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In all fairness, it makes it pretty tough to take your comment seriously when you consistently refer to Rails when you mean Ruby. Also, I have to disagree. Lik

by prsimp 15y ago

In all fairness, it makes it pretty tough to take your comment seriously when you consistently refer to Rails when you mean Ruby. Also, I have to disagree. Like the author of the post, I found Olsen's book to be a delightful read. It is certainly not a great "first book" on Ruby, however. I think you ought to read it once you've gained a little better understanding - its wonderful for smoothing out edges and cementing some of the more advanced concepts.

tferris 15y ago
Good point with 'Rails'—my mistake—and I understand that now my competence could be questioned. I meant Ruby of course (which is Rails' core and if you got Ruby well you are a much better Rails dev and I think that's the #1 reason when reading Ruby books => Rails). I appreciate the author and his work but frankly: I got so frustrated with the style. Go and read chapter 13 and compare all the blog posts about Singleton out there (it's a huge difference). Reading one chapter again and again just to see that someone on StackOverflow drew a far better picture doesn't make you happy. Or take the next chapter 14 about class instance variables: this topic is brought to the reader in a very verbose style and again, the net full of blogs and Q&As deliver better much results. People there even discuss and question the benefit or real-world usage of class instance variables which is fully omitted in the book. >> its wonderful for smoothing out edges and cementing some of the more advanced concepts Sorry, I totally disagree, especially the advanced stuff is delivered in better quality in the net. Don't get me wrong but your words sound like the typical not-helpful Amazon reviews (which made me buying this book). BTW, there more annoying parts like squeezing every subject at the end of a chapter in a monotone structure ("Staying out of trouble", "In the wild", etc.) which is getting boring quickly, doesn't give one a better understanding and feels like the author going through his checklist for every chapter.

by prsimp 15y ago

tferris 15y ago

Good point with 'Rails'—my mistake—and I understand that now my competence could be questioned. I meant Ruby of course (which is Rails' core and if you got Ruby well you are a much better Rails dev and I think that's the #1 reason when reading Ruby books => Rails). I appreciate the author and his work but frankly: I got so frustrated with the style. Go and read chapter 13 and compare all the blog posts about Singleton out there (it's a huge difference). Reading one chapter again and again just to see that someone on StackOverflow drew a far better picture doesn't make you happy. Or take the next chapter 14 about class instance variables: this topic is brought to the reader in a very verbose style and again, the net full of blogs and Q&As deliver better much results. People there even discuss and question the benefit or real-world usage of class instance variables which is fully omitted in the book. >> its wonderful for smoothing out edges and cementing some of the more advanced concepts Sorry, I totally disagree, especially the advanced stuff is delivered in better quality in the net. Don't get me wrong but your words sound like the typical not-helpful Amazon reviews (which made me buying this book). BTW, there more annoying parts like squeezing every subject at the end of a chapter in a monotone structure ("Staying out of trouble", "In the wild", etc.) which is getting boring quickly, doesn't give one a better understanding and feels like the author going through his checklist for every chapter.