### Author:  [@Lyle\_Johnson3](https://rubytalk.org/u/Lyle_Johnson3)
#### Post date: [31 January 2005 13:25 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendable-ruby-books/16158/3 "2005-01-31T13:25:05Z")
It is rumored that Dave Thomas is working on a book on Rails. Maybe
he's even said that out loud, which would make it somewhat less of a
"rumor" and more of a "fact". A lot of us are anxiously awaiting that
book. 😉
> **···**
>
> On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 19:54:23 +0900, Tom Rathbone \ wrote:
>
> > Are both books up to date? Does anyone recommend any others? I'm
> > especially interested in Rails and any book that could give a greater
> > insight into the framework and the implementation and techniques would
> > be great.
---
### Author:  [@Brian\_McCallister1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Brian_McCallister1)
#### Post date: [31 January 2005 14:56 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendable-ruby-books/16158/4 "2005-01-31T14:56:17Z")
/The Ruby Way/, Hal Fulton
Quite good in my opinion, captures the spirit of ruby very well
/Programming Ruby, 2nd Ed/ (Pickaxe 2), Dave Thomas & Andy Hunt
Most up to date and probably the best general reference available
-Brian
> **···**
>
> On Jan 31, 2005, at 5:54 AM, Tom Rathbone wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > Thinking of buy some literature to accelerate my learning Ruby. What
> > would people recommend?
> >
> > The two I am looking at presently are the frequently mentioned
> > Pragmatic Programmer's Guide (a.k.a the pickaxe book) and The Ruby Way
> > which Matz seems to appreciate judging from the Foreword.
> >
> > Are both books up to date? Does anyone recommend any others? I'm
> > especially interested in Rails and any book that could give a greater
> > insight into the framework and the implementation and techniques would
> > be great.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Tom.
---
### Author:  [@Mike\_Woodhouse](https://rubytalk.org/u/Mike_Woodhouse)
#### Post date: [31 January 2005 15:50 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendable-ruby-books/16158/5 "2005-01-31T15:50:51Z")
Oh my, yes - the first Rails book will be a godsend! If Dave's not
writing it, someone else had better oughta be. If no-one at all is
writing it, I'll volunteer ("Learn Rails in 24 hours" anyone?) although
it won't be very good... 😉
---
### Author:  [@James\_G\_Britt](https://rubytalk.org/u/James_G_Britt)
#### Post date: [31 January 2005 16:05 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendable-ruby-books/16158/6 "2005-01-31T16:05:27Z")
What difficulties do you (or anyone, for that matter) have with Rails
that you think a book is needed?
Do people find it that complex?
James
> **···**
>
> On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 00:50:51 +0900, mikewoodhouse@gmail.com \ wrote:
>
> > Oh my, yes - the first Rails book will be a godsend!
---
### Author:  [@Curt\_Hibbs3](https://rubytalk.org/u/Curt_Hibbs3)
#### Post date: [31 January 2005 16:16 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendable-ruby-books/16158/7 "2005-01-31T16:16:13Z")
mikewoodhouse@gmail.com wrote:
> Oh my, yes - the first Rails book will be a godsend! If Dave's not
> writing it, someone else had better oughta be. If no-one at all is
> writing it, I'll volunteer ("Learn Rails in 24 hours" anyone?) although
> it won't be very good... 😉
Yes, Dave \*is\* working on an intro to rails book.
Curt
---
### Author:  [@Thomas\_Kirchner](https://rubytalk.org/u/Thomas_Kirchner)
#### Post date: [31 January 2005 16:33 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendable-ruby-books/16158/8 "2005-01-31T16:33:16Z")
\* On Feb 1 1:05, James G. Britt (ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org) thusly jotted:
> What difficulties do you (or anyone, for that matter) have with Rails
> that you think a book is needed?
>
> Do people find it that complex?
Personally, I think a book by Dave would be great for the Rails
community because of his way with pragmatism 😉
I think a lot of people have trouble starting out with Rails not because
of the implementation, but because that style of development is unfamiliar,
effective though it is. Dave does really well, imho, showing off a
technology's practical virtues at the same time as teaching it fluently.
Seeing something like Basecamp (and Ta-da lists by extension) is great for
Rails' popularity, and knowing how simple Ruby and Rails make such things
is astounding, but we still need to wrap developer's heads around the new
concepts, especially when their background involves implementing
everything manually.
Tom
---
### Author:  [@Belorion](https://rubytalk.org/u/Belorion)
#### Post date: [31 January 2005 16:35 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/recommendable-ruby-books/16158/9 "2005-01-31T16:35:20Z")
> What difficulties do you (or anyone, for that matter) have with Rails
> that you think a book is needed?
>
> Do people find it that complex?
IMHO, Getting a basic rails app up and running is not diffiicult...
just look at Curt's wonderful tutorial on Onlamp
([Radar – O’Reilly](http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/20/rails.html%5C)). But there
seem to be a lot of nuiances and tricks that can be used that are not
immediately apparent to a new rails user.
A book could address a lot of issues, such as advanced configuration
(such as webrick vs. apache, mod\_ruby vs fastcgi, etc.), debugging
(such as with using breakpoints), an in depth description of how Rails
handles sessions (so one can use it properly with the right amount of
security), proper deployment of rails (for example, what's the best
way to deploy multiple Rails apps on a single account?), unit testing
on a web framework... I would personally find a Rails book extremely
useful.