Hi folks, If you haven''t already heard, my book "Ruby Best Practices" is now available in print! The whole manuscript will be made freely available under a creative commons license in March 2010, but now is the time to buy a copy if you want to support my efforts as well as O''Reilly for publishing it. == Where to buy It should be showing up in stores now, as I confirmed it''s available here in New Haven, but if you want it online: Directly from the publisher: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596523008/ Amazon (likely cheaper, but less $ goes to me that way :) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596523009 == What is the book like? It''s probably not like any other Ruby book you''ve read. It isn''t a reference book or tutorial, but instead, more like commentary you''d expect to hear in a code review. RBP walks through a whole bunch of real open source code, and tries really hard to keep the balance tipped towards realistic examples rather than contrived ones. It isn''t a list of rules or patterns, instead, it tries to drive home the importance of context in problem solving by using a lot of case studies. It''s meant to be read by the chapter, so it won''t make for an easy skim. But if you sit down with your favorite reference book[0] on your desk, and your development environment at the ready, it should be an enjoyable read. It is a Ruby 1.9 book, but most of the techniques should work fine in Ruby 1.8.6. The book is split into 8 core topics and 3 appendices. These cover: * Test Driven Development * API Design * Dynamic Ruby (Metaprogramming, DSLs, etc) * Text Processing and File management (IO, regex, etc) * Functional Programming Techniques * Debugging / Troubleshooting * M17N / L10N (Globalization) * Project Maintenance (rake, Rubygems, rdoc, etc) * Some Ruby 1.8 <-> 1.9 compatibility tips * Ruby''s Standard Library (Quick sample of 10 libs) * Ruby Worst Practices If you''re curious how these chapters are organized, you can look at a free copy of a pre-production version of the metaprogramming chapter: http://cdn.oreilly.com/books/9780596523008/Mastering_the_Dynamic_Toolkit.xml.pdf == Target Audience Anyone who wants to improve their craft as Ruby developers. While it may not be suitable for a raw beginner, it will be useful to anyone who has completed a small project in Ruby, and downright fun for a more seasoned Ruby hacker. == Questions? Just let me know what''s on your mind. I''d be happy to answer whatever questions folks might have about the book. -greg [0] Either the Pickaxe or "The Ruby Programming Language" should do the trick. If you''re more of a Ruby beginner, be sure to read David Black''s "Well Grounded Rubyist" as well.