9781593271480

There may be no better way to learn how to program than by dissecting real, representative examples written in your language of choice. Ruby by Example analyzes a series of Ruby scripts, examining how the code works, explaining the concepts it illustrates, and showing how to modify it to suit your needs. Baird's examples demonstrate key features of the language (such as inheritance, encapsulation, higher-order functions, and recursion), while simultaneously solving difficult problems (such as validating XML, creating a bilingual program, and creating command-line interfaces). Each chapter builds upon the previous, and each key concept is highlighted in the margin to make it easier for you to navigate the book.

Kevin C. Baird received his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He originally wrote his dissertation in Python but rewrote the project after discovering Ruby, and he hasn't looked back since. He has presented at RubyConf and written articles for Linux Journal, Music & Computers magazine, and the New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference proceedings.

Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Introduction: What is Ruby?	p. xix
Acquiring and Configuring Ruby	p. xx
On a Unix or Unix-like System	p. xx
On a Windows System	p. xxi
Motivations for the Book	p. xxi
Conventions	p. xxii
Summary of Chapters	p. xxii
Interactive Ruby and the Ruby Environment	p. 1
Starting irb	p. 2
Using irb	p. 2
Expressions	p. 2
Everything Is an Object	p. 2
Integers, Fixnums, and Bignums	p. 3
Addition, Concatenation, and Exceptions	p. 4
Casting	p. 4
Arrays	p. 5
Booleans	p. 6
Flow Control	p. 6
Methods	p. 8
Variables	p. 9
Constants	p. 10
Using the Ruby Interpreter and Environment	p. 10
Amusements and Simple Utilities	p. 13
Is It Payday? (check_payday.rb)	p. 14
The Code	p. 14
How It Works	p. 14
The Results	p. 16
Random Signature Generator (random_sig.rb and random_sig-windows.rb)	p. 16
The Code	p. 16
How It Works	p. 16
Running the Script	p. 19
The Results	p. 19
Hacking the Script	p. 19
The 99 Bottles of Beer Song (99bottles.rb)	p. 20
The Code	p. 20
How It Works	p. 21
Running the Script	p. 25
The Results	p. 25
Sound File Player (shuffle_play.rb)	p. 25
The Code	p. 26
How It Works	p. 27
Running the Script	p. 29
The Results	p. 29
Hacking the Script	p. 30
Chapter Recap	p. 31
Programmer Utilities	p. 33
What Is Truth? (boolean_golf.rb)	p. 33
The Code	p. 34
How It Works	p. 34
Hacking the Script	p. 36
Running the Script	p. 36
The Results	p. 36
Making a List (array_join.rb)	p. 36
The Code	p. 37
How It Works	p. 37
Running the Script	p. 39
Hacking the Script	p. 39
Command-Line Interface (uses_cli.rb and simple_cli.rb)	p. 39
The Code	p. 40
How It Works	p. 42
Running the Script	p. 44
Hacking the Script	p. 45
Palindromes (palindrome.rb and palindrome2.rb)	p. 45
The Code	p. 45
How It Works	p. 46
Hacking the Script	p. 46
Running the Script	p. 47
The Results	p. 48
Chapter Recap	p. 49
Text Manipulation	p. 51
End-of-Line Conversion (dos2unix.rb)	p. 51
The Code	p. 52
How It Works	p. 52
Running the Script	p. 55
The Results	p. 56
Hacking the Script	p. 56
Showing Line Numbers (line_num.rb)	p. 57
The Code	p. 57
How It Works	p. 57
Running the Script	p. 58
The Results	p. 58
Wrapping Lines of Text (softwrap.rb)	p. 59
The Code	p. 59
Running the Script	p. 62
The Results	p. 62
Hacking the Script	p. 62
Counting Words in a File (word_count.rb)	p. 62
The Code	p. 63
How It Works	p. 64
Running the Script	p. 64
The Results	p. 64
Word Histogram (most_common_words.rb)	p. 65
The Code	p. 65
How It Works	p. 65
Running the Script	p. 67
The Results	p. 67
Hacking the Script	p. 67
Rotating Characters in a String (rotate.rb)	p. 68
The Code	p. 68
How It Works	p. 68
Running the Script	p. 69
The Results	p. 69
Chapter Recap	p. 70
Number Utilities	p. 71
Computing Powers (power_of.rb)	p. 72
The Code	p. 72
How It Works	p. 73
Running the Script	p. 74
The Results	p. 75
Adding Commas to Numbers (commify.rb)	p. 75
Inheritance	p. 75
Modules	p. 76
The Code	p. 76
How It Works	p. 78
Running the Script	p. 81
The Results	p. 81
Roman Numerals (roman_numeral.rb)	p. 81
The Code	p. 82
How It Works	p. 83
Running the Script	p. 86
The Results	p. 86
Hacking the Script	p. 87
Currency Conversion, Basic (currency_converter1.rb)	p. 87
The Code	p. 88
How It Works	p. 89
Running the Script	p. 90
The Results	p. 90
Hacking the Script	p. 90
Currency Conversion, Advanced (currency_converter2.rb)	p. 90
The Code	p. 91
How It Works	p. 93
Running the Script	p. 97
The Results	p. 97
Hacking the Script	p. 98
Chapter Recap	p. 98
Functionalism with Blocks and Procs	p. 99
Our First lambda (make_incrementer.rb)	p. 100
The Code	p. 100
How It Works	p. 101
The Results	p. 101
Using Procs for Filtering (matching_members.rb)	p. 102
The Code	p. 102
How It Works	p. 102
Running the Script	p. 103
The Results	p. 103
Using Procs for Compounded Filtering (matching_compound_members.rb)	p. 103
The Code	p. 104
How It Works	p. 105
The Results	p. 107
Hacking the Script	p. 108
Returning Procs as Values (return_proc.rb)	p. 108
The Code	p. 108
The Results	p. 109
How It Works	p. 109
Nesting lambdas	p. 111
The Code	p. 111
How It Works	p. 112
Procs for Text (willow_and_anya.rb)	p. 112
The Code	p. 112
How It Works	p. 115
Running the Script	p. 118
The Results	p. 118
Hacking the Script	p. 119
Chapter Recap	p. 119
Using, Optimizing, and Testing Functional Techniques	p. 121
Basic Factorials and Fibonaccis (factorial1.rb through fibonacci5.rb)	p. 122
The Code	p. 122
How It Works	p. 123
The Results	p. 123
Hacking the Script	p. 124
Benchmarking and Profiling (tests/test_opts.rb)	p. 128
Benchmarking	p. 128
The Code	p. 128
How It Works	p. 129
Running the Script	p. 130
The Results	p. 130
Profiling	p. 131
Hacking the Script	p. 132
Converting Temperatures (temperature_converter.rb)	p. 132
The Code	p. 132
How It Works	p. 134
The Results	p. 136
Hacking the Script	p. 136
Testing temperature_converter.rb (tests/test_temp_converter.rb)	p. 137
The Code	p. 137
The Results	p. 138
How It Works	p. 139
Hacking the Script	p. 139
Chapter Recap	p. 140
HTML and XML Tools	p. 141
Cleaning Up HTML (html_tidy.rb)	p. 141
The Code	p. 142
How It Works	p. 144
Running the Script	p. 146
The Results	p. 147
Hacking the Script	p. 148
Counting Tags (xml_tag_counter.rb)	p. 148
The Code	p. 149
How It Works	p. 150
Running the Script	p. 153
The Results	p. 153
Hacking the Script	p. 153
Extracting Text from XML (xml_text_extractor.rb)	p. 154
The Code	p. 154
How It Works	p. 155
Running the Script	p. 155
The Results	p. 155
Hacking the Script	p. 156
Validating XML (xml_well_formedness_checker.rb)	p. 156
The Code	p. 156
How It Works	p. 157
Running the Script	p. 158
The Results	p. 158
Hacking the Script	p. 158
Chapter Recap	p. 159
More Complex Utilities and Tricks, Part I	p. 161
Finding Codes in the Bible or Moby-Dick (els_parser.rb)	p. 161
The Code	p. 162
How It Works	p. 164
Running the Script	p. 167
The Results	p. 167
Hacking the Script	p. 168
Mutating Strings into Weasels (methinks.rb)	p. 168
The Code	p. 168
How It Works	p. 171
Running the Script	p. 174
The Results	p. 174
Hacking the Script	p. 175
Mutating the Mutation of Strings into Weasels (methinks_meta.rb)	p. 176
The Code	p. 177
How It Works	p. 179
Running the Script	p. 181
The Results	p. 181
Hacking the Script	p. 182
Chapter Recap	p. 183
More Complex Utilities and Tricks, Part II	p. 185
Overnight DJ (radio_playerl.rb)	p. 186
The Code	p. 186
How It Works	p. 187
The Results	p. 189
Hacking the Script	p. 190
Better Overnight DJ (radio_player2.rb)	p. 190
The Code	p. 190
How It Works	p. 191
The Results	p. 192
Hacking the Script	p. 193
Numbers by Name (to_lang.rb)	p. 193
The Code	p. 194
How It Works	p. 198
The Results	p. 201
Hacking the Script	p. 202
Elegant Maps and Injects (symbol.rb)	p. 203
The Code	p. 203
How It Works	p. 203
The Results	p. 204
Hacking the Script	p. 204
Chapter Recap	p. 204
CGI and the Web	p. 205
Common Gateway Interface	p. 206
Preparation and Installation	p. 206
A Simple CGI Script (simple_cgi.rb)	p. 207
The Code	p. 207
How It Works	p. 208
The Results	p. 210
Hacking the Script	p. 210
Mod Ruby (mod_ruby_demo.rhtml and mod_ruby_demo.conf)	p. 211
The Code	p. 211
How It Works	p. 213
The Results	p. 214
Hacking the Script	p. 214
CSS Stylesheets, Part I (stylesheet.rcss)	p. 215
The Code	p. 215
How It Works	p. 216
The Results	p. 217
Hacking the Script	p. 218
CSS Stylesheets, Part II (stylesheet2.rcss)	p. 218
The Code	p. 218
How It Works	p. 220
The Results	p. 220
Hacking the Script	p. 221
Chapter Recap	p. 221
Rubygems and Rails Preparation	p. 223
RubyGems	p. 223
Installing RubyGems	p. 224
Using RubyGems	p. 224
Rails Preparation	p. 227
What Is Rails?	p. 228
Other Options for Installing Rails	p. 228
Databases	p. 229
The Structure of a Rails Application	p. 229
Chapter Recap	p. 235
A Simple Rails Project	p. 237
Creating the Application	p. 237
Initial Creation	p. 238
Preparing the Database	p. 238
Adding Data	p. 238
Creating the Model and Controllers	p. 240
Dissecting the Application	p. 241
Dissecting the Photo Model	p. 241
Dissecting the Controllers	p. 242
Dissecting the Helpers	p. 245
Dissecting the Album Controller's Views	p. 251
Dissecting the Feed Controller's images View	p. 254
Dissecting the Album Controller's Layout	p. 256
Using CSS	p. 257
Using the Application	p. 257
Learning More About Rails	p. 260
Chapter Recap	p. 260
How does Ruby Compare to Other Languages?	p. 261
C	p. 261
Haskell	p. 262
Java	p. 262
Lisp	p. 263
Perl	p. 264
PHP	p. 264
Python	p. 265
Smalltalk	p. 265
Summary of Ruby vs. Other Languages	p. 266
Index	p. 267
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Ruby by Example

1593271484

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