Ruby on Rails: Books
Agile Web Development with Rails (4th Ed)
The original, must have Ruby on Rails book gets a worthy update for the new Rails 3 world.
List price: $43.95 Amazon price: $24.24
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The Well-Grounded Rubyist
An extremely clear introduction to the Ruby programming language.
List price: $44.99 Amazon price: $29.54
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Metaprogramming Ruby: Program Like the Ruby Pros
Metaprogramming is a technique every Ruby programmer should have in his repertoire of tools. This book walks through the Ruby fundamentals required to fully understand and learn metaprogramming.
List price: $32.95 Amazon price: $18.12
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Ruby in Practice
A cookbook of a variety of techniques and solutions to common development problems.
List price: $39.99 Amazon price: $29.00
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Ruby By Example
Concepts and Code
A unique approach to learning Ruby, “Ruby by Example” walks through numerous working scripts, taking each one apart and studying the language technique, features, and external libraries that make the script tick.
List price: $29.95 Amazon price: Not Available
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Pro MySQL
Discussion of MySQL with a focus on advanced techniques including programming, administration, performance analysis, etc.
List price: $49.99 Amazon price: $30.15
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics, 2nd Edition
If your knowledge of statistics is a bit rusty (or you missed the topic the first time around), this book, title aside, is a good primer on the basics. Understanding statistics will greatly help when using performance analysis tools and services among other typical programming tasks.
List price: $19.95 Amazon price: $13.32
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Capacity Planning for Web Services: Metrics, Models, and Methods
Discusses capacity planning, performance analysis and modeling throughout a web application or service infrastructure.
List price: $59.99 Amazon price: $44.30
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Solaris(TM) Performance and Tools: DTrace and MDB Techniques for Solaris 10 and OpenSolaris (Solaris Series)
While the primary focus of the book is performance analysis on Solaris, this book’s coverage of DTrace, a very powerful low level analysis tool, is very useful. Mac OS X now has a DTrace port, so it is possible to explore it there.
List price: $59.99 Amazon price: $40.20
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Deploying Rails Applications
A Step-by-Step Guide
Everything from source control and migrations to Capistrano, rake tasks and beyond. How to deploy your applications to multiple production servers with a single command using Capistrano. How to setup a Rails/Nginx/Mongrel cluster for applications with high scalabilty needs.
List price: $34.95 Amazon price: Not Available
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Learn to Program
A gentle introduction to programming in Ruby.
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Simply Rails 2
An excellent beginners introduction to Rails, fully updated for Rails 2.0. (The first edition was called “Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Application.”) The book is structured around the construction of a Digg clone, providing ample explanation at each step for beginners to understand what’s going on.
List price: $39.95 Amazon price: $25.83
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Ruby on Rails Web Mashup Projects
A very useful book for intermediate Rails programmers, providing examples of applications using many web services and APIs, including those from Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, Technorati, Paypal, and more. (Written for Rails 1.2.)
List price: $44.99 Amazon price: $39.03
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Advanced Rails Recipes
84 New Ways to Build Stunning Rails Apps
A great follow-on to the pioneering Rails Recipes book, this book has dozens of short recipes covering a wide range of Rails tasks. The recipes are not necessarily more advanced than those in the original book, but cover new territory. Written for Rails 2.0.
List price: $38.95 Amazon price: $26.48
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Practical REST on Rails 2 Projects
How to create and consume web services using Ruby on Rails 2.0 and RESTful design. Includes client examples in JavaScript, JSON, and for the iPhone. Also includes a Facebook application example.
List price: $42.99 Amazon price: $32.24
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Rails for PHP Developers
Learn Ruby and Ruby on Rails from a PHP developer’s point of view.
List price: $36.95 Amazon price: Not Available
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Pro Active Record
Databases with Ruby and Rails
A detailed treatment of Active Record, unfortunately marred by a few errors. Look for the next edition.
List price: $39.99 Amazon price: $26.52
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Practical Ruby Gems
An introduction to Ruby Gems and an overview of many general purpose and niche gems.
List price: $39.99 Amazon price: $8.96
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Fit for Developing Software
: Framework for Integrated Tests (Robert C. Martin Series)
Introduces the Fit open source framework which focuses on a simple way to specify business rules, express them with concrete examples, and organize and run them in a simple way that can be managed by a project’s non programming customers.
List price: $64.99 Amazon price: $43.80
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Working Effectively with Legacy Code
Robert C. Martin Series
A detailed examination of strategies to work with large code bases that may be largely untested, legacy code. Discusses refactoring, unit, functional, and integration testing, and approaches of decoupling code to reduce dependencies.
List price: $59.99 Amazon price: $41.85
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Test Driven
TDD and Acceptance TDD for Java Developers
While this book presents code examples in Java, the concepts are applicable to any language. The case for Test Driven Development is made, application of TDD to different kinds of programming is shown, and then extended to discuss going full on Acceptance testing with TDD techniques.
List price: $44.99 Amazon price: $29.69
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How to Break Web Software
Functional and Security Testing of Web Applications and Web Services
Examines all aspects of exploiting web software and where to look to improve your architecture and code’s security.
List price: $54.99 Amazon price: $32.44
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Test-Driven Development:
A Practical Guide (The Coad Series)
A comprehensive look at Test Driven Development from the perspective of multiple languages, showing not only how it works, but digging in to why it works.
List price: $59.99 Amazon price: $41.35
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Design Patterns in Ruby
Discusses a selection of traditional design patterns as originally presented by the “Gang of Four” and then demonstrates the patterns using the powers of Ruby.
List price: $54.99 Amazon price: $32.99
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Practical Rails Projects
An eclectic collection of real-world example applications from task list management and exercise management to community group and web comics. Most of the projects are Rails 1.2.x based, though one covers Rails 2 when it was still Edge.
List price: $44.99 Amazon price: $22.24
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Practical Ruby Projects
Ideas for the Eclectic Programmer
A collection of wildly different projects that illustrate the diversity of ideas that you can implement with Ruby. Includes making music, animation, games, RubyCocoa, and even writing a Lisp implementation.
List price: $44.99 Amazon price: $32.62
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Advanced Rails
This is one of the first books for people who are comfortable building applications with Ruby on Rails and want a book that goes beyond the usual material covered in a plethora of introductory books. Covers topics such as metaprogramming, creating plugins, using multiple databases, security, and performance optimization.
List price: $34.99 Amazon price: $22.97
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The Rails Way
Comprehensive review of Rails, advanced techniques, what’s new in Rails 2.0.
List price: $54.99 Amazon price: $37.28
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Ruby Pocket Reference
All of Ruby in your hand, this reference gives you the Ruby syntax, documentation for key classes and libraries, information on using various tools (irb, debugger, gems, rake, etc.), and pointers to key external references on the web.
List price: $9.99 Amazon price: $9.99
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Test Driven Development
By Example
Kent Beck’s book was one of the early discussions of TDD and while it doesn’t use Ruby (it is in Java), it provides an easy step by step walk-through of the technique. Quality first development practices demand TDD and related practices as you refactor your code and work incrementally.
List price: $49.99 Amazon price: $32.26
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Practical JRuby on Rails Web 2.0 Projects
Bringing Ruby on Rails to Java
Learn about the JRuby environment and how to port your Ruby on Rails application. Discusses how to leverage the Java and Ruby platforms in combination to create hybrid solutions to various Web 2.0 and Enterprise related problems.
List price: $42.99 Amazon price: $22.35
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Professional Ruby Collection
Mongrel, Rails Plugins, Rails Routing, Refactoring to REST, and Rubyisms CD1
A collection of primers on topics ranging from Mongrel, Rails Plugins, Routing, to various uses of Ruby within Rails and beyond. This “book” is actually a CD with a handful of shorter guides in PDF form, as well as a printed copy of three chapters from other current or upcoming books (RESTful Design, ActiveRecord, and Dynamic/OOP features of Ruby).
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Rails for Java Developers
If you are coming to Rails from the Java environment, this book will provide a helpful compare and contrast discussion as you get your head around Ruby and Rails. It describes the major functions of the Rails framework and uses corresponding popular tools from Java to illustrate their strengths and weaknesses.
List price: $34.95 Amazon price: $26.56
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Ruby for Rails
Ruby Techniques for Rails Developers
Walks the reader through learning Rails from the point of view of learning the language it is built on. Alternates focus on Rails with chapters on learning Ruby fundamentals.
List price: $44.95 Amazon price: $32.12
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Practical Rails Social Networking Sites
Walks the reader through building a “Social Networking” site that includes how to construct a community focused set of tools (Blogs, commenting, tagging).
List price: $44.99 Amazon price: $24.02
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RailsSpace: Building a Social Networking Website with Ruby on Rails
Walks the reader through building a “Social Networking” site that includes how to construct a community focused set of tools (Blogs, commenting, tagging).
List price: $54.99 Amazon price: $32.44
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Ruby Cookbook
Collection of focused “How-To” articles using the Ruby language to solve common problems.
List price: $49.99 Amazon price: $31.49
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Everyday Scripting with Ruby
For Teams, Testers, and You
Teaches the Ruby language by building practical tools.
List price: $29.95 Amazon price: $19.67
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Agile Web Development with Rails
This is the original Rails book that started it all. Written by the creator of Rails, David Heinemeier Hansson and noted Pragmatic Programmer Dave Thomas, this book is part tutorial and part reference. For a beginner, there are better books now if you are new to Ruby, but for everyone, this is a tomb you should have within reach on your desk. Second Edition covers Rails 1.2.
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Programming Ruby
The original English language Ruby reference. Great reference, but other books have since come out that are better for beginners. Covers Ruby 1.8.
List price: $44.95 Amazon price: $24.81
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Rails Cookbook
Collection of focused “How-To” articles covering wide selection of Rails and related web development topics.
List price: $39.99 Amazon price: $26.25
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RESTful Web Services
Deep dive into what REST is, comparing REST with alternate and hybrid approaches, and guiding the reader into best practices.
List price: $39.99 Amazon price: $24.34
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Rails Recipes
Collection of focused “How-To” articles covering broad selection of topics mostly focused on Rails itself.
List price: $32.95 Amazon price: $21.64
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Ajax on Rails
Focused discussion of integrating AJAX within a Rails environment.
List price: $39.99 Amazon price: $26.25
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Ruby on Rails: Up and Running
Beginner book that gives you a taste of Ruby and Rails development.
List price: $29.99 Amazon price: Not Available
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Rails Solutions: Ruby on Rails Made Easy
Walks through using Rails to develop applications from the point of view that the reader may be more of a beginner programmer (or even a designer).
List price: $34.99 Amazon price: $26.59
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Enterprise Integration with Ruby
Discusses integrating Ruby programs, using associated libraries, with legacy systems. Here “legacy” largely means systems that may not be implemented with Ruby bases technologies and covers such tools as LDAP and logging.
List price: $32.95 Amazon price: $32.95
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Beginning Ruby
From Novice to Professional
Beginning Ruby is, despite its title, not just a beginner’s book. It does start at the beginning, and it is written without assuming a lot of background, but it is not a simplified, dumbed-down treatment. I found it to be very easy to read, and it follows a natural progression from language basics through a variety of advanced topics.
The author, Peter Cooper, is a very experienced Ruby programmer, and his insights shine throughout the book. Among many other things, he’s the creator of Feed Digest, Ruby Inside, and code snippets, which he sold to DZone. He was recently interviewed for the Rails Podcast.
In addition to an exposition of the language that builds nicely over the course of the book, there’s chapters on the Ruby ecosystem, how to design an application, and network programming. There’s also a chapter that covers many of the useful libraries and gems.
There is one chapter that summarizes Rails, but this is definitely a Ruby book, not a Rails book.
List price: $39.99 Amazon price: Not Available
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The Ruby Way, Second Edition
Solutions and Techniques in Ruby Programming
More akin to a Cookbook format, The Ruby Way provides valuable how-to information for common and esoteric programming problems using the Ruby language. Most useful if you already are familiar with Ruby and when used as a reference.
List price: $49.99 Amazon price: $31.49
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