InformIT -- Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide Home > Web Development > Free Library Book Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Save to MyInformIT Guide by David Thomas, Andrew Hunt Publication Date 10.13.2000 Table of Contents Add Preface Chapter 1 Roadmap Chapter 2 Ruby.new Chapter 3 Classes, Objects, and Variables Chapter 4 Containers, Blocks, and Iterators Chapter 5 Standard Types Chapter 6 More About Methods Chapter 7 Expressions Chapter 8 Exceptions, Catch, and Throw Chapter 9 Modules to Shopping Cart Chapter 10 Basic Input and Output Price: $42.95 Chapter 11 Threads and Processes Publisher: Addison Wesley Professional Chapter 12 When Trouble Strikes ISBN: 0201710897 Chapter 13 Ruby and Its World Pages: 592 Chapter 14 Ruby and the Web Ruby, a new, object-oriented scripting language, has won over thousands of Chapter 15 Ruby Tk Perl and Python programmers in Japan Chapter 16 Ruby and Microsoft Windows -- and it's now launching worldwide. This is the world's first Chapter 17 Extending Ruby English-language developer's guide to Ruby. Written by the authors of Chapter 18 The Ruby Language best-selling Pragmatic Programmer, Chapter 19 Classes and Objects Programming Ruby demonstrates Ruby's compelling advantages, and Chapter 20 Locking Ruby in the Safe serves as a start-to-finish tutorial and reference for every developer. KEY Chapter 21 Reflection, ObjectSpace, and Distributed Ruby TOPICS:The authors introduce all of Ruby's basics, including classes, objects, Chapter 22 Built-in Classes variables, container, iterators, types, Chapter 23 Built-in Modules methods, expressions, modules, I/O, and threads. You'll master Ruby Chapter 24 Standard Library development for the Web, including CGI scripts and embedding Ruby in Chapter 25 Object-Oriented Design Libraries HTML; learn how to create GUI-based Chapter 26 Network and Web Libraries Ruby applications with TK; and discover techniques for integrating Ruby Chapter 27 Microsoft Windows Support with Windows. Programming Ruby shows how to extend Ruby in C, and Appendix A Embedded Documentation presents in-depth coverage of advanced Appendix B Interactive Ruby Shell features. Numerous fully functional code examples are included. The book Appendix C Support contains an alphabetical reference to Ruby 1.6 -- the latest version -- documenting over 800 methods, 40 built-in classes, and many useful library modules.MARKET:For every object-oriented developer seeking a more robust, powerful scripting language. http://www.informit.com/content/index.asp?sessi...47DC2}&p={30DA6F6F-8E78-4978-974A-DC7F195AF0E6} (1 of 2) [6/4/2001 8:05:01 PM] InformIT -- Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide Related Materials Articles ● Structure on the Web ● Creating Visual Basic Components for the Web ● Building Web Applications Books ● Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites ● Allaire Spectra E-Business Construction Kit ● Complete Internet and World Wide Web How to Program Training Course, Student Edition Free Library ● SE USING HTML 4, 4TH EDITION ● SE USING MICROSOFT VISUAL INTERDEV ● Cold Fusion Web Database Construction Kit About Us © 2001 Pearson Education, Inc. Advertise On InformIT InformIT Division. Contact Us All rights reserved. Legal Notice 201 West 103rd Street Privacy Policy Indianapolis, IN 46290 Search Within For Full Search Author Names Only Product Titles Only http://www.informit.com/content/index.asp?sessi...47DC2}&p={30DA6F6F-8E78-4978-974A-DC7F195AF0E6} (2 of 2) [6/4/2001 8:05:01 PM] InformIT -- Preface Like this Chapter? Home > Web Development > eBook Buy the Book! Preface Save to MyInformIT Price: $38.66 by David Thomas, Andrew Hunt, from the Book Programming Ruby: The Add to Cart Pragmatic Programmer's Guide Email this to a Friend 10.13.2000 This book is a tutorial and reference for the Ruby programming language. Use Ruby, and you'll write better code, be more productive, and enjoy programming more. These are bold claims, but we think that after reading this book you'll agree with them. And we have Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic the experience to back up this belief. Programmer's Guide As Pragmatic Programmers we've tried many, many languages in our search for tools to make our lives Preface Preface easier, for tools to help us do our jobs better. Until now, though, we'd always been frustrated by the languages we were using. Roadmap Ruby.new Our job is to solve problems, not spoonfeed compilers, so we like dynamic languages that adapt to us, without arbitrary, rigid rules. We need clarity so we can communicate using our code. We value Classes, Objects, and Variables conciseness and the ability to express a requirement in code accurately and efficiently. The less code Containers, Blocks, and Iterators we write, the less that can go wrong. (And our wrists and fingers are thankful, too.) Standard Types We want to be as productive as possible, so we want our code to run the first time; time spent in the More About Methods debugger is time stolen from the development clock. It also helps if we can try out code as we edit it; if Expressions you have to wait for a 2-hour make cycle, you may as well be using punch cards and submitting your work for batch compilation. Exceptions, Catch, and Throw Modules We want a language that works at a high level of abstraction. The higher level the language, the less time we spend translating our requirements into code. Basic Input and Output Threads and Processes When we discovered Ruby, we realized that we'd found what we'd been looking for. More than any other language with which we have worked, Ruby stays out of your way. You can concentrate on When Trouble Strikes solving the problem at hand, instead of struggling with compiler and language issues. That's how it can Ruby and Its World help you become a better programmer: by giving you the chance to spend your time creating solutions Ruby and the Web for your users, not for the compiler. Ruby Tk Ruby and Microsoft Windows Ruby Sparkles Extending Ruby The Ruby Language Take a true object-oriented language, such as Smalltalk. Drop the unfamiliar syntax and move to more conventional, file-based source code. Now add in a good measure of the flexibility and convenience of Classes and Objects languages such as Python and Perl. Locking Ruby in the Safe http://www.informit.com/content/index.asp?session_id={A9598ACC-2F...A-DC7F195AF0E6}&element_id={E6A67D05-F0BA-49BB-BB04-C616B47F942D} (1 of 9) [6/4/2001 8:05:15 PM] InformIT -- Preface Reflection, ObjectSpace, and You end up with Ruby. Distributed Ruby Built-in Classes OO aficionados will find much to like in Ruby: things such as pure object orientation (everything's an object), metaclasses, closures, iterators, and ubiquitous heterogeneous collections. Smalltalk users will Built-in Modules feel right at home (and C++ and Java users will feel jealous). Standard Library At the same time, Perl and Python wizards will find many of their favorite features: full regular Object-Oriented Design Libraries expression support, tight integration with the underlying operating system, convenient shortcuts, and Network and Web Libraries dynamic evaluation. Microsoft Windows Support Ruby is easy to learn. Everyday tasks are simple to code, and once you've done them, they are easy to Embedded Documentation maintain and grow. Apparently difficult things often turn out not to have been difficult after all. Ruby Interactive Ruby Shell follows the Principle of Least Surprise—things work the way you would expect them to, with very few special cases or exceptions. And that really does make a difference when you're programming. We call Ruby a transparent language. By that we mean that Ruby doesn't obscure the solutions you write behind lots of syntax and the need to churn out reams of support code just to get simple things done. With Ruby you write programs close to the problem domain. Rather than constantly mapping your ideas and designs down to the pedestrian level of most languages, with Ruby you'll find you can express them directly and express them elegantly. This means you code faster. It also means your programs stay readable and maintainable. Using Ruby, we are constantly amazed at how much code we can write in one sitting, code that works the first time. There are very few syntax errors, no type violations, and far fewer bugs than usual. This makes sense: there's less to get wrong. No bothersome semicolons to type mechanically at the end of each line. No troublesome type declarations to keep in sync (especially in separate files). No unnecessary words just to keep the compiler happy. No error-prone framework code. So why learn Ruby? Because we think it will help you program better. It will help you to focus on the problem at hand, with fewer distractions. It will make your life easier. What Kind of Language Is Ruby? In the old days, the distinction between languages was simple: they were either compiled, like C or Fortran, or interpreted, like BASIC. Compiled languages gave you speed and low-level access; interpreted languages were higher-level but slower. Times change, and things aren't that simple anymore. Some language designers have taken to calling their creations "scripting languages." By this, we guess they mean that their languages are interpreted and can be used to replace batch files and shell scripts, orchestrating the behavior of other programs and the underlying operating system. Perl, TCL, and Python have all been called scripting languages. What exactly is a scripting language? Frankly we don't know if it's a distinction worth making. In Ruby, you can access all the underlying operating system features. You can do the same stuff in Ruby that you can in Perl or Python, and you can do it more cleanly.