Ruby on Rails For Dummies

As Dummies books go, this one is slightly better than average in writing style. The usual problem is that it covers too much ground, is not really for beginners once you get past chapter 3, and with a few silly jokes tries to put a dummies gloss on the whole affair.But the biggest problem here is that all of the underlying software tools that were helpfully provided in screen shots are long gone. The environment is complex and nearly every single featured component as of 2011 is totally different from the versions described in the book.If you visit the author's web site for help, there is help but it is often in the spirit of "forget the tool in the book, use this instead". Um, ok but now the book's instructions are nearly useless.The next edition should drop all the fancy helper apps, which morph every 4 months, and go back to basic building blocks. Yes I mean the command line.

I think this book is probably fine for what it does. Unfortunately, I bought it for what it does not do. The book assumes that you are going to do all of your Ruby on Rails programming on your local machine using GUI (Graphical User Interface) programs. This is all very well and good, but I need to write my Ruby on Rails programs on a remote Unix server using a text editor like emacs, so this book was totally useless.

the book is ok but it is very dated at this point. the procedures to install rails is so different that the book is no longer a valid resource. I did not finish it since I had so much trouble just installing the compiler I figured the work tasks might be hard to perform if the IDE was so different since the time this book was written. I would not recommend this book just because of the out of date references. published in 2007

I needed a jumpstart to learing more about Ruby on Rails and this book was the answer. Although most of the software listed is outdated, I easily converted the instructions to apply to the new software. It was a great tool and assisted me in my search for a better web design tool.

I bought several books including this one to get a basic idea of Ruby for a contract job. The more I studied Ruby the more I came to believe that the supporters are selling a IDE (integrated developer interface) and the language itself has very little to offer. I declined the contract job. PHP has a vastly more comprehensive tool set and the PHP program directory structure is much more manageable.

Would buy again, love it! Packed well, shipped on time.

Very helpful for school project.

First I want to make clear who this book is for an who it isn't. If you are a real programmer, not someone like me with just a smattering of PHP and JavaScript, you will find this book entirely too basic. It is a true Dummies book, an introduction not a complete course. If you tried the Ruby on Rails (RoR) bible, Agile Web Development with Rails, and found it a bit over your head, you should find this an kinder and gentler primer.Ruby on Rails for Dummies assumes absolutely no prior programming experience. It doesn't even assume any command line knowledge. It does assume a decent grounding in HTML and CSS, but that's true of any web based programming book. Going directly from a visual web layout tool to RoR will be too big a leap. It would be like trying to complete a 10 K run after practicing by jogging a mile three times a week for a month or so. You might get through it but the process would be more than a bit painful. But if you have your hand coding chops but no real programming background you should find this book a gentle introduction to Ruby on Rails.It made a number of ideas clear that the Agile book assumed I was already familiar with. It provides a nice quick start to RadRails, a free RoR development environment, which somewhat insulates you from the straight command line approach taken my more advanced RoR texts and provides a pre-packaged Ruby on Rails development environment. There is also a short introduction to the Ruby programming language. It's very basic but probably helpful.Ruby on Rails for Dummies proceeds step-by-step through a couple of very simple RoR applications. It's enough to get your feet wet and make more advanced books approachable. It does not provide enough of a knowledge base to actually go out and start developing web applications. You'll still need to get a more advanced book but at least you will have a decent foundation on which to build.

Just a brief warning that the initial part of this book regarding the download and setup of the radrails and MySQL are out of date. I wrote to Barry Burd who said that he had not been asked to write a second edition and update the book but he had left some updated instructions on the Dummies Website which may or may not be redundant by now, I have not gone there yet and I guess we cannot expect him to keep updating each time new releases of software emerge. Personally I think the publishers are at fault here but such is the nature of technology and software that books can be out of date before they are printed, in one way or another.I am sure the rest of the book is value for money as Barry seems an honest bloke and is an expert in his field. But if you are just starting with programming, you might want to find the download and setup instructions elsewhere.

Rather than teach the reader how to get started with Ruby on Rails, this book focuses on some tools/ide/editor programs which are either out of date, obsolete, or incompatible with the OS platforms I'm using.I downloaded a free "getting started" guide from the Rails WWW site and I was up-and-running in under an hour, using only a text editor.I've bought a lot of "Dummies" books in the past. In this case, I turned out the be the Dummy ;O(

I should have paid more attention to the 2008 review which said that this book was outdated even then. In 2011 it is certainly outdated. It is difficult to follow the exercises as those versions of the software are no longer available. There is some help on the book's own web page but this is rather limited and it is itself out of date.The Dummies series is usually excellent but this one should be withdrawn and replaced by a new edition.

very good item I would recommend it

Out of date instructions on how to setup a usable framework. Left me with having to use alternative software that of course conflicted with the actual coding examples. Sadly this is a poor choice book for someone starting Ruby on Rails.