McAnally J., Arkin A. - Ruby in Practice [2009, PDF, ENG]

Summary: A good Ruby Read
Rating: 5
I actually picked this up at a local Borders.

I have been programming with Ruby, and Rails, off and on for going on two years. I find it disappointing that there are not more good books on either subject. Naturally, as each book comes out, I eagerly turn the pages.. hoping. Sadly, many of the books are O.K, a few a bit lame.

This book was an enjoyable read for me. The author covers a nice spectrum of different uses for Ruby, including but not limited to, Rails. This is what I like most about the book. It's not a "cookbook". The author actually delves into each subject, giving you more details than you would find in a "cookbook" type of book. While not giving exhaustive coverage in any of the areas it discusses, it gives more than enough to form a foundation for future discovery.

I definitely learned from this book, and it has found a permanent place in my library.

I would say, though, that it is not for someone new to either Ruby, or to Rails. This book is more for someone at what I would term intermediate level with Ruby. It doesn't start "from the ground, up" in any of the areas it discusses, but certainly at a level that someone with a bit of time in the language can pick up and run with.

In my opinion, the book is a keeper, and is recommended.

Summary: Ruby in Practice - review
Rating: 4
Ruby in Practice written by the Jeremy McAnally and Assaf Arkin is a solid book about Ruby programming language. It is divided into three parts which address the most common applications of Ruby. Firstly, it describes in details basic characteristics and strengths of Ruby such as metaprogramming, usage of duck typing, testing, and reporting. Second part covers usage of Ruby for internet communication, emailing and for web application creation and deployment using Rails. In third part, authors discuss techniques for data and document based applications and Ruby application in searching and indexing or parsing of different document types. All addressed problems are explained using well chosen and informative examples which can be utilized in real world situations.
Although, book is written in rather simple and comprehensive way it is not meant for beginners and requires from a reader at least the intermeddiate knowledge of core Ruby, Rails techniques and understanding of quite a number of other programming concepts.
All together, Ruby in Practice is a must in the library of every Rubyist aspirating to the advanced level.

Summary: Review by Nicolas Vallée
Rating: 5
For me, this book aims at a public at ease with the various aspects of Ruby. First, whereas many others would have begun directly with technical points after a short introduction, the reader will find in this book a presentation of three strengths of Ruby (duck typing, functional programming and meta-programming for Domain Specific Languages), which is at least a good reminder.
Then you will see a quick, but comprehensive enough, presentation of various libraries to solve problems in a more concise and/or more efficient way. The reader will find many examples of solutions for n-tier (Web Services, REST, Websphere MQ), for deployment in the workplace (authentification directories, RDBMS, search engines, emailing). I particularly appreciated the generation of PDF documents. These presentations are sometimes also a good reminder of good practice in professional development, as aspects of tests (Test:: Unit, RCov) and specifications (RSpec).
Finally, you will see other important elements in appendix :
1) different installation procedures for Ruby and Gem on the platforms Linux (Redhat or Debian), Windows and Mac OS X.
2) a review of the integration of Ruby in the Java platform with JRuby and deployments WAR for J2EE.
3) how to start Rails applications on different web servers.

The only criticism I can make is the lack of a real common thread throughout the book, which might give the impression of a listing of useful libraries.