Ruby On Rails Up and Running

Personally I prefer programming books to get right down to business without too much in the way of waffle. I frankly don’t have the patience to wade through 1000+ page tomes or follow step-by-step guides to building monolithic applications. Which explains why my first impressions of Ruby On Rails Up and Running were favourable. Fortunately, so too were my second and third impressions…

At a bit less than 170 pages long the book is short and to the point. What’s more, it doesn’t waste the reader’s time. Chapter One kicks off with a hands on tutorial – and, even if you are a total newcomer, by the time to get to Chapter Two you will have at least a basic understanding of how Rails works and how you can use it to create dynamic web applications of your own.

In just seven chapters, the book covers all the really important stuff about Rails – its design patterns and classes; its scripts and application-generation tools; its Models, Views, Controllers and Scaffolding; plus an overview of using Ajax and Unit Testing.

While many Rails developers will tell you that the essential guide is Agile Web Development With Rails, I honestly think that Ruby On Rails Up and Running is a better introduction. It gives you just as much information as you need in order to begin to be productive without weighing you down with extraneous material.

The only downside (ah yes, there always is one!) is that it doesn’t cover the Ruby language in any depth. Let me qualify that criticism, however, by adding that, in my view, nor should it. If you want to learn more about the nitty-gritty details of how to program your Rails applications with the Ruby language, David A. Black’s book, Ruby For Rails would make a good follow-on from this book.

However, I wouldn’t recommend Ruby For Rails as a first text: it is just too detailed and would be quite heavy weather for a beginner. If you want a quick course in Ruby, there are some good introductory guides online (such as, if I might be so bold, my own Little Book Of Ruby). Once you feel comfortable with the Ruby language, Ruby On Rails Up and Running would make a fine introduction to Rails. Only then would I suggest investing in either Agile Web development With Rails or (if you want to deepen your knowledge of Ruby too), David A. Black’s Ruby For Rails.