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