Rails book wanted for non Ruby programmer

ruby-talk
1

Hi,

I am very interested to see what Rails is all about, and am looking for a
good book that covers Rails well and possible has a reference for it too. I
do not know Ruby but am familular with Javascript and PHP.

Is there a good book for me ? I may also get a book on Ruby if really
recomended too.

Many thanks in advance,

Aaron

2

Searching www.amazon.co.uk for "rails php" (without the quotation
marks) turns up two books on rails for PHP users. I've not used
them so can't comment. Other online bookshops could be worth a look,
too.

        HTH
        Hugh

···

On Fri, 7 Nov 2008, Aaron Gray wrote:

Hi,

I am very interested to see what Rails is all about, and am looking for a
good book that covers Rails well and possible has a reference for it too. I
do not know Ruby but am familular with Javascript and PHP.

3

Aaron Gray wrote:

Hi,

I am very interested to see what Rails is all about, and am looking for a good book that covers Rails well and possible has a reference for it too. I do not know Ruby but am familular with Javascript and PHP.

Is there a good book for me ? I may also get a book on Ruby if really recomended too.

Many thanks in advance,

Aaron

This is probably a bad idea. Rails is written in Ruby. Rails uses many features of the Ruby language. Rails cannot be used effectively without knowing Ruby. Ruby is not just a scripting language used to control what's going in, if you view it that way you're going to get yourself into trouble.

I'd recommend picking up a book on Ruby and learning the language independent of Rails first. You don't have to master it, just be sure you know all the features and can write programs fairly well. Then move on to Rails.

4

Aaron Gray wrote:

Is there a good book for me ? I may also get a book on Ruby if really
recomended too.

Along with Rupert I also recommend The Pragmatic Programmers Agile Web
Development with Rails, but watch your editions. The Third edition, not
yet published, is for Rails 2.0*. As far as I know, this will be the
first Rails 2.0 book available.
This book gives you enough Ruby to make Rails work, and if you already
have some Java and PHP and access to Google you should do fine.

*I got a PDF of the beta release when I pre-purchased the book from the
Pragmatic website http://www.pragprog.com.

···

--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

5

"Hugh Sasse" <hgs@dmu.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:alpine.LFD.2.00.0811071528350.26471@trueman.cs.cse.dmu.ac.uk...

···

On Fri, 7 Nov 2008, Aaron Gray wrote:

Hi,

I am very interested to see what Rails is all about, and am looking for a
good book that covers Rails well and possible has a reference for it too.
I
do not know Ruby but am familular with Javascript and PHP.

Searching www.amazon.co.uk for "rails php" (without the quotation
marks) turns up two books on rails for PHP users. I've not used
them so can't comment. Other online bookshops could be worth a look,
too.

Yeah, I really would prefer a) a book that is not tainted by PHP references
(should have said) b) is recomended by a reader.

Thanks,

Aaron

6

Aaron Gray wrote:
> Is there a good book for me ? I may also get a book on Ruby if really
> recomended too.

Along with Rupert I also recommend The Pragmatic Programmers Agile Web
Development with Rails, but watch your editions. The Third edition, not
yet published, is for Rails 2.0*. As far as I know, this will be the
first Rails 2.0 book available.

SitePoint's Simply Rails 2 is available and it uses Rails 2. It is the book
I'm using to learn RoR.

···

On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 2:31 AM, John Goetz <goetz.john@gmail.com> wrote:

This book gives you enough Ruby to make Rails work, and if you already
have some Java and PHP and access to Google you should do fine.

*I got a PDF of the beta release when I pre-purchased the book from the
Pragmatic website http://www.pragprog.com.
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

7

What programming experience do you have?

Thanks,
Dan

···

-----Original Message-----
From: Aaron Gray [mailto:ang.usenet@gmail.com]
Sent: 07 November 2008 15:38
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: Rails book wanted for non Ruby programmer

"Hugh Sasse" <hgs@dmu.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:alpine.LFD.2.00.0811071528350.26471@trueman.cs.cse.dmu.ac.uk...

On Fri, 7 Nov 2008, Aaron Gray wrote:

Hi,

I am very interested to see what Rails is all about, and am looking

for a

good book that covers Rails well and possible has a reference for it

too.

I
do not know Ruby but am familular with Javascript and PHP.

Searching www.amazon.co.uk for "rails php" (without the quotation
marks) turns up two books on rails for PHP users. I've not used
them so can't comment. Other online bookshops could be worth a look,
too.

Yeah, I really would prefer a) a book that is not tainted by PHP
references
(should have said) b) is recomended by a reader.

Thanks,

Aaron

8

I started off with the Pragmatic Programmers "Agile Web Development
with Rails". It goes through the building of a sample application and
has a pretty good reference section in it too. (I've not tried any
other rails starter books so can't offer any comparisons)

Although I do agree with Michael in that learning ruby is a good idea
first, if you have good programming experience and aren't wanting to
build a complex site to start off with then you can get away with not
worrying too much about learning ruby first. However, your code is
not likely to be particularly great - it's likely to be more like php
written in a ruby syntax rather than nicely honed ruby. If you're not
too concerned about this and happy to learn to improve your ruby as
you go along then I'd say dive in. But to understand what the
framework is doing or to write decent code for your app then learning
ruby itself is essential. Be prepared to have to do a major re-write
of any site you've developed pre-learning-ruby once you've started to
understand it better.

I (and I imagine many others) started by playing with rails, then fell
in love with ruby, then started on the path towards ruby
enlightenment.

Hope this helps

Rupert

···

2008/11/7 Aaron Gray <ang.usenet@gmail.com>:

Yeah, I really would prefer a) a book that is not tainted by PHP references
(should have said) b) is recomended by a reader.

9

David Black's "Ruby for Rails" is a good way for people developing Rails apps to get a better understanding of Ruby the language.

Mike

···

--
Mike Stok <mike@stok.ca>
http://www.stok.ca/~mike/
The "'Stok' disclaimers" apply.

On 7-Nov-08, at 15:18, "Rupert Voelcker" <rupert@rupespad.com> wrote:

2008/11/7 Aaron Gray <ang.usenet@gmail.com>:

Yeah, I really would prefer a) a book that is not tainted by PHP references
(should have said) b) is recomended by a reader.

I started off with the Pragmatic Programmers "Agile Web Development
with Rails". It goes through the building of a sample application and
has a pretty good reference section in it too. (I've not tried any
other rails starter books so can't offer any comparisons)

Although I do agree with Michael in that learning ruby is a good idea
first, if you have good programming experience and aren't wanting to
build a complex site to start off with then you can get away with not
worrying too much about learning ruby first. However, your code is
not likely to be particularly great - it's likely to be more like php
written in a ruby syntax rather than nicely honed ruby. If you're not
too concerned about this and happy to learn to improve your ruby as
you go along then I'd say dive in. But to understand what the
framework is doing or to write decent code for your app then learning
ruby itself is essential. Be prepared to have to do a major re-write
of any site you've developed pre-learning-ruby once you've started to
understand it better.

I (and I imagine many others) started by playing with rails, then fell
in love with ruby, then started on the path towards ruby
enlightenment.

Hope this helps

Rupert

10

"Ruby for Rails" is horribly outdated and perhaps not the best approach to
the problem. He is working on a new book though.

···

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 3:41 PM, Mike Stok <mike@stok.ca> wrote:

David Black's "Ruby for Rails" is a good way for people developing Rails
apps to get a better understanding of Ruby the language.

Mike

--
Mike Stok <mike@stok.ca>
Mike Stok <http://www.stok.ca/~mike/&gt;
The "'Stok' disclaimers" apply.

On 7-Nov-08, at 15:18, "Rupert Voelcker" <rupert@rupespad.com> wrote:

2008/11/7 Aaron Gray <ang.usenet@gmail.com>:

Yeah, I really would prefer a) a book that is not tainted by PHP
references
(should have said) b) is recomended by a reader.

I started off with the Pragmatic Programmers "Agile Web Development
with Rails". It goes through the building of a sample application and
has a pretty good reference section in it too. (I've not tried any
other rails starter books so can't offer any comparisons)

Although I do agree with Michael in that learning ruby is a good idea
first, if you have good programming experience and aren't wanting to
build a complex site to start off with then you can get away with not
worrying too much about learning ruby first. However, your code is
not likely to be particularly great - it's likely to be more like php
written in a ruby syntax rather than nicely honed ruby. If you're not
too concerned about this and happy to learn to improve your ruby as
you go along then I'd say dive in. But to understand what the
framework is doing or to write decent code for your app then learning
ruby itself is essential. Be prepared to have to do a major re-write
of any site you've developed pre-learning-ruby once you've started to
understand it better.

I (and I imagine many others) started by playing with rails, then fell
in love with ruby, then started on the path towards ruby
enlightenment.

Hope this helps

Rupert