):015:1> irb(main):016:1* irb(main):017:1* irb(main):018:1> irb(main):019:1/ irb(main):020:0* (irb):19: warning: invalid character syntax; use ?\\
s
SyntaxError: compile error
(irb):19: premature end of regular expression: /\A[A-Z\#0-9 _\t\-\/(\)]*\Z\/ ?
         v.split(/
(irb):19: syntax error
         v.split(/[\t _]+/).map{|w| w=~/\d/ ? w : w.capitalize}.join(" ") :
                    ^
(irb):19: unmatched ): /).map{|w| w=~/
(irb):19: syntax error
         v.split(/[\t _]+/).map{|w| w=~/\d/ ? w : w.capitalize}.join(" ") :
                                         ^
(irb):19: syntax error
         v.split(/[\t _]+/).map{|w| w=~/\d/ ? w : w.capitalize}.join(" ") :
                                                               ^
(irb):19: syntax error
         from (irb):20
         from ^C:0
irb(main):021:0> SyntaxError: compile error
(irb):21: syntax error
         from (irb):21
         from ^C:0
irb(main):022:0> irb(main):023:0* def ascleanstr(v)
    (v.class==String && v=~/\A\s*\Z/) ? nil :
    (v.class==Array && v[0].class==Fixnum) ? v.pack("C*").unpack("H*")[0] :
     v = v.to_s.strip.gsub(/\r/,"")
     v =~ v.length>3 && /\A[A-Z\#0-9 _\t\-\/(\)]*\Z\/ ?
         v.split(/[\t _]+/).map{|w| w=~/\d/ ? w : w.capitalize}.join(" ") :
         v
end

free(): invalid pointer 0x8186ac0!
free(): invalid pointer 0x817a7d0!
free(): invalid pointer 0x8182bf8!
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/irb.rb:285: [BUG] Segmentation fault
ruby 1.8.3 (2005-05-12) [i686-linux]

Abort
greenie import/denton> ruby -version
ruby 1.8.3 (2005-05-12) [i686-linux]
-e:1: undefined local variable or method `rsion' for main:Object (NameError)
greenie import/denton>

I think you're talking about me! Ruby is my first programing language
ever. My boyfriend is a programmer-type, and when I showed an interest
he pointed me towards Chris Pine's tutorial online. I haven't done much
lately, as I'm back at school, but I keep meaning to, and this would be
a good reason to get back to it.

Hi Dave,

I picked up the Pragmatic Programmer some years ago simply because it
had a wood plane on the cover( I knew how to use a tablesaw and a
router well before a debugger). I now manage a team of 6 rookie
programmers who I have run through a course that I based on the
Pragmatic Programmer.

I've been using Ruby more and more for daily tasks (replacing Perl) and
have been, in general, working to get it more accepted and used where I
work.

While most on my team may now claim having 6-9 months of "real"
experience, they are still pretty young, so we might be a good
candidate group for you. If you're going for the level of the
Deitel&Deitel books ( C How to Program, etc ), while excellent
books!!!, that is definately more elementary than where we're at. If
that's the case you could kick us a Rails book though. I would bet that
one in our office would get 10 more bought in a hand full of months.

I'd also be more than happy to subject my team to any type of
ruby/rails experiment that we could dream up. Maybe something like
subject 6 rookie programmers to a new language and then get their take
on how they felt about it.

We're the content engineering team at simplyhired.com.

cheers,
Daniel

Dave Thomas wrote:

···

Hi, all.

Chris Pine is just finishing off the first draft of his "Learn to
Program with Ruby" book (based on his incredibly successful web
series), and I'm looking for reviewers.

However, before you all rush to sign up, there's a catch. I'm really
looking for folks who are the book's target audience: folks with
little or no programming experience who want to learn how to code.
They'll probably be from mid teens on up, curious, and happy to give
honest feedback as they go through the book.

So, if you know someone like that, and if they'd be interested in
participating, have them drop me a line (dave@pragprog.com).

Thanks a lot

Dave

doh! I hate hitting the send button before adjusting the To: line.

···

On 10/4/05, pat eyler <pat.eyler@gmail.com> wrote:

Dave,
I think I sort of fit this. My 11.5 y.o. son is ready to step past HTML,
and I've been wondering how to get him going with Ruby (we've already
had a couple of discussions and he seems to 'get it'). I'd love to work
with him on Chris' book.

Of course, if this doesn't fit your model, we'll just have to buy a copy when
it comes out.

-pate

On 10/4/05, Dave Thomas <dave@pragprog.com> wrote:
> Hi, all.
>
> Chris Pine is just finishing off the first draft of his "Learn to
> Program with Ruby" book (based on his incredibly successful web
> series), and I'm looking for reviewers.
>
> However, before you all rush to sign up, there's a catch. I'm really
> looking for folks who are the book's target audience: folks with
> little or no programming experience who want to learn how to code.
> They'll probably be from mid teens on up, curious, and happy to give
> honest feedback as they go through the book.
>
> So, if you know someone like that, and if they'd be interested in
> participating, have them drop me a line (dave@pragprog.com).
>
> Thanks a lot
>
>
> Dave
>
>

--
thanks,
-pate
-------------------------

--
thanks,
-pate
-------------------------

Hi,

I've missed your article until it'd happend to be discovered,
because you posted it as a reply to an unrelated thread.

At Wed, 5 Oct 2005 02:56:10 +0900,
Ron M wrote in [ruby-talk:159019]:

When I try to define this function with a syntax error in
the regular expression, ruby sometimes segfaults.
I'm using "ruby 1.8.3 (2005-05-12) [i686-linux]".

It might be:

  date: 2005-05-23 12:24:28 +0900; author: matz; state: Exp; lines: +2 -1
  * re.c (make_regexp): should not return junk address during
    compile time. [ruby-dev:26206]

···

--
Nobu Nakada

I personally liked hearing about a young potential new Rubyist.
Starting at 11 he could be quite a formidable Ruby programmer by the
time he graduated high school.

Ryan

···

On 10/4/05, pat eyler <pat.eyler@gmail.com> wrote:

doh! I hate hitting the send button before adjusting the To: line.