Message from Dean - May 8th 2007

I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.

• Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional)
• Beginning PHP and MySQL 5: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional)

• Pro Active Record: Databases with Ruby and Rails
• Practical Ruby for System Administration (Expert's Voice in Open Source)
• Advanced Rails
• Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional)
• Practical Rails Projects (Expert's Voice)
• see more

• Biography > Audiobooks > Arts & Photography > Bargain Books
• Books > Specialty Stores > Custom Stores > New & Used Textbooks > Computer Science > Operating Systems
• Books > Specialty Stores > Custom Stores > New & Used Textbooks > Computer Science > Programming Languages
• Books > Specialty Stores > Custom Stores > New & Used Textbooks > Computer Science > Software Design & Engineering
• Books > Specialty Stores > Custom Stores > New & Used Textbooks > Computer Science > General AAS

• Validate credit cards.
• Create graphical interfaces on multiple platforms.
• Speed up Rails applications.
• Develop lightweight web applications.
• Use ActiveRecord to make databases easy.
• Process RSS feeds.
• Prevent spam using CAPTCHA.
• Crop and scale images.
• Tap into the same caching system that runs LiveJournal.com.


And much, much more!



Youll also learn how to package and distribute your own Ruby Gems. This lets you tap into powerful mechanisms for resolving dependencies. And the book takes a detailed look at how Gems differ between operating systems, so youll be prepared whether your desktop runs OS X, Windows, or Linux. Youll also learn how you can share code more easily between projects, optionally sharing your contributions with the world!






Customer Reviews
Average Rating:

Rating: - Essentially good, but plagued by errors and suffers from aging
This book contains three parts:

Part 1 deals with what gems are, how to install them and do version control.
Part 2, the biggest part of the book, contains chapters that deal with different Gems. All of them contain a description and one or two practical examples on how to use the Gems to get something done. All code is explained after that. The book focuses mostly on Gems that can be used in a web development or sysadmin context.
Part 3 is about creating and distributing Gems yourself.

I think the book is a nice read for starters who finished reading their first Ruby book and now want to create something useful. But I think it can be informative for more experienced Rubyists as well. It's pretty well written but I found that a few code listings contain flaws. This is mostly because the Gems used have been renamed, made obsolete by different gems or had other adjustments. So it's mostly due to the books age (April 2007) and some specifics of my operating ... Read More



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Rating: - Helpful introduction, but fairly lightweight and repetitive
For those who aren't aware, ruby gems refers a way of packaging up code so it can be easily distributed for other developers to use, and a tool to help with the distributing and/or installing that code.

On first glancing at this book, I wondered how you could fill a full-length book on the topic of gems. While getting the tools installed on some systems requires care, and there's space for a couple of chapters on packaging your own libraries as gems, both topics have been covered alongside other topics in numerous volumes. What I'd missed was that contents not only covers both of those topics, but also looks at 26 different gems and explains how you might use them in your projects.

The coverage of setting up and using ruby gems at the start of the book, and on packaging and distributing your own gems at the end of the book are brief but cover the basics well enough. It might have been helpful had the latter included a little information on how to include other libraries ... Read More



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Rating: - Good book, if you have a need for it
Some books are more tutorial in nature, some more reference. This one is *really* reference, so much so that if you don't need to use the covered gems, there's no reason to buy the book.
I agree with one reviewer about much online documentation being lacking (to put it mildly), so this book is definitely helpful in that respect. Still, I found the explanations to be on the terse side. (Which some people might prefer.)



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Rating: - Great for expanding the power of ruby
I'm learning Ruby and building Rails applications. This book offers a valuable overview of some of the Gems available for expanding the power of Ruby, including detailed descriptions of a selection of popular Gems. Things like online image manipulation and PDF creation are possible to easily implement with some of the Ruby Gems described in this book.



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Rating: - Practical and clear
Ruby has risen meteorically in prominence in the past few years, and the number of Ruby books has gone from a couple to a couple dozen. I'm pleased to say that this is one of the books that will remain on my bookshelf. Practical Ruby Gems makes few assumptions about the reader's level of knowledge and delivers a brief install-configure-manage tutorial to get novice readers up to speed. The main bulk of the book is 29 short chapters which each highlight a single gem, explain what it's used for, gives a simple script demonstrating how to implement it and has some added commentary on its applicability and explaining the implementation. The final two chapters explain how you can create and distribute your own gems publicly or privately. Overall, the book is clear and concise and filled with useful material.

Disclaimer: I have known David for several years, and we worked together to deliver some LAMP training and run the local LUG. I'm impressed with his level of knowledge and his ability ... Read More


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APF script by MrRat | APF Bridge by Dean Marshall