CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2009/wiki1b 7 aj

== RubyLearning.com == [1]

Advertisement supported, thanks to Google. Beginner to Intermediate level language coverage. Structured as an online introductory tutorial. Writing style is rough, not a complete reference, but a way to just dive in. Contains an informal install guide at the very beginning. Includes topic summaries so material can be assimilated by repetition. Uses example and completed modules to deliver concepts visually. Contains pictures and figures for those more challenging OO constructs.

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== Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer’s Guide == [2]

Plenty of inline code examples to follow along with concepts. An online book that provides beginner and intermediate conceptual coverage of the Ruby language. Contains a guide to install Ruby. Advanced feature coverage unavailable online, but through a “second edition” from publisher. Specific documentation of Ruby integration with Windows. Includes a vast appendix of the built-in Ruby libraries, including examples. Broad topic sections that have sometime very long pages, a thorough reference if needed. Pink/Red color scheme is friendly to the eyes. Detailed to the point where it can be used as instructional guide or class textbook.  

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== Little Book of Ruby == [3]

Downloadable Source code examples Though the examples aren’t available within the text, you have to look separately which can be a bit cumbersome. Beginner to Intermediate Topic Coverage Covers from basic method declarations, basic data structures, loops and control statements, as well as class information. Nicely Organized Available in PDF format for easy offline viewing Gives instructions on installation and configuration of Ruby Has aside boxes with more insight into the nature and subtlies of ruby. They help to understand the special characteristics and functionalities of Ruby. Example on bottom of page 32. Definitions are supplied as they are encountered. This can drastically help the readability of the book and prevent having to look them up in a glossary. Contains very few photos for visualizations, but they are used to help clarify more difficult topics. Good solid written clarifications for almost all topics covered. The prose is clear and easy to read.

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== Ruby’s User Guide == [4]

Plenty of source code examples with outputs available within the text. With an added advantage of having output from the programs run in the same windows. Give an example of a code listing. Available via webpage only Beginner to Advanced Coverage Covers from basic method declarations, basic data structures, loops and control statements, class information, regular expressions, iterators, inheritance, method redifinitions, exceptions and more. Organization is not ideal in my eyes, there seems to be no logical flow between sections. The context of the website seems to simply list topics and let the user choose what they wish to see. This organization is probably not ideal for first time or inexperienced programmers Instructs users on how to use the ruby console window for helping to learn simple syntax and programming constructs. The website displays many examples for every topic, though many times the explanation is skimmed down and left to the user to figure out. This may be due that the document was originally translate from Japanese. Many subtlies of the Ruby language are covered in this guide and could help new users to avoid problems before they are encountered. Though many of the subtlies are not discussed in a logical fashion and are covered on their own subpages.

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== Ruby QuickRef == [5]

Not a convential tutorial, but an essential guide to looking up syntax for Ruby. Intermediate to Advance coverage Covers simple things from basic class defining all the way to advanced topics such as environment variables, exceptions, standard library modules, testing, and debugger controls The Quick Reference has little to no explanation for each topic, but contains a good basic example for determining the syntax needed to perform some action. Give an example of something here. This is not a very useful guide for most new programming students. This will be very helpful for students that understand how to program in many languages but get easily confused on syntax for this specific language.