Book Reviews
Members of ChicagoRuby.org write book reviews for the benefit of the entire Ruby on Rails community. If you would like to write a review, dash an email to one of our organizers or mention your interest at the next ChicagoRuby.org meeting.
Apache Cookbook
If you often find yourself working with the Apache web server, O’Reilly’s Apache Cookbook by Ken Coar and Rich Bowen is a must-have reference. The book covers everything necessary to get started with Apache, including installation on both Unix-based operating systems and Windows. Regardless of your experience level with Apache, you’re likely to find many useful tips and tricks in this book.
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Posted by ChicagoRuby.org on May 29, 2008
The Linux Networking Cookbook
- Author: Carla Schroder
- ISBN 10: 0-596-10248-8
- ISBN 13: 9780596102487
- Reviewer: Dean Pannell (aka dinotrac)
Somebody special is coming over for dinner. You’re not a chef, but you can cook well enough to get by, so you grab your best cookbook and get to work.
That’s the idea behind O’Reilly’s Linux Networking Cookbook, by Carla Schroder. Carla has gathered a group of networking recipes that a reasonably Linux-savvy reader can use to address network needs like a seasoned sysadmin. If you want to find out how to hook your Linux workstation to a LAN, get another book. If you are reasonably comfortable with Linux, need to set up an LDAP server, configure single sign-on with Samba for a mixed Linux/Windows LAN, set up a VPN, or troubleshoot network problems without some uppity online geek telling you to RTFM, this book may be what you’re looking for.
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Posted by ChicagoRuby.org on Mar 15, 2008
Learning Ruby
Learning Ruby is exactly what the title says. This book offers a great ‘introduction’ to Ruby as a fun, powerful language. Now I would say that as a Ruby user, I’m not quite advanced but not really a beginner. I would have to say that this book is definitely catered to someone very new to the Ruby world. The book’s author, Michael Fitzgerald, uses a very easy to read style of writing that, to me, made this read far easier than a normal technical book. He uses this same easy to follow/read style in Ruby Pocket Reference and Learning XSLT as well.
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Posted by ChicagoRuby.org on Jan 31, 2008
The Best of Make
- Subtitle: 75 Projects from the pages of MAKE
- Authors: Anthology
- ISBN 10: 0-596-51428-X
- ISBN 13:9780596514280
- Reviewer: Lee DeForest
Rather than being a 370 page book one would read cover-to-cover, this is a book to scan chapter after chapter, project after project. As the title suggests, this is a compilation of home buildable technological projects… some electronic, some mechanical, some whimsical… but all intriguing.
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Posted by ChicagoRuby.org on Jan 19, 2008
The Art of Agile Development
- Authors: James Shore & Shane Warden
- ISBN 10: 0-596-52767-5
- ISBN 13: 9780596527679
- Reviewer: Raymond T. Hightower
The Art of Agile Development offers clear explanations of agile and extreme programming (XP) practices. At the same time, this book feels like it’s written out of order. Throughout the book, terms are used with the promise to define them later on. The reading experience is similar to a traffic jam: start, stop, start, stop. The authors are kind enough to provide page references in most cases, so the reader doesn’t have to refer to the index at each “defined later” moment. Perhaps paper is the wrong medium for this material. A hypertext version would be more reader-friendly.
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Posted by ChicagoRuby.org on Jan 07, 2008