Simply Rails 2
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Want to learn all about Ruby on Rails 2.0, the web application framework that is inspiring developers around the world? The second edition of this practical, hands on book will: show you how to install Ruby on Rails on Windows, Mac, or Linux walk you, step by step, through the development of a Web 2.0 social news application, just like digg.com show you how to test, debug, benchmark, and deploy your Rails application… Product details and pricing info |
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12 Customer Reviews Posted
- A great start, but not comprehensive
- This book is a great start, but you won't be able to write applications in Ruby on Rails by the end of it.
Let me refine that: you will be able to write one Ruby on Rails application by the end of it. The book walks you through creating a program that works like Digg. The book explains well everything that you need to do to write this one program, and introduces you to the basics of RoR architecture and how RoR works. I followed the instructions and understood everything that was going on.
However, once you have finished this book and written your Digg-like program, there is no guidance for where to go next. There isn't a chapter on "Further Resources" or "Where to go from here" or anything at all - you're just stuck with your little Digg-imitation. Not only that, but the book tends to introduce information in a rather haphazard order. From a pedagogy standpoint, the order in which information is presented makes a lot of sense. But it makes the book useless as a reference manual, or even as a model for how to do your own project.
It's fine as a first step and as an introduction to Ruby on Rails, especially since at the moment it's the only thing in print about Rails 2.x. But you will have to read other books before you can be a competent RoR programmer. - 2008-08-12, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A little vague
- I am new to programming. I did a lot of it back 20 years ago, but am new to object oriented programming and just starting to learn programming again. I am about 1/2 way thru the book and have found myself now reading other books (Beginning Ruby by Peter Cooper is one) to try and fill in the blanks. The book takes the approach of developing a web application from the git go. I like this approach, but it glosses over WHY we are doing it. I found myself wondering why, more than saying "oh yeah, that makes sense". Maybe the fact that I am new to this wonderful programming world has a lot to do with it, but the book calls itself the "the ultimate programmers guide" so I guess I expected more from it. Overall it is an OK book, but the Agile book by Dave Thompson seems to do a better job of walking thru developing a web app.
- 2008-08-04, 0 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Simply The Best
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I just can't praise this book enough. Rails make it easy to build websites. And this book makes it easy to learn rails. This book is the simplest,easiest and fastest route to rails for beginners. If you want to learn rails and if you are new to ruby then this is the book for you. I haven't seen any other rails book that is nearly as good. This book doesn't expect you to be an experienced developer. Just some basic knowledge of HTML is all that is required to get started.
This is a tutorial. You have to sit next to the computer and work along as you read. It gives clear step by step instructions and lots of helpful explanations and tips.
Most rails book assume you already know the ruby language. But this book lets you dive straight into rails after giving you a quick introduction to ruby.
Although this book is really about rails, the quick introduction to programming it gives you at the beginning the the book is one of the best I have ever seen. The author has done a terrific job! - 2008-07-25, 0 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Disappointing
- I had high hopes for this book, being that it was strongly recommended here on Amazon. However, I have quite a few issues with it.
First, no one should be teaching anyone how to develop a web application if they're not willing to explain how to hash sensitive data like user passwords. There's really no reason not to. This is basic, basic security and it's simple to implement in rails, yet the authors choose to go the clear text route. (Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Edition teaches you how to do this, and at 700 pages, is a much more useful resource for the beginning Rails developer the version that covers 2.0 is available as a beta-ebook online).
Also, I don't think the authors were able to bridge the gap between their assumed level of knowledge and the true Ruby on Rails beginner; explanations of OOP were slim and basics like symbols and MVC aren't clear enough (ie, jargon words like "business logic" might be understood by some readers, but not all beginners). Again, I had to go to other books to get clear examples and explanations written entirely in lay terms.
If you want a complete resource that will let you teach yourself Ruby on Rails, this isn't it. - 2008-07-25, 2 of 6 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Great introduction to Rails
- I was very happy to finally find this book after much confusion and disappointment weeding through the huge number of Rails tutorials, postings, and books including the beta Agile Web Development With Rails 2.0. By the way, if you are new to Ruby, and I assume to Rails, get this book. The people behind the so-called authoritative AWD book are still scrambling to update their book to 2.0, and if you are like me new to Rails and Web development frameworks in general, you will have a heck of time trying to make sense of the various components that make up Rails, the deprecated syntax. Unlike 'Agile Development with Rails' book, 'Simply Rails 2' starts you off with an introduction to Ruby and the theory behind the framework in concise and clear language. I recommend this book highly.
- 2008-07-13, 0 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
