Best Books to Learn Ruby on Rails?

[Thomas C. Mueller]

Hello Mad Railers,

What books would you recommend to someone wanting to learn Ruby on Rails?

I have 10 solid years of programming experience (Assembly, FORTRAN, C, C+, Delphi, VB, SQL, PCL) and a wee bit of HTML, but no CSS, HTML 5, Java, or JavaScript.  I stopped being a programmer ten years ago, but the internet is sucking me back in.

My goal: Build a website that allows me to test the use of social media APIs and interact with a back end database.  Hopefully using Ruby on Rails.

Here are the books I'm thinking about buying:

Agile Web Development with Rails, 4th Edition (Sam Ruby, Dave Thomas, David Heinemeier Hansson)

 

Learning Rails 3 - Rails from the Outside In (Simon St. Laurent, Edd Dumbill, Eric J Gruber)

 

Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails, 2nd Edition (Michael Hartl)

Am I doing it right?

Thanks!

--

Tom Mueller

Keeper of the UXMad Cowbell 

[Jim Remsik]

I'd flip that list in order and add Metaprogramming Ruby by Paolo Perrota.

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[Culley Smith]

I second the Michael Hartl book as being top notch.  I also ordered his screencasts and he covers things in a bit more detail there.  I have the first 3.x and most recent 3.2 edition pdf of that book.

I also agree with Jim that a pure Ruby book is a good idea.  Learning Rails is fine, but it's much easier if you know and are comfortable with Ruby up front.  Programming Ruby 1.9, Metaprogramming Ruby, Building Command Line Apps in Ruby, are all good books for learning Ruby.  Really, just about any of the PragProg Ruby/Rails books are a good way to go.  I also like Rails 3 in Action quite a bit.  However, for a tutorial style, Michael Hartl's book is damn near perfect.

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 1:41 PM, Jim Remsik <jrem...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'd flip that list in order and add Metaprogramming Ruby by PaoloWhile it may not seem like it, it is probably good you did not get hired on.  The manager doesn't get to touch any code, because the library has him wrapped up in committees and meetings full time. Perrota.

[Abe Voelker]

I'd pick up The Ruby Programming Language both for learning and reference purposes (I can't rate it highly enough), and go through Michael Hartl's free online Rails tutorial (the last book you listed is just a printed, out-of-date version of this).  These two resources are what worked best for me for getting started.  Good luck!

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 1:22 PM, Thomas C. Mueller <tcmu...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Andrew Broman]

I'm a huge fan of Michael Hartl's book. Hartl just sent out an email this afternoon, though, warning about the print edition: "The print version of the Ruby on Rails Tutorial, 2nd edition, has recently been released, and this is a warning not to buy it, at least not yet."

Seems the source code listings are all messed up.

Also, I'd put in a vote for Obie Fernandez's "The Rails 3 Way."

Andrew

On Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 1:22 PM, Thomas C. Mueller <tcmu...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Nicholas Klick]

In terms of Ruby books, I personally prefer:

Eloquent Ruby 

The Well-Grounded Rubyist 

Metaprogramming Ruby

[Devin Walters]

Buy the ruby metaprogramming screencasts. Metaprogramming Ruby does a decent job of explaining the object model, but the screencasts by Dave Thomas are way easier to understand IMO.

'(Devin Walters)

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[Clint Laskowski]

Word to the wise: Beginning Rails 3 by Cloves Carneiro Jr. and Rida Al Barazi ... let's just say I did not like it.

I completely enjoyed the Michael Hartl tutorial and video (both the first and second editions) and recommend them. Buy the bundle, you're going to want both the book and the videos.

Good luck!

-- Clint

Clint Laskowski, CISSP, CISM

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[Thomas C. Mueller]

Thank you all for the good feedback.

I'll look into the videos and additional books mentioned.

--

Tom