Great book, having come from Python, it's an excellent way to add Ruby to my skill set. Unlike some technology books it's not dry and is an easy read

The code examples are too brief and lack explanation.. In some parts the code samples do not run at all, and what is worse is when I feel I simply mistyping something and need to reference the books code from githut, half the chapters are missing. If you can muddle your way through it, perhaps you can learn some ruby code.

I am not new to computer programming; I enjoy learning new languages (new to me that is).That said, I find it infuriating when I come across a poorly written instruction manual. And I find that the vast majority of manuals are poorly written. Just because you can do, does not mean that you can teach.The fact that this book is authored by a person who claims to be a teacher is actually disturbing.I did not make it past the first thirty (30) pages of this book before putting it down in disgust.Let me explain; the author claims that this book is for beginners and yet at every step he uses terms that would be utterly unknown and confusing to the beginner.I am not a beginner and so I am familiar with the terms, however, such a poor writing style and confusing organization of the information and concepts indicates a true lack of knowledge of the educational process, and will lead the reader to frustration not education.In the second chapter entitled “Ruby Variables” he actually begins with output.There is nothing more than a single paragraph on what exactly variables are, why and how you would use them, he won’t tell you.In his second example of printing out to the console, again not an explanation of variables, he discusses arrays. Arrays is a topic supposedly not covered until chapter seven (7) of the book. Going into detail about a topic not yet covered, and so clearly not known to the reader shows a true lack of educational ability.For some unknown reason he focuses on the “puts” versus the “p” commands, why I do not know, because at this point the beginner still doesn’t even know what variables are.He then proceeds to the function of getting input from the user, again why? You haven’t learned about any of the basics at this point. He explains the “chomp” command with a few lines discussing the removal of the carriage return. We still haven’t even discussed variables, there use, there context, and he is off discussing items that no beginner will know anything about at this stage.His next code example uses the “if” statement, which won’t be covered until chapter 8. So, there is no way that the beginner will understand, or be able to truly follow, along – and I don’t know, learn something!But wait it gets worse, he then discusses scope (finally something relating to variables), except that he hasn’t explained program structure yet. So, scope is much to early, and of course he discusses; methods – not to be learned until chapter 5, loops – not to be learned until chapter 6, collections – not to be learned until chapter 7, and classes – not to be learned until chapter 9.Clearly, he is one of those people who does a brain dump, and simply regurgitates everything that he knows, or can say, all at once. With no context, and no iterative knowledge building. He doesn’t build a house from the ground up, in steps, each piece relying on the last in order to create a sound structure, a foundation.He has no concept that these principles themselves grew up and did not all appear at once. In other words, the very people who created these programming concepts had to slowly; add, modify, and improve them. Which means that they had to learn; why, how, when, and where, to use them. They didn't just happen all at once.It is safe to say that I do not recommend this book, and I would not recommend hiring this person to teach anyone, anything. If I could have given zero stars I would have.