The How, When and Why of Ruby

One common question asked when people start using Ruby, is which books should I read. For me there are three essential Ruby books. However, I don’t think anyone should just read all three at once, and certainly not if they are just starting with Ruby. Here I wish to list those books, and why they should not be read together. The three books are:

• How: Dave Thomas’ Programming Ruby
• When: Russ Olsen’s Design Patterns in Ruby
• Why: Pat Shuaghnessy’s Ruby under a microscope

For me, there is no better starting point for a Ruby developer than Dave Thomas’ Programming Ruby. It was the second Ruby book I read (I started with “Agile Web Development with Rails”), and it was the first to really bring home the elegance of Ruby, and how I could use it. Then and now, most of my Ruby development is done in a Rails environment, but I know that Rails stands on the shoulders of the giant that is Ruby. So even if all you want to do is develop Rails applications, I’d strongly recommend that you start by reading Programming Ruby. I’m confident you’ll be a better Ruby developer for it.

For me, Programming Ruby is all about how to program Ruby. What the syntax is, what to put where to get it to work, and how the core objects work together. And for this, I’ve yet to read a better book.

I’d been developing Ruby apps for a few years when I came across Russ Olsen’s fabulous Design Patterns in Ruby. It had a fundamental effect on the way I write my Ruby code. This wasn’t a book that taught me how to program, rather it made me think about the choices I make in coding in certain ways. This book is all about when to use certain coding patterns. When to split code into separate objects, when to use other objects to manage processes, and when to refactor code.

Design Patterns in Ruby will improve the way you write Ruby code, but I am confident that to get the best from it, you must first have a good appreciation of how Ruby works. For that, you need to have used Ruby in anger. It’s not a book for a new Ruby developer.

The last of the three books in my trilogy, is Pat Shuaghnessy’s Ruby Under a Microscope. I have only just finished reading this book in the last couple of days. It is easily the best Ruby book I’ve read since reading Design Patterns in Ruby. It is a fascinating investigation of how Ruby works under the bonnet. It teaches why Ruby works the way it does.

For me, Ruby Under a Microscope is THE book to read once you have learnt the lessons from reading the other two books, and used those to write Ruby code, and hone your skills.

So if you’ve got this far, I hope you will understand why I think these three books shouldn’t be read at the same time. They represent three stages of moving from a beginner to a seasoned Ruby developer, and it’s not until you’ve master the lessons from one, that you should move onto the next in my opinion. That takes time and effort, but it is well worth it. They are three excellent books. Just don’t rush to read all three at once.