Reviews of Beginning Ruby Across the Web

With this post I want to keep track of some of the “Beginning Ruby” reviews made on other blogs over the years:

About.com’s Review – “Beginning Ruby is an excellent choice for any beginning Ruby programmer. In the face of established competition, Beginning Ruby holds its own and remains a good choice.”

Larry Wright’s review – “I think Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional is a better first Ruby book than the venerable Pickaxe.”

29 reviews on Amazon.com – 26 of which are 5 stars; 3 are 4 stars.

Pat Eyler’s review – “Beginning Ruby is a great book for a new programmer, or a programmer new to Ruby. It’s a great alternative to the other beginner’s books on Ruby out there.”

Hendy Irawan’s review

Stephen Bartholomew’s review – “Even with a language like Ruby, teaching complete novices how to program is no mean feat. Peter Cooper’s new book ‘Beginning Ruby’ attempts to take the complete beginner through being a competent programmer.”

Huw Collingbourne’s review – “Once again, then, I can recommend this book as a good introduction to the fundamentals of Ruby programming and its updated section on web development frameworks is welcome.”

Review on Slashdot – “It’s a good book for someone who wants to learn Ruby as his first programming language. It could be better. I liked Cooper’s patient and thoughtful explanations about installing Ruby and RubyGems, how to use a command line, and what a text editor is for. Cooper supplies answers to all the typical Ruby-nuby questions, but his explanation of basic concepts is marred by the occasional confusing reference to advanced or even irrelevant topics. For the experienced programmer who learns best by reading and working through examples this book is a good choice. Dave Thomas’ Programming Ruby, The Pragmatic Programmer’s Guide (a.k.a. the Pickaxe) is a tough competitor, but each book has a considerable amount of material that is not found in the other book. For example the Pickaxe’s core library reference is exhaustive but it has only a limited amount of the kind of tutorial explanations that is Beginning Ruby’s strength.”