Ruby Best Practices book starting its open source release early.

blog.rubybestpractices.com

34 points·sandal··5 comments

This is the first I'm hearing about this, but I'm very glad that it exists.

I think the rails community, in general, is rather unapproachable from the outside. Something that simplifies the process of getting up to speed quickly will be greatly appreciated.

A quick example: where do you find anything about named_scope on guides.rubyonrails.com?

While this book will help improve your Ruby (which will help improve your understanding of Rails) the two are not one in the same. RBP won't answer any direct questions about Rails for you.

I disagree -- understand Ruby will make many parts of Rails crystal clear.

I think that maybe I could have stated my point more clearly. I was just pointing out that except for a few examples, RBP does not talk much about Rails at all. I can say with near certainty, however, that the dynamic toolkit chapter will really help folks understand how Rails implements domain languages and does its meta-programming magic.

What my book won't tell you is anything about Rails's API.

I think the rails community, in general, is rather unapproachable from the outside.

I might not have phrased it that way. The community is very open about helping new developers.

However.

The documentation covers the mechanics of using Rails but you have to know what you're looking for to find anything. Most of the best information is in blog posts or presentations, has a shelf life of 6 to 8 months, and the only semi-reliable way to access it is Google.

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