I've been a big fan and advocate of Dr. Steven Holzner's technical writing ever since penned wrote what, in my humble opinion, is THE authoritative JavaScript reference, New Riders' "Inside JavaScript". So it was with great enthusiasm (perhaps unfairly so) that I purchased "Beginning Ruby on Rails" by Wrox. I expected a lot out of it, which goes against my journalism disciplines of approaching each review objectively and without bias.

First, the positives. The good doctor's redeeming quality as a technical author is his ability to make the complex graspable for an audience - being neither too intimidating for the beginning coder, nor too condescending for the experienced architect. In this light, the book is very well done. Also, many readers with whom I've interacted find the holy grail of Rails writing, "Agile Development with Rails" to be too presumptuous and at times difficult to grok. Holzner addresses this crowd very appropriately, so those new to Rails, or Ruby programming, or web development in general will appreciate this book.

I realize that writing an introductory level book on any web framework is a huge undertaking for any platform. An author has to introduce a programming language, object-oriented tenets, database theory, SQL, operating systems support, web server integration, page handling, etc. - and then get into the actual web development. Add to this the challenge of a framework like Rails evolving at such a pace that a major publication might be outdated by the time it hits the shelves, and you've got a pretty daunting task at hand.

Holzner gives a good introduction into the Rails directory structure, working with databases, command-line syntax for creating Rails apps, working with Rails scaffolding, and provides a very healthy discussion for using Ajax in Rails. There's practical code in the book you can yank and use right away (not dependent on previous chapters), and the book shows how to work with WEBrick. There's a nice little section on unit testing, and cited are examples for setting up Rails on a Windows PC, a Mac, or a Linux box, so the content is available to a wide audience.

But with that said, I found the book to be short in a couple of key areas.

Only a scant amount of information was provided on working with XML and for using ActionController for REST-like URL mapping. And there isn't anything at all presented on the use of RJS templates. And there's likewise a tragic omission of using Rails to author web services, and nothing was presented about apps based on real-world relationships from database tables, only a simple one-to-many example. I also found the book to be incomplete without a firm discussion of a page's life cycle when handled by Rails. And there shockingly wasn't enough mentioned about the critical facet of Rails - its underlying Model-View-Controller architecture.

And what winds up being the book's most code-heavy example - a Rails shopping cart using session data and custom models - is merely regurgitation of the Pragmatic Programmers sample in the "Agile..." book.

The book's appendix is merely the answers to the end-of-chapter questions. I would have liked to see such a section dedicated towards more in-depth info on keeping Rails up to date, working with and authoring custom Ruby gems, examples of various sites currently using Rails, URLs to screencasts and podcasts, and IDEs developers can use instead of hand-coding new applications each and every time out. Since the examples mainly create a new rails app for each demo, I worry that the book may allow the first-time reader to misconstrue Rails development as a lot of work for even the simplest of jobs. Which defeats the whole purpose of Rails to begin with.

So, I'm giving this book 3 stars. It's very well written with a friendly voice and it'll get you into Rails fast. It's a great way to start learning RoR development for any level of developer. I've shared it with a few friends in academic circles and also with non-technical people, and it suits both equally effectively. But even at that, and considering myself an experienced - but not expert - Rails developer, the book is a bit incomplete without several critical discussions.

Well written book with very good examples. Especially the source code can became the inspiration for own projects.

This book is for those who have not had any contact with Ruby on Rails. If you've read the most common tutorials on the Internet this book should not help you too much. Even if you're a beginner I'd still recommend Bruce Tate's Ruby on Rails Up and Running instead of this one.
Having said that, the book is well written and uses a language that should allow even those who are not seasoned programmers to understand how Rails works. Every explanation is done using real code, so it's very practical. The chapters on the ruby language are also good enough if you're a beginner.

I'm using this book to teach an Introduction to Rails course at the college level. It is well written, has plenty of good examples, and provides a good introduction to both Ruby and Rails. After working through every example in the text, I can say there are very few (if any) errors in the code - and this is an essential for a beginner's book.

Like many books from Wrox, it's a bit on the wordy side and there are some little used Ruby constructs that could be left out (i.e., print <<, %Q, and others). Also, the end of chapter exercises are a little too trivial. As other reviewers have mentioned, this book is a must read before attempting Agile Programming with Ruby on Rails. Overall this book is worth the money.

It is written in a very clear way and makes it easy to understand for the beginner. Beginners must read this book to prepare themselves to move on to heavier books like Ruby for Rails and Agile Web Development with Rails.

I was able to finish it in one reading during my visit to the local bookstore. It gives a solid basics in Ruby, just enough for a beginner to understand Ruby code for Rails development. I really liked the explanation for Symbols and Blocks. Good job Dr. Holzner!

I have been looking at various books on RoR. Most of them seem to be targeted towards people with some prior knowledge of RoR. This is the first that has been very simple, very clear and that takes you through each step assuming only a VERY BASIC knowledge of HTML and nothing else. If you are new to RoR THIS is the book for you!! It clearly goes through EACH step explaining why & highlighting pieces of code. For example, it does not, like almost all the books that I have read, assume that you already know what MVC means & WHY it is a concept that makes sense to use. the author goes through the process of explaining the concept of Model-View-Controller, while at the same time taking your through SIMPLE easy to understand examples which illustrate the concepts claerly and give you that `light bulb' moment.
The book builds in this way, with examples which keep adding one new simple layer at a time (not several so that you are lost) but eventually leading you into the guts of RoR. Suddenly, without realizing it, you find yourself in the midst of having set up an application without realizing it & this itself makes you understand WHY Ruby for Rails is becoming very popular.
If you want to know what RoR is about and are starting out in this discovery, THIS is the book for you. By the end of the book you will realize that you are ready to start developing your own applications. I am one of those people that need to know why I am doing something - lots of books have simply shown HOW to do things.
This book does both & its the book I have been looking for. The type of book I wanted - the one ``epiphany book''. I suggest that any newbie start with this & then after you read this (& it is an easy read), you can then go to the other books which I think are good after you realize how all this makes sense. I should emphasize that this book as well later deals with most of the more "advanced" topics found in some of the others - but it leads into them gradually in a logical way that helps you understand why & how those tools fall into place with RoR. To further illustrate my previous frustration, I had previously seen several mind-blowing online screencasts on "unit tests", but it was not clear to me exactly what a "unit test" was, and why they were done & how the way RoR dealt with them made web application more efficient. After reading this book I seem to know WHY & HOW ALL these things come together to make RoR the talk of web development.

The book only requires that you know some LITTLE html, & the author obviously introduces Ruby to start - in the same easy style (even including "try it outs" together). Again, the author SHOWS how and why the 2 work together. All those little things that no one bothered to tell you about will be revealed by reading this book...