[...]... presentation by David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Rails, at the 2004 International Ruby Conference Ruby for Rails sounds like it might mean “…as opposed to regular Ruby, ” a tool for dividing Ruby users into Rails and non-Rails camps I saw it as the opposite: real Ruby, regular Ruby, on its own terms, but studied primarily because of what it can do for Rails developers I was in a good position to understand... of Ruby on Rails Partner at 37signals preface When the editors at Manning asked me whether I thought the time was ripe for a new Ruby book, and if so, what it should be about and who should write it, I answered: “Yes A Ruby language book purpose-written for Rails practitioners Me.” They agreed I warmly welcomed the opportunity I’d been thinking along Ruby for Rails” lines since I started using the Ruby. .. imagine a better person to write Ruby for Rails It’s a great honor to have the man who taught me so much about Ruby now help others understand the language for use with my framework This is the book that everyone coming from another language to Rails should have To fully realize the potential of Rails, it’s crucial that you take the time to fully understand Ruby and with Ruby for Rails David has provided... style, are my responsibility alone about this book Welcome to Ruby for Rails This book is an introduction to the Ruby programming language, purpose-written for people whose main reason for wanting to know Ruby is that they’re working with, or are interested in working with, the Ruby on Rails framework and want to do Rails knowledgeably and right Ruby is a general-purpose, object-oriented, interpreted programming... those things, you need a Ruby foundation That’s what this book—written specifically for you, the Rails enthusiast who wants to do it right—will give you Ruby for Rails is a Ruby how-to book, more than a Rails how-to book That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read Rails how-to books too But if you’re serious about Rails, you should learn at least as much Ruby as this book contains How Ruby can help you, in more... Author Online Purchase of Ruby for Rails includes free access to a private Web forum run by Manning Publications where you can make comments about the book, ask technical questions, and receive help from the authors and from other users To access the forum and subscribe to it, point your Web browser to http://www .manning. com/ black This page provides information on how to get on the forum once you are registered,... in the Ruby on Rails framework The goal of this first part of the book is to familiarize you with the landscape of both Ruby and Rails: what’s there, and why, and how it all connects This part contains three chapters: Chapter 1, “How Ruby works,” is about the Ruby programming environment: how to write and execute a Ruby program; where the files associated with Ruby are located; and what tools Ruby gives... approach: I’d been programming in Ruby for almost four years before I started using Rails; and when I did start using it, I quickly gained a view of how a deeper knowledge of Ruby could help Rails programmers achieve their goals An alarm went off in my head, therefore, when I saw how many budding Rails developers were asking themselves whether it was necessary to learn Ruby in order to use Rails The fact... served as the point of extraction for Rails Coming from PHP and Java, I remember how many of Ruby s most wonderful features seemed odd at first “What is it exactly that makes blocks so special?” I thought “They’re just convenience for writing a line of code at the beginning and the end.” Little did I know As I started using Ruby and extracting Rails, I quickly wised up Ruby is such an incredibly rich... (known widely as “Matz”) Introduced in 1994, Ruby rose rapidly in popularity among Japanese programmers By the early 2000s, more than twenty Japanese-language books on Ruby had been published The first English-language book on Ruby, Programming Ruby by Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt, appeared in late 2000 and ushered in a wave of Ruby enthusiasm outside of Japan Ruby s popularity in the West has grown steadily . h0" alt="" Ruby for Rails Ruby for Rails RUBY TECHNIQUES FOR RAILS DEVELOPERS DAVID A. BLACK MANNING Greenwich (74° w. long.) For online information and ordering of this and other Manning books,. books, please visit www .manning. com. The publisher offers discounts on this book when ordered in quantity. For more information, please contact: Special Sales Department Manning Publications Co. 209. 06830 email: manning@ manning.com ©2006 Manning Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by