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Eloquent Ruby
(Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series)
by
It's easy to write correct Ruby code, but to gain the fluency needed to write great Ruby code, you must go beyond syntax and absorb the "Ruby way" of thinking and problem solving. In Eloquent Ruby, Russ Olsen helps you write Ruby like true Rubyists do-so you can leverage its immense, surprising power. Olsen draws on years of experience internalizing the Ruby culture and
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Paperback, 413 pages
Published
February 21st 2011
by Addison-Wesley Professional
(first published January 27th 2011)
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Eloquent Ruby takes a ride through 30 topics about Ruby, from how the Ruby community idents code to Metaprogramming and how to publish a Gem to RubyGems.
I really liked the flow of the book, it's not dense at all and it's full of examples. This is the type of books that I like to read: 300-400 pages, easy to start and easy to finish :).
I think it's a great book for someone who has done some ruby before, but who doesn't feel comfortable with the language yet.
I think it might be an excellent ...more
I really liked the flow of the book, it's not dense at all and it's full of examples. This is the type of books that I like to read: 300-400 pages, easy to start and easy to finish :).
I think it's a great book for someone who has done some ruby before, but who doesn't feel comfortable with the language yet.
I think it might be an excellent ...more

Just finished this - the first programming book I've ever read from start to finish. Russ Olsen does an amazing job making the subject interesting and digestible. As I got through the Metaprogramming chapters I really started feeling like I was *getting* it ... like I was leveling up my skills.
Can't wait to put some of these new concepts and tricks into practice.
Can't wait to put some of these new concepts and tricks into practice.

If any of my friends asked me if "Eloquent Ruby" was a good way to start their journey with Ruby, I'd rather say "no". This book starts really innocently, with explanations of many subjects commonly considered as "easy". It gives a good insight about Ruby, how ceratain features of both Ruby and Rails (and many more live examples are mentioned as well) work. It also focused in introducing blocks, procs and other Ruby-related subjects.
But starting from somewhere around middle of the book, every ...more
But starting from somewhere around middle of the book, every ...more

121. "First, each method should do a single thing—focus on solving a single aspect of the problem. By concentrating on one thing, your methods are not only easier to write, they are also easier to understand.
Second, each method needs to operate at a single conceptual level: Simply put, don’t mix high-level logic with the nitty-gritty details. A method that implements the business logic around, say, currency conversions, should not suddenly veer off into the details of how the various accounts ...more
Second, each method needs to operate at a single conceptual level: Simply put, don’t mix high-level logic with the nitty-gritty details. A method that implements the business logic around, say, currency conversions, should not suddenly veer off into the details of how the various accounts ...more

This book is a true gem! Mostly written for people coming to Ruby from other programming languages, Russ Olsen doesn't dwell on banalities, but instead teaches you good, idiomatic Ruby. The presented material is excellent and the writing is witty and clever. If you are new to programming this is probably not the best book for you, but if you have experience in some other language or "just" want to get more fluent in Ruby, "Eloquent Ruby" is hard to beat.

The best Ruby book I've read so far. Probably suits best for "intermediate" Ruby developers wanting to learn bits about implementing DSLs, metaprogramming, enumerators and just plain old object oriented Ruby. Chapter about regular expressions explained the stuff better than many regexp books do. Very, well, written.

This is a very good book on what is a rather difficult topic. The idea of "eloquence" is broad and opinionated and at first I thought the author was going to be covering very basic stuff that was easy to pick up. Early on there were a lot of "best practices" that it didn't seem like you could even learn Ruby without absorbing at some point. And the (contrived, but of course) example seemed like it might be too broad and vague to hang your hat on.
A lot of tech books are content to rehash basic ...more
A lot of tech books are content to rehash basic ...more

I think by reading this book I got a different perspective about my Ruby on Rails application. During my 3 years of professional career I had never implemented something using a ruby block, but while reading this book I did implement a custom iterator using ruby blocks. Moreover, this book has given me more confidence for reading out the source code of various gems and libraries.

This book is divided into four parts labeled:
1) The Basics
2) Classes, Modules, and Blocks
3) Metaprogramming
4) Pulling It All Together
Rating them individually I'd give five stars to the first two, three stars to the third & two in the fourth for an overall average, rounded up, of four.
I felt like the first two sections provided an incredible foundation to the syntax of the language. Highly recommended. These sections alone justify the purchase of the book.
The material presented in the ...more
1) The Basics
2) Classes, Modules, and Blocks
3) Metaprogramming
4) Pulling It All Together
Rating them individually I'd give five stars to the first two, three stars to the third & two in the fourth for an overall average, rounded up, of four.
I felt like the first two sections provided an incredible foundation to the syntax of the language. Highly recommended. These sections alone justify the purchase of the book.
The material presented in the ...more

Wow! This book was perfect for me. It is expected that you have programming knowledge and get the general ideas of how to write good code, but need to know how to do it well in Ruby.
I love the layout of each chapter, in that I feel it generally covers well why each feature is useful and how to avoid impaling yourself on the sharp stick of Ruby with said feature.
The writing was entertaining though a bit rough in a few places. It has the feel of a book that has been aggressively edited down to ...more
I love the layout of each chapter, in that I feel it generally covers well why each feature is useful and how to avoid impaling yourself on the sharp stick of Ruby with said feature.
The writing was entertaining though a bit rough in a few places. It has the feel of a book that has been aggressively edited down to ...more

i have read chapter 1-4,it teach me some ruby characters,and some basic knowlege for ruby,but not important for me to consider how to write good program and mainable program.so if you don't be actually want to be ruby programmer,just scan these chapters.
chapter 8 is surprising.it tell me ruby is not dynamic type which is more important different than java.the chapter should be read twice.
now i just give it 3 stars,util i finish all chapters.
i think the book is not suit for novice of ruby,it ...more
chapter 8 is surprising.it tell me ruby is not dynamic type which is more important different than java.the chapter should be read twice.
now i just give it 3 stars,util i finish all chapters.
i think the book is not suit for novice of ruby,it ...more

I slowly read through the book and this was my second attempt at reading it. Olsen's style is wonderful and keeps the content he is covering interesting.
He covers many subjects that even an experienced developer will find useful. Also it reminded me about so many features in ruby that I don't get to use every day.
Sadly the book is a little out of date and talks mostly about 1.8.7 and YARV (1.9). It would be wonderful to see a revised version come out. But even without that it's a book you can ...more
He covers many subjects that even an experienced developer will find useful. Also it reminded me about so many features in ruby that I don't get to use every day.
Sadly the book is a little out of date and talks mostly about 1.8.7 and YARV (1.9). It would be wonderful to see a revised version come out. But even without that it's a book you can ...more

The perfect blend between Blacks "Wellgrounded Rubyist" and Perrottas "Metaprogramming Ruby". I especially liked all the real world examples from well known frameworks and tools ranging from rake, rspec to rails and cucumber. The only chapter that felt a bit disconnected from the rest, was the chapter on the various Ruby runtimes, though it was certainly interesting. If you're new to Ruby (like I am) I can only recommend reading this book, it's worth the time!!!

An excellent book overall, Olsen's conversational style combines with solid Ruby expertise to great effect. The examples are useful and illustrate his points well without cluttering up the text. He also gives lots of real world examples of the things he mentions, which makes it even more clear how his techniques are actually applied.
Highly recommended, even for developers who already know Ruby - there's a lot to learn here.
Highly recommended, even for developers who already know Ruby - there's a lot to learn here.

If you're looking for a book that would introduce you to Ruby when you're coming from other languages, this is it. Very clear and eloquent (!) writing, very easy to follow and understand.
I particularly appreciate that the author went into different Ruby parsers and elaborated at least a little on how C/Java under the hood work.
I particularly appreciate that the author went into different Ruby parsers and elaborated at least a little on how C/Java under the hood work.

For me, this is the golden standard of how books about programming should be written. Every chapter is informative, short and full of great tips and guidelines. Reading this book will grant you a deeper understanding of the Ruby programming language, as well as quite a few laughs. Can't recommend it enough.
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