The Ruby Programming Language (the book)

The Ruby Programming Language

By David Flanagan & Yukihiro Matsumoto

First Edition  January 2008 

Pages: 444

ISBN 10: 0-596-51617-7 | ISBN 13:9780596516178

At one of the Little Language conferences in Cambridge, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto gave a talk on his Ruby language to an audience made up largely of academics, language designers, and language implementers. He got a very warm reception, especially when he shyly admitted that yes, Ruby has lambdas and closures.

When it came time to talk about documentation, Matz held up the 2002 David Reynolds English translation of his own book, published by O’Reilly as Ruby in a Nutshell; then he held up Programming Ruby by David Thomas and Andrew Hunt (Addison-Wesley, 2001), smiled, and said “But if you want a really good book on Ruby, read this one.”

Since then, Ruby has matured considerably and taken off in popularity. The expanded and enhanced second edition of Programming Ruby by David Thomas with Chad Fowler and Andrew Hunt (Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2005) covers Ruby through version 1.8. The expanded and enhanced edition of Ruby in a Nutshell by David Flanagan and Matz has been renamed The Ruby Programming Language to reflect its intended status as the K & R of Ruby; it covers Ruby through version 1.9.

The Ruby Programming Language concentrates its 400+ pages on the Ruby language proper. Programming Ruby, 2nd Ed. goes farther afield in its 800+ pages, but has less material on the language itself and more material on ancillary matters. Frankly, both The Ruby Programming Language and Programming Ruby, 2nd Ed. are very good books, and if you’re a Ruby programmer (or want to be) you should make room on your bookshelf for both of them.