Learn Ruby the Hard Way: A Simple and Idiomatic Introduction to the Imaginative World Of Computational Thinking with Code (Zed Shaw's Hard Way Series)

This book is great. I'm doing everything Zed suggests and it takes the time it takes. I've tried several other books and online resources, including videos at coding schools, and this one is the best I have found. It feels like a thorough foundation in the basics of Ruby, but since I'm a beginner, I can only speak at my level of expertise at the moment. Zed is a great teacher. Learning the basics of any complex pursuit can be inherently tedious, but Zed's humor and empathy help you stick with it. I highly recommend buying this book.

I've found Zed's LRTHW book to be a great stepping stone into programming and feel that it truly offered me a better understanding Ruby than some of the online tutorials I'd gone through previously. I came to this book after completing some online courses that were essentially "here's something, copy it, hit submit, wasn't that cool!" and even going through most of the books companion site. I found the videos quite helpful for the later chapters, and I really appreciate the authors honesty in many sections of the book. Overall LRTHW is a really great introduction to the Ruby programming language, and I only wish that the book itself would have delved into some more advanced topics in the later chapters or offered another project on top of the Sinatra web-app (a fun little text adventure game) that you build and refactor over the last few chapters.

So Far So Good. I have read Learn Python the Hard way few month ago. It was absolutely best way to get started. Stick with thhis book and you will get there. I started this book few days ago, I will keep this comment updated with my experience and thoughts.

Love the book. Been really trying to get into programming again and ruby was one language I wanted to learn still going through the chapters but love it

The book basically goes like this: 1. Type exactly what I typed and run it. 2. If you don't understand what I did, google it and find out. That's really what he says.Also, the author assures you that you can reach out to him for questions, which I did, but of course got no response. And the publisher's site doesn't let you contact them either.Any other book on the subject would be better.

Weren't kidding about the hard way haha. But seriously is handy to help me get started learning. If ever stuck just go on youtube and like it up. It has easy fixes.

I am finding it pretty useful for learning Ruby. In fact, he's succeeded in getting me to finally start to grasp OOP. But, it's riddled with typos and misprints which can make following confusing. I'm only 2/3 finished. I'll update my rating when I finish reading it completely.

I really like Zed Shaw's writing style and the way he teaches programming.

Great book for the novice coder, Learned a lot from Zed and hos humour and odd curse kept me listening / watching. Only complaint was the amount of fluff in the code we were writing for the choose your own adventure model, wish he used a different project to work on.

...der wird mit einem überaus wirksamen Kurs belohnt, der didaktisch sehr gut aufgebaut ist und von Anfang an stark auf Eigeninitiative setzt. Man sollte sich an alle Anweisungen des Autors halten - der Mann weiß, was er tut, um dem Lernenden dabei zu helfen, die Inhalte nicht nur zu vermitteln, sondern sie auch gleich gut zu festigen.

This is a very good book for someone without prior experience in Ruby and in programming in general. It will help the absolute beginner to get familiar with the language and how to use basic structures.

Este libro trata de ser una introducción a la programación a través de Ruby; un lenguaje multiparadigma que cubre la Programación Orientada a Objetos, pero que falla de manera catastrófica al serlo.La mayor parte del código no es claro, no está comentado, no hay una explicación del porque hace tal cosa y utiliza funciones que el autor no explica. En estos casos el autor pide al lector buscar en Internet toda esta información, pero si compras un libro de programación supones que el libro contiene una explicación de las cosas, no una lista de palabras desconocidas que tienes que buscar en Internet y aprender a utilizar por tu cuenta.El autor expone varias veces que la Programación Orientada a Objetos se le hace algo muy "extraño" y admite que es algo que no domina (Ruby es un lenguaje orientado a objetos), el código y sus explicaciones sobre clases y objetos no son claras y pide que el lector busque en Internet toda la información. Para una persona que nunca ha programado se le hará extremadamente difícil seguir estos capítulos del libro, pero si tienes un poco de experiencia con un lenguaje como C++ lo tendrás un poco más fácil, ya que entiendes lo que es un constructor, destructor, herencia y polimorfismo, lo que el autor no explica en su libro, pero utiliza algunas de estas propiedades en sus ejemplos.Citando unas partes del libro:"WARNING! Programmers will tell you to read this guy named "Dijkstra" on this subject. I recommend you avoid his writings on this unless you enjoy being yelled at by someone who stopped programming at the same time programming started."Si no sabes quien es Dijkstra busca su artículo en Wikipedia."My problem is that Object-Oriented Programming (OPP) is just plain weird."Si eres una persona la cual nunca ha programado en toda su vida o quiere una introducción a Ruby te recomiendo buscar información en Internet (Algo que tendrás que hacer si compras este libro), buscar otro libro o leer este libro en línea de manera gratuita.

Ordered and paid for "New" and got book with stain on corner and sections in the first 30% have been highlighted. Not even close to "New".