Ruby is an absolutely pure object-oriented scripting language written in C and designed with Perl and Python capabilities in mind. While its roots are in Japan, Ruby is slowly but surely gaining ground in the US. The goal of Yukihiro Matsumoto, creator of Ruby and author of this book, is to incorporate the strengths of languages like Perl, Python, Lisp and Smalltalk. Ruby is a genuine attempt to combine the best of everything in the scripting world. Since 1993, Ruby mailing lists have been established, Web pages have formed, and a community has grown around it. The language itself is very good at text processing and is notable for its broad object orientation. Ruby is portable and runs under GNU/Linux (and other Unices) as well as DOS, MS Windows and Mac. With Ruby in a Nutshell, Matsumoto offers a practical reference to the features of this new language including the command-line options, syntax, built-in variables, functions, and many commonly used classes and modules. This guide covers the current stable version of Ruby (1.6), yet is applicable to the development version 1.7 and the next planned stable version 1.8. You will find a thorough description of Ruby's language syntax, and a description of the core functionality built into the standard Ruby interpreter, which has more than 800 built-in methods in 42 classes and modules. Ruby finds its power through its built-in libraries, and this handy volume take you through the many useful libraries that come with the standard Ruby distribution--from network access via HTTP and CGI programming, to data persistence using the DBM library. This book concludes with coverage of the unique tools that come with Ruby, including the debugger, profiler, and irb (or interactive ruby.) Find out how Ruby combines the strengths of other languages, and why it has captured the interest of so many open source programmers. As part of the successful "in a nutshell" series of books from O'Reilly & Associates, Ruby in a Nutshell is for readers who want a single desktop reference for all their needs.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 7 Ratings

I'd skip this one. - 2004-03-26
Reviewer Rating:
The first couple of chapters are a good, concise reference to the core language, but the library reference is too stark-- most methods seem to have only one or two lines for description. Since this library reference is the bulk of the book, I don't think it's a good buy.

The library reference in the Thomas and Hunt book (Programming Ruby: A Pragmatic Programmer's Guide) is much nicer.

Too many errors - wait for the second edition, if it ever comes - 2007-03-02
Reviewer Rating:
I've lost track of the number of times in the first two chapters where I either read a sentence that had no clear meaning, or where I saw an example that was just plain incorrect.

Page 12: "A symbol is an object corresponding to an identifier or variable." Uh, what? That's the complete explanation for this language construct.

Page 64: "arr.slice(n, len) Deletes the partial string specified and returns it." Followed by an example obviously copied from String::slice on page 54, which has the exact same example code except using 's' instead of 'a'. But page 64 is supposed to be describing arrays, not strings, so the description and example are just plain wrong.

It goes on and on. I had high hopes for this book given my past experience with O'Reilly Nutshell books, but this book is just not ready to go to print yet, and obviously has been very poorly proofread. Sadly it's been printed and it's out there in the world, so your best bet is to just avoid it until O'Reilly publishes a 2nd edition that fixes all of these mistakes.

An Excellent At-Your-Fingers Quick Reference - 2005-12-14
Reviewer Rating:
There isn't much in-depth knowledge I can impart based on this book. It fulfills its demanded function as "A Desktop Quick Reference". It provides a quick reference to the core language features and APIs in a succinct way. On the fly, this book is a great reference. If you are going to be carrying around a reference for Ruby, this should be it. Its small size does not deter it from being full of succinct information. Do not buy this if you are looking for a tutorial-style introduction to Ruby. (In that case, see Programming Ruby by Dave Thomas). If you are looking for a quick reference to this fun programming language, however, this book is a great choice!

Ruby In A Nutshell - 2005-09-02
Reviewer Rating:
This book is very much a brief reference for Ruby -- it is consistent with the general philosophy of the nutshell series. Don't expect to learn ruby from this book even if you are already an experienced programmer. It is strictly a reference for those who need a quick reminder of the syntax.

Coverage of semantics is very limited and examples are few and far between.

Slightly dated (1st printing) but good "quick" reference. - 2004-10-14
Reviewer Rating:
Forgotten the name of the libarary that does directory listings? Need to know the method of the IMAP libarary? This is the book for that. Full documentation, look elsewhere, but as a handy guide to keep on your desk. Not a beginners learn to code Ruby book, but a beginners and intermediates quick look up the method book. Learning Ruby? Get this _AND_ a beginner tutorial book. It will speed up your learning curve.

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