Learn Ruby the Hard Way: A Simple and Idiomatic Introduction to the Imaginative World Of Computational Thinking with Code, 3rd Edition

About

Features

• A disciplined, practice-driven training method that works, from top blogger and outstanding teacher Zed Shaw
• Moves from the absolute basics through functions, files, variables, lists, objects -- all the way to building a real web-based game
• CD contains 5+ hours of teaching video
• Refined through Shaw's years of teaching online, where he attracts thousands of visitors per day

Description

You Will Learn Ruby!

Zed Shaw has perfected the world’s best system for learning Ruby. Follow it and you will succeed—just like the hundreds of thousands of beginners Zed has taught to date! You bring the discipline, commitment, and persistence; the author supplies everything else.

In Learn Ruby the Hard Way, Third Edition, you’ll learn Ruby by working through 52 brilliantly crafted exercises. Read them. Type their code precisely. (No copying and pasting!) Fix your mistakes. Watch the programs run. As you do, you’ll learn how software works; what good programs look like; how to read, write, and think about code; and how to find and fix your mistakes using tricks professional programmers use. Most importantly, you’ll learn the following, which you need to start writing excellent Ruby software of your own:

• Installing your Ruby environment

• Organizing and writing code

• Ruby symbols and keywords

• Basic mathematics

• Variables and printing

• Strings and text

• Interacting with users

• Working with files

• Using and creating functions

• Looping and logic

• Arrays and elements

• Hashmaps

• Program design

• Object-oriented programming

• Inheritance and composition

• Modules, classes, and objects

• Project “skeleton” directories

• Debugging and automated testing

• Advanced user input

• Text processing

• Basic game development

• Basic web development

It’ll Be Hard At First. But Soon, You’ll Just Get It—And That Will Feel Great!

This tutorial will reward you for every minute you put into it. Soon, you’ll know one of the world’s most powerful, popular programming languages. You’ll be a Ruby programmer.

Sample Content

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• The Hard Way Is Easier
• Exercise 0: The Setup
• Exercise 1: A Good First Program
• Exercise 2: Comments and Pound Characters
• Exercise 3: Numbers and Math
• Exercise 4: Variables and Names
• Exercise 5: More Variables and Printing
• Exercise 6: Strings and Text
• Exercise 7: More Printing
• Exercise 8: Printing, Printing
• Exercise 9: Printing, Printing, Printing
• Exercise 10: What Was That?
• Exercise 11: Asking Questions
• Exercise 12: Prompting People for Numbers
• Exercise 13: Parameters, Unpacking, Variables
• Exercise 14: Prompting and Passing
• Exercise 15: Reading Files
• Exercise 16: Reading and Writing Files
• Exercise 17: More Files
• Exercise 18: Names, Variables, Code, Functions
• Exercise 19: Functions and Variables
• Exercise 20: Functions and Files
• Exercise 21: Functions Can Return Something
• Exercise 22: What Do You Know So Far?
• Exercise 23: Read Some Code
• Exercise 24: More Practice
• Exercise 25: Even More Practice
• Exercise 26: Congratulations, Take a Test!
• Exercise 27: Memorizing Logic
• Exercise 28: Boolean Practice
• Exercise 29: What If
• Exercise 30: Else and If
• Exercise 31: Making Decisions
• Exercise 32: Loops and Arrays
• Exercise 33: While Loops
• Exercise 34: Accessing Elements of Arrays
• Exercise 35: Branches and Functions
• Exercise 36: Designing and Debugging
• Exercise 37: Symbol Review
• Exercise 38: Doing Things to Arrays
• Exercise 39: Hashes, Oh Lovely Hashes
• Exercise 40: Modules, Classes, and Objects
• Exercise 41: Learning to Spe
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