Help with "Programming Ruby" recommened book

[August]

In SketchUp, if you go to Help > Ruby Help, you get to a page called
either "What's New for SketchUp 6" or "SketchUp Ruby API
Deveoper'sGuide" depending on what you think of as the page title.

The last major section on that page is called "Learning Ruby and The
SketchUp Ruby API". The first recommended book listing in that section
is:
"Programming Ruby" online at http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby

Ignoring the fact that this is another Getting Started With Ruby book
that presumes that you are running UNIX, there is another major,
painful problem. This particular web site has lots and lots of cross-
references to page numbers in the published book. However, neither
the Table of Contents nor the individual sections have any page
numbers. This makes all those lovely cross-references useless and
frustrating. For instance, "See the reference section for unpack on
page 378 and pack on page 286 for details" at least gives you terms to
look for. The reference "(see the example on page 508)" does not even
give you a title for the example to search for. Of course, there are
no titles in the examples, just sections titled, e.g., "An Example".

There is no way to search through all these pages, but there is a form
of index, called Jump Targets. It's not all that helpful. Take for
example "Win32API". In the index that takes you to a section called
"Win32API" in the chapter on "Ruby and Microsoft Windows" In that
section it says, "The Win32API module is documented beginning on page
508, ..." but you can't tell at all where that is. It's not in the
Table of Contents and the index only takes you right back where you
are.

You might even already be on page 508. You are where the index takes
you. There is a section called "Win32API" and there is an example
just a little further on, although that example is most likely not on
the same numbered page as the Win32API section, the book probably is
not that tightly packed. If only you could search the whole thing for
Win32API, you might have a chance, but, alas, you can't.

You see the problem?

Now, I can see this as a teaser to get you to buy the book. But if
that is the case, the author is missing out on a prime marketing
opportunity because there are no links on this site that will take you
to where you can buy it. There are used copies of both the original
and the second edition available through Amazon, and Amazon will give
you a percentage if you put a link to them on your site, but there's
nothing like that here, so I don't think it's a teaser.

Does anyone know if there might be another online version of this book
available where there are at least page numbers to give you a fighting
chance or working cross-references that would make things easy?

The copyright notice says "Distribution of the work or derivative of
the work in any standard (paper) book form is prohibited unless prior
permission is obtained from the copyright holder." That makes it
explicit that they allow deriviative works in non-paper form, so
anyone would be free to add that information and make this more
usable.

The question is, has anyone done that?

Thanks,
August

[August]

Oh, and the paperback version of the first edition of "Programming
Ruby", never mind the second edition that's also available, does not
match the page numbers of the web version. Amazon has a "Look Inside"
feature and lets you read the first two chapters. In the first chapter
is a reference to Chapter 18 that begins on "page 199" (whatever that
means in this context) in the online version and it begins on page 201
according to both the excerpt and the Table of Contents in the version
that Amazon has.

Just more obstacles to beginning SU Ruby programmers...

FWIW,
August

[catamountain]

Another list has been updated on the Resources page. You may be
interesting in this RubyInstaller http://rubyinstaller.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl
which comes with "Programming Ruby" as the help file in the bundled
text editor. The book also has a PDF version.

[August]

Thanks Cat,

This looks like a really great idea. I'll take a look at it.

At first glance, it comes bundled with the 1.72 version of SciTE,
which is a nice feature (but I already have the 1.75 version that is
bundled with AutoIt -- or did I upgrade separately, it all blurs). So
I installed it without the SciTE, and the book is still there under
Start > All Programs > Ruby-186-26 > Ruby Documentation > Ruby Book
Help.

The book has been converted to HTML Help format. Beyond that, it is
identical to the version referenced in the SketchUp Ruby Help page at
http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/. And the Help version,
being identical to the Web version, still has all the missing page
number cross-reference problems. I've also found places where both
versions have a figure frame with the text "Figure not available..."

This Help file or Web site says explicitly that it documents Ruby 1.6,
September 2000. The version installed by the one-click installer is
Ruby 1.8.6 so the installed Help is 2 revs behind. The Second Edition
of the book ($45) and the PDF ($25, both for $55) cover Ruby 1.8. The
Third Edition, covering Ruby 1.9 is avaialable in Beta PDF now with
the paper version expected in mid-September 2008. PDF price is the
same as the 2nd edition, the paper is $5 more, with a discount if you
bought the 2nd edition.

So there is indeed a book version available to match the one-click-
installer Ruby, it just costs. I just wish they'd be more up-front
about what is crippled and what is down-rev and be up-front about the
solution being the paid version. Having to hunt for the paid web site
instead of having a link on the free site that doesn't even mention
the existence of the updated version is just a little creepy. Kind of
"we're keeping the good stuff for the in-crowd and keeping the riff-
raff in the dark; if you're serious, you'll find it." And presumably
the paid version has cross-references that are usable -- unless their
paid PDF turns out to not have hot cross references. That would just
be pathetic.

That's just my opinion.

August

[Andrés Suárez]

Hi August,

There are other books. I learned from tutorials and then searched in
the Ruby-Docs for the methods that better match to my problems.

http://www.ruby-doc.org/ => for example, what I can do with an array?
You search for the Array in "classes" in the Core APIs.

Some tutorials:

http://www.rubyist.net/~slagell/ruby/index.html => short & concise

http://rubylearning.com/satishtalim/tutorial.html => very good and
complete. There are free training courses.

http://pleac.sourceforge.net/pleac_ruby/ => learning from ruby recipes

http://tryruby.hobix.com/ => interective Ruby learn

http://poignantguide.net/ruby/

http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/

Regards,
Andrés

On 23 jul, 03:23, August <asm...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Thanks Cat,
>
> This looks like a really great idea.  I'll take a look at it.
>
> At first glance, it comes bundled with the 1.72 version of SciTE,
> which is a nice feature (but I already have the 1.75 version that is
> bundled with AutoIt -- or did I upgrade separately, it all blurs).  So
> I installed it without the SciTE, and the book is still there under
> Start > All Programs > Ruby-186-26 > Ruby Documentation > Ruby Book
> Help.
>
> The book has been converted to HTML Help format.  Beyond that, it is

> identical to the version referenced in the SketchUp Ruby Help page athttp://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/. And the Help version,

[August]

Hi Andrés,

Thank you for the recommendations and the comments on the sources.
This should be very useful.

Also, I got a nice note from the author of "Programming Ruby" who says
that yes, the paid PDF of the newest version does indeed have hot
linked cross-references, Table of Contents, Index, etc.

August

[bob]

August,

Refering to the little brainstorm you initiated about putting together
a Ruby Workshop.

As you understand I don't know ANYTHING about programming or
scripting. In all the different CAD applications I've been using it
just seemed to obscure. What I see in SU seems to me not much
different, although this might not be the same for people with more
scripting experience. My response might have seemed a bit blunt, but I
am interested in your suggestions.

I think we would need to find a proper form for this, and I haven't
really got a clue yet what this should look like. It is worthwhile to
keep exchanging thoughts about this, though. The discussion shouldn't
end prematurly. Can we figure out how this could come about, while the
momentum is there?

Bob.