The Well Grounded Rubyist

Summary The Well-Grounded Rubyist, Third Edition is a beautifully written tutorial that begins with your first Ruby program and takes you all the way to sophisticated topics like reflection, threading, and recursion. Ruby masters David A. Black and Joe Leo distill their years of knowledge for you, concentrating on the language and its uses so you can use Ruby in any way you choose. Updated for Ruby 2.5. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Designed for developer productivity, Ruby is an easy-to-learn dynamic language perfect for creating virtually any kind of software. Its famously friendly development community, countless libraries, and amazing tools, like the Rails framework, have established it as the language of choice for high-profile companies, including GitHub, SlideShare, and Shopify. The future is bright for the well-grounded Rubyist! About the Book In The Well-Grounded Rubyist, Third Edition, expert authors David A. Black and Joseph Leo deliver Ruby mastery in an easy-to-read, casual style. You'll lock in core principles as you write your first Ruby programs. Then, you'll progressively build up to topics like reflection, threading, and recursion, cementing your knowledge with high-value exercises to practice your skills along the way. What's Inside Basic Ruby syntax Running Ruby extensions FP concepts like currying, side-effect-free code, and recursion Ruby 2.5 updates About the Reader For readers with beginner-level programming skills. About the Authors David A. Black is an internationally known Ruby developer and author, and a cofounder of Ruby Central. Ruby teacher and advocate Joseph Leo III is the founder of Def Method and lead organizer of the Gotham Ruby Conference. Table of Contents PART 1 RUBY FOUNDATIONS Bootstrapping your Ruby literacy Objects, methods, and local variables Organizing objects with classes Modules and program organization The default object (self), scope, and visibility Control-flow techniques PART 2 BUILT-IN CLASSES AND MODULES Built-in essentials Strings, symbols, and other scalar objects Collection and container objects Collections central: Enumerable and Enumerator Regular expressions and regexp-based string operations File and I/O operations PART 3 RUBY DYNAMICS Object individuation Callable and runnable objects Callbacks, hooks, and runtime introspection Ruby and functional programming

Addresses both newcomers to Ruby as well as Ruby programmers who want to deepen their understanding of the language. This beautifully written and totally revised second edition includes coverage of features that are new in Ruby 2.1, as well as expanded and updated coverage of aspects of the language that have changed.

If you’re an experienced Ruby programmer, Effective Ruby will help you harness Ruby’s full power to write more robust, efficient, maintainable, and well-performing code. Drawing on nearly a decade of Ruby experience, Peter J. Jones brings together 48 Ruby best practices, expert tips, and shortcuts—all supported by realistic code examples. Jones offers practical advice for each major area of Ruby development, from modules to memory to metaprogramming. Throughout, he uncovers little-known idioms, quirks, pitfalls, and intricacies that powerfully impact code behavior and performance. Each item contains specific, actionable, clearly organized guidelines; careful advice; detailed technical arguments; and illuminating code examples. When multiple options exist, Jones shows you how to choose the one that will work best in your situation. Effective Ruby will help you systematically improve your code—not by blindly following rules, but by thoroughly understanding Ruby programming techniques. Key features of this concise guide include How to avoid pitfalls associated with Ruby’s sometimes surprising idiosyncrasies What you should know about inheritance hierarchies to successfully use Rails (and other large frameworks) How to use misunderstood methods to do amazingly useful things with collections Better ways to use exceptions to improve code reliability Powerful metaprogramming approaches (and techniques to avoid) Practical, efficient testing solutions, including MiniTest Unit and Spec Testing How to reliably manage RubyGem dependencies How to make the most of Ruby’s memory management and profiling tools How to improve code efficiency by understanding the Ruby interpreter’s internals

Provides information on creating Web-based applications using Ruby.

It’s easy to write correct Ruby code, but to gain the fluency needed to write great Ruby code, you must go beyond syntax and absorb the “Ruby way” of thinking and problem solving. In Eloquent Ruby, Russ Olsen helps you write Ruby like true Rubyists do–so you can leverage its immense, surprising power. Olsen draws on years of experience internalizing the Ruby culture and teaching Ruby to other programmers. He guides you to the “Ah Ha!” moments when it suddenly becomes clear why Ruby works the way it does, and how you can take advantage of this language’s elegance and expressiveness. Eloquent Ruby starts small, answering tactical questions focused on a single statement, method, test, or bug. You’ll learn how to write code that actually looks like Ruby (not Java or C#); why Ruby has so many control structures; how to use strings, expressions, and symbols; and what dynamic typing is really good for. Next, the book addresses bigger questions related to building methods and classes. You’ll discover why Ruby classes contain so many tiny methods, when to use operator overloading, and when to avoid it. Olsen explains how to write Ruby code that writes its own code–and why you’ll want to. He concludes with powerful project-level features and techniques ranging from gems to Domain Specific Languages. A part of the renowned Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series, Eloquent Ruby will help you “put on your Ruby-colored glasses” and get results that make you a true believer.

There may be no better way to learn how to program than by dissecting real, representative examples written in your language of choice. Ruby by Example analyzes a series of Ruby scripts, examining how the code works, explaining the concepts it illustrates, and showing how to modify it to suit your needs. Baird's examples demonstrate key features of the language (such as inheritance, encapsulation, higher-order functions, and recursion), while simultaneously solving difficult problems (such as validating XML, creating a bilingual program, and creating command-line interfaces). Each chapter builds upon the previous, and each key concept is highlighted in the margin to make it easier for you to navigate the book. You'll learn how to: –Use the interactive Ruby shell (irb) to learn key features of the language –Extend Ruby using RubyGems, the Ruby package manager –Create numerical utilities, as well as utilities that process and analyze HTML/XML –Implement purely functional and metaprogramming techniques to save time and effort –Optimize, profile, and test your code to make sure that it not only does its job, but does it well –Create web applications using Rails Ruby is the fastest growing programming language today, and for good reason: its elegant syntax and readable code make for prolific and happy programmers. But it can be difficult to understand and implement without a little help. Ruby by Example shows you how to take advantage of Ruby as you explore Ruby's fundamental concepts in action.

Praise for Design Patterns in Ruby "Design Patterns in Ruby documents smart ways to resolve many problems that Ruby developers commonly encounter. Russ Olsen has done a great job of selecting classic patterns and augmenting these with newer patterns that have special relevance for Ruby. He clearly explains each idea, making a wealth of experience available to Ruby developers for their own daily work." —Steve Metsker, Managing Consultant with Dominion Digital, Inc. "This book provides a great demonstration of the key 'Gang of Four' design patterns without resorting to overly technical explanations. Written in a precise, yet almost informal style, this book covers enough ground that even those without prior exposure to design patterns will soon feel confident applying them using Ruby. Olsen has done a great job to make a book about a classically 'dry' subject into such an engaging and even occasionally humorous read." —Peter Cooper "This book renewed my interest in understanding patterns after a decade of good intentions. Russ picked the most useful patterns for Ruby and introduced them in a straightforward and logical manner, going beyond the GoF's patterns. This book has improved my use of Ruby, and encouraged me to blow off the dust covering the GoF book." —Mike Stok "Design Patterns in Ruby is a great way for programmers from statically typed objectoriented languages to learn how design patterns appear in a more dynamic, flexible language like Ruby." —Rob Sanheim, Ruby Ninja, Relevance Most design pattern books are based on C++ and Java. But Ruby is different—and the language's unique qualities make design patterns easier to implement and use. In this book, Russ Olsen demonstrates how to combine Ruby's power and elegance with patterns, and write more sophisticated, effective software with far fewer lines of code. After reviewing the history, concepts, and goals of design patterns, Olsen offers a quick tour of the Ruby language—enough to allow any experienced software developer to immediately utilize patterns with Ruby. The book especially calls attention to Ruby features that simplify the use of patterns, including dynamic typing, code closures, and "mixins" for easier code reuse. Fourteen of the classic "Gang of Four" patterns are considered from the Ruby point of view, explaining what problems each pattern solves, discussing whether traditional implementations make sense in the Ruby environment, and introducing Ruby-specific improvements. You'll discover opportunities to implement patterns in just one or two lines of code, instead of the endlessly repeated boilerplate that conventional languages often require. Design Patterns in Ruby also identifies innovative new patterns that have emerged from the Ruby community. These include ways to create custom objects with metaprogramming, as well as the ambitious Rails-based "Convention Over Configuration" pattern, designed to help integrate entire applications and frameworks. Engaging, practical, and accessible, Design Patterns in Ruby will help you build better software while making your Ruby programming experience more rewarding.

Provides information on the capabilities and subsystems of Ruby on Rails for the design and development of complex Web applications.