If you’ve ever bought a learning ruby book, there’s a good chance it was the “pickaxe book” – Dave Thomas’ “Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmers’ Guide”. I’ve read it myself and it is as billed, an excellent book to learn Ruby from.
However, I’m actually finding that Hal Fulton’s book, The Ruby Way is a better read for me. I’m coming from Java and while the Pragmatic book will set you on your way to learning the ruby syntax and some idioms, it doesn’t do much more than that. I need to see how to use Ruby, concrete examples of common problems and how to solve them. I have no doubt that this need stems from my own ignorance and not on the lack of merit of the pragmatic book, but it has been my experience none-the-less. So, if you’re pining for more Ruby lovin’ after reading the pragmatic guide, give the Ruby Way a try, it may be the book that fills that void in your life.
