Thought I might as well announce this "officially" as many people know it already.
The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
To summarize: About 100 pages deleted, about 250 pages added. Updated from 1.6.8 to 1.8.4 (or thereabout).
If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to make them.
I can't cover everything, but I want to cover the important and interesting stuff (as time and space permit). If you see it in the "keyword soup" below, it's under consideration. If you think I've forgotten something important, please tell me in email.
Thanks, Hal Fulton
Keyword soup: Rockit racc rbison io/nonblock readpartial StringIO csv Oniguruma Madeleine Oracle DBI LDAP ORMs (AR, Og, etc.) define_method const_missing JTTUI Qt One-click installer EXERB imap pop3 SSL ssh tunnelling OpenURI NNTP WEBrick Redcloth Bluecloth etc. fastcgi Ruby on Rails Nitro amrita borges cgi-kit narf cerise SOAP REST WebDAV XML-RPC Okay (YAML) Rinda and Ring CORBA REXML irb Test::Unit xmp pp rcov generator enumerator OSX KirbyBase Cocoa YAML iCal etc. vCard RSS RDF RMagick Flash (Alph) PDF Rake mkmf extconf.rb SWIG Ruby/DL CVS Subversion gnuplot Mozilla Java .NET RDoc RubyGems setup.rb RAA RubyForge ri vim emacs Scite FreeRIDE RDE ArachnoRuby Komodo Eclipse Blog tools Wiki tools RCRs
On 12/14/05, rubyhac...@gmail.com <rubyhac...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, all.
> The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition > of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
Congrats
> I can't cover everything, but I want to cover the important and > interesting > stuff (as time and space permit). If you see it in the "keyword soup" > below, it's under consideration. If you think I've forgotten something > important, please tell me in email.
CommandLine and its children: Application, Option, OptionParser and OptionData.
On Dec 14, 2005, at 5:03 PM, rubyhac...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hello, all.
> Thought I might as well announce this "officially" as many people > know it already.
> The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition > of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
This is just fantastic news. The old version is quite out of date and yet still my second favorite Ruby book!
> Keyword soup: > ...csv...
I realize this is tooting my own horn, but it would be great if FasterCSV[1] made it in there if only as a footnote. I know it's not a standard library, but it reads and writes just fine and is almost 9 times faster than the standard library. This might be important since I've seen multiple complaints about CSV speed here and on Ruby Core.
I'm also hard at work adding cool new features to it that should be in long before the book is ready. Features not yet is CSV. :)
End advertisement. We now return you to your regular programming.
> Thought I might as well announce this "officially" as many people > know it already.
> The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition > of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
> To summarize: About 100 pages deleted, about 250 pages added. > Updated from 1.6.8 to 1.8.4 (or thereabout).
> If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to make them.
> I can't cover everything, but I want to cover the important and > interesting > stuff (as time and space permit). If you see it in the "keyword soup" > below, it's under consideration. If you think I've forgotten something > important, please tell me in email.
> On 12/14/05, rubyhac...@gmail.com <rubyhac...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hello, all.
> > Thought I might as well announce this "officially" as many people > > know it already.
> > The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition > > of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
> > To summarize: About 100 pages deleted, about 250 pages added. > > Updated from 1.6.8 to 1.8.4 (or thereabout).
> > If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to make them.
> > I can't cover everything, but I want to cover the important and > > interesting > > stuff (as time and space permit). If you see it in the "keyword soup" > > below, it's under consideration. If you think I've forgotten something > > important, please tell me in email.
> On Dec 14, 2005, at 5:03 PM, rubyhac...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Hello, all.
> > Thought I might as well announce this "officially" as many people > > know it already.
> > The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition > > of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
> This is just fantastic news. The old version is quite out of date > and yet still my second favorite Ruby book!
> > Keyword soup: > > ...csv...
> I realize this is tooting my own horn, but it would be great if > FasterCSV[1] made it in there if only as a footnote. I know it's not > a standard library, but it reads and writes just fine and is almost 9 > times faster than the standard library. This might be important > since I've seen multiple complaints about CSV speed here and on Ruby > Core.
> I'm also hard at work adding cool new features to it that should be > in long before the book is ready. Features not yet is CSV. :)
> End advertisement. We now return you to your regular programming.
Hal Fulton wrote: > Joe Van Dyk wrote: >> On 12/14/05, Tanner Burson <tanner.bur...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>At least a small section on Rake would be excellent.
>> I think it's under consideration, considering that Rake is in that >> 'keyword soup'.
> Yep, should have alphabetized it. But then it wouldn't be soup, > would it? :)
First, one more congratulatory note: congrats! :)
The few exciting and very soupy technologies I could think of off-hand are SCGI, RubyScript2Exe and the whole ParseTree/Ruby2C cadre.
A footnote of such alternatives as Rant and Wee might be well-received, too!
> Hal
> "There's a message in my AlphaBits! It says, 'OOOOOO'!" > "Those are CheeriOs." > -- _Family Guy_
> Thought I might as well announce this "officially" as many people > know it already.
> The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition > of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
> To summarize: About 100 pages deleted, about 250 pages added. > Updated from 1.6.8 to 1.8.4 (or thereabout).
> If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to make them.
> I can't cover everything, but I want to cover the important and > interesting > stuff (as time and space permit). If you see it in the "keyword soup" > below, it's under consideration. If you think I've forgotten something > important, please tell me in email.
> Impressive list of topics! i will buy this book in a heart beat!
Thank you.
Let me clarify, though, lest anyone misunderstand -- not all of these topics will be covered in depth. Depending on time and pages and so on, some may barely be mentioned.
That's one reason I want assistance in prioritizing things. In addition, some of these I know little about, and will have to learn within the next ninety days or so, or just skip them.
>Thought I might as well announce this "officially" as many people >know it already.
>The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition >of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
>To summarize: About 100 pages deleted, about 250 pages added. >Updated from 1.6.8 to 1.8.4 (or thereabout).
>If you have comments or suggestions, feel free to make them.
>I can't cover everything, but I want to cover the important and >interesting >stuff (as time and space permit). If you see it in the "keyword soup" >below, it's under consideration. If you think I've forgotten something >important, please tell me in email.
I especially like chapter 5 (OOP and Dynamicity in Ruby) in the current edition of TRW. I hope that perhaps a similar chapter on metaprogramming can be added.
Also: I would like to see the second edition stick to advanced Ruby programming topics/philosophy and mostly stay away from specific libraries (so basically staying away from a lot of the things you list above ;-) Why do I say this: because the title 'The Ruby Way' implies that you're going to impart the philosophy of Ruby programming. Your introduction leads to this as well. But if you start loading up with too many specific libraries/etc. then it starts looking less and less like 'The Ruby Way' and more like a tour of Ruby libraries. A lot of items in the "keyword soup" are ephemeral - is Rockit really being maintained and used at this point, for example? (and what about Grammar?) I think you should focus on things that are not ephemeral in Ruby.
Gems and Rake would be two 'externals' that should be included though, as they are either becoming central to or exemplify The Ruby Way (Rake could be covered as an example of metaprogramming, for example). Onigurma deserves coverage because it will be the new regex engine. I'd like to see more advanced coverage of things like using the various callbacks (included, inherited, etc.), metaprogramming, functional Ruby (stuff like what's in the "Higher order Perl" book).
Leave specific GUI toolkits like Tk, or Qt to another book...
I really like "The Ruby Way"; I would like to see it move more in the direction of "The Ruby Way: Advanced Ruby Programming Techniques" or something like that... as opposed to "The Ruby Way: A brief look at lots of libraries(many of which will be obsolete by this time next year)".
>I really like "The Ruby Way"; I would like to see it move more in the >direction of "The Ruby Way: Advanced Ruby Programming Techniques" or something >like that... as opposed to "The Ruby Way: A brief look at lots of >libraries(many of which will be obsolete by this time next year)".
Although I haven't read the ruby way, I'd prefer to see a coverage of more advanced programming techniques in Ruby, instead of a brief overview of Library X,Y,Z, but then again how do you define advanced? My idea of advanced is Dwemthy's Array (which I actually just got my head around this week).
I know it's a long shot but the only thing I have found missing from "the Ruby way" so far has been something on graphics - ie. Ruby SDL etc. I'd love to see some pointers on that.
Hal Fulton wrote: > Let me clarify, though, lest anyone misunderstand -- not all of > these topics will be covered in depth. Depending on time and > pages and so on, some may barely be mentioned.
There's more to a book than a list of topics. What about depth, starting point, assumptions of reader ability, reference vs learning model (see Kathy Sierra's blog), inclusion of tutorials, examples, exercises...
(Thanks as ever to the random sig generator for an entirely appropriate one...) -- Chris Game
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein
Phil Tomson wrote: >That's good news! >My own 2cents:
>I especially like chapter 5 (OOP and Dynamicity in Ruby) in the current >edition of TRW. I hope that perhaps a similar chapter on metaprogramming can >be added.
>Also: I would like to see the second edition stick to advanced Ruby >programming topics/philosophy and mostly stay away from specific libraries (so >basically staying away from a lot of the things you list above ;-) Why do I >say this: because the title 'The Ruby Way' implies that you're going to impart >the philosophy of Ruby programming. Your introduction leads to this as well. >But if you start loading up with too many specific libraries/etc. then it >starts looking less and less like 'The Ruby Way' and more like a tour of >Ruby libraries. A lot of items in the "keyword soup" are ephemeral - >is Rockit really being maintained and used at this point, for example? (and >what about Grammar?) I think you should focus on things that are not >ephemeral in Ruby.
>Gems and Rake would be two 'externals' that should be included though, as they >are either becoming central to or exemplify The Ruby Way (Rake could be >covered as an example of metaprogramming, for example). Onigurma deserves >coverage because it will be the new regex engine. I'd like to see more >advanced coverage of things like using the various callbacks (included, >inherited, etc.), metaprogramming, functional Ruby (stuff like what's in the >"Higher order Perl" book).
>Leave specific GUI toolkits like Tk, or Qt to another book...
>I really like "The Ruby Way"; I would like to see it move more in the >direction of "The Ruby Way: Advanced Ruby Programming Techniques" or something >like that... as opposed to "The Ruby Way: A brief look at lots of >libraries(many of which will be obsolete by this time next year)".
>Phil
+1. I'd also be much more interested in pure, advanced Ruby rather than specifics of this or that library.
> I especially like chapter 5 (OOP and Dynamicity in Ruby) in the current > edition of TRW. I hope that perhaps a similar chapter on metaprogramming can > be added.
> Also: I would like to see the second edition stick to advanced Ruby > programming topics/philosophy and mostly stay away from specific libraries (so > basically staying away from a lot of the things you list above ;-) Why do I > say this: because the title 'The Ruby Way' implies that you're going to impart > the philosophy of Ruby programming. Your introduction leads to this as well. > But if you start loading up with too many specific libraries/etc. then it > starts looking less and less like 'The Ruby Way' and more like a tour of > Ruby libraries. A lot of items in the "keyword soup" are ephemeral - > is Rockit really being maintained and used at this point, for example? (and > what about Grammar?) I think you should focus on things that are not > ephemeral in Ruby.
> Gems and Rake would be two 'externals' that should be included though, as they > are either becoming central to or exemplify The Ruby Way (Rake could be > covered as an example of metaprogramming, for example). Onigurma deserves > coverage because it will be the new regex engine. I'd like to see more > advanced coverage of things like using the various callbacks (included, > inherited, etc.), metaprogramming, functional Ruby (stuff like what's in the > "Higher order Perl" book).
> Leave specific GUI toolkits like Tk, or Qt to another book...
> I really like "The Ruby Way"; I would like to see it move more in the > direction of "The Ruby Way: Advanced Ruby Programming Techniques" or something > like that... as opposed to "The Ruby Way: A brief look at lots of > libraries(many of which will be obsolete by this time next year)".
My 2 yen for all the above.
To add the list, I would like to see a chapter or section on interface - what is and how to create clean API in ruby.
> That's one reason I want assistance in prioritizing things. In > addition, > some of these I know little about, and will have to learn within the > next ninety days or so, or just skip them.
Can you use the community? Together we know a fair amount. ;)
I'd recommend the exact opposite. If you ignore the libraries and GUI toolkits, the book is virtually useless. Most people are using ruby to develop _applications_, not to learn programming for programming's sake.
> I'd recommend the exact opposite. If you ignore the libraries and GUI > toolkits, the book is virtually useless. Most people are using > ruby to > develop _applications_, not to learn programming for programming's > sake.
I agree with the other poster about the expectations the title creates. I readed the book and was useful for me because i was learning, practical issues are addressed, and you are exposed to idiomatic Ruby. But I would expect it to evolve to explain "The Ruby Way" of programming, so my vote goes there.
Explaining libraries and toolkits is certainly useful, but a topic for a different book in my opinion.
> Thought I might as well announce this "officially" as many people > know it already.
> The ink is dry on the contract, and I am working on a second edition > of _The Ruby Way_. Expect to see it second quarter of 2006.
> To summarize: About 100 pages deleted, about 250 pages added. > Updated from 1.6.8 to 1.8.4 (or thereabout).
"100 pages deleted": does this mean Rb vs. perl/python sections are expendable? I can understand, these entail a *lot* of research, & recently there's been an explosion of R vs. p/p/java/smalltalk/lisp blogs which can be collected on 'Ruby eye for python guy' or some wiki.
The part of Way r.1 that's most valuable to me today is the "Things to remember" list on pages 45+
Phil Tomson wrote: > I especially like chapter 5 (OOP and Dynamicity in Ruby) in the current > edition of TRW. I hope that perhaps a similar chapter on metaprogramming can > be added.
I also especially like chapter 5. Definitely a chapter on metaprogramming! I like the idea of advanced topics especially those things are easily done in a dynamically typed language and difficult in staticly typed languages. But I like the library coverage as well. Write both and I'll buy both : ) If it's available in early access, I'll buy that too!
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