Suggested Python/RoR book?

Fenster

I'm currently working through a list of programming and scripting languages to give myself some sort of base before I launch into something like C++.

Starting with Bash, which I now have a fair grasp of, I'm moving onto Python and then Ruby on Rails. There's some excellent online documentation out there, but I want to get a reference book at the least for my bookshelf, as its always something handy to have.

I've checked Eason's and PC World in Galway and between them I was able to find only one book covering Bash specifically (rather than a Linux/Unix guidebook) and nothing on Python and only a scant few covering RoR, so what comes suggested here that might be sourced locally?

Inspector Gadget

Hi there Fenster:

Interesting choices

As regards sourcing computing-related books, I think you've already seen the two best options in town. God be with the days you could walk into Charlie Byrne's and pick up publisher's overstock for a few quid each...

Veering back to the availability of specific titles, I'm not sure if I'm telling you things you don't already know, but here goes:

The bash "language" you're learning is merely a variant of what I'd (and I imagine quite a lot of other people would) call "shell script" - bash (a.k.a. the "Bourne Again SHell") is only one of a number of variants (sh, csh, ksh, tcsh, zsh...). Personally, I think the only reason it (bash) sticks in people's heads is that every linux distro I've ever seen uses it as its default shell; on the other hand, OS X, for example, uses tcsh, if I remember correctly. In other words, you may have more luck looking for books on "shell scripting" than "bash" specifically.

Python should be easy enough to find books on - it's relatively mature, and popular in English-speaking countries, including (critically) the US. Seeing as you mentioned Ruby on Rails, you should also probably examine Django, the equivalent for Python, but this is brand new, so I don't know what the book situation is.

Ruby (the language), and Ruby On Rails (the web application framework based on Ruby) are both only gaining popularity in the English-speaking world (though I'm led to believe Ruby is huge in Japan, home of Mats what-his-name who developed it). Ruby on Rails is also very recent, which will probably hamper the range of books available on the subject.

I'm kinda going through a similar phase as yourself; I'm currently trying to figure out Python and wxPython, with an eye to Ruby and ROR later. In case you haven't seen them, check out IPython for a better interactive python shell, and www.pythonchallenge.com for an interesting way to learn a language (or at least it is so far for me, only a few levels in)

Just thought I'd mention this stuff in case it's useful...
Gadget

aidan_walsh

Curiously, RoR seems to be gathering a large following from Java developers...

Fenster

Inspector Gadget wrote:

Hi there Fenster:

Interesting choices

As regards sourcing computing-related books, I think you've already seen the two best options in town. God be with the days you could walk into Charlie Byrne's and pick up publisher's overstock for a few quid each...

Veering back to the availability of specific titles, I'm not sure if I'm telling you things you don't already know, but here goes:

The bash "language" you're learning is merely a variant of what I'd (and I imagine quite a lot of other people would) call "shell script" - bash (a.k.a. the "Bourne Again SHell") is only one of a number of variants (sh, csh, ksh, tcsh, zsh...). Personally, I think the only reason it (bash) sticks in people's heads is that every linux distro I've ever seen uses it as its default shell; on the other hand, OS X, for example, uses tcsh, if I remember correctly. In other words, you may have more luck looking for books on "shell scripting" than "bash" specifically.

Python should be easy enough to find books on - it's relatively mature, and popular in English-speaking countries, including (critically) the US. Seeing as you mentioned Ruby on Rails, you should also probably examine Django, the equivalent for Python, but this is brand new, so I don't know what the book situation is.

Ruby (the language), and Ruby On Rails (the web application framework based on Ruby) are both only gaining popularity in the English-speaking world (though I'm led to believe Ruby is huge in Japan, home of Mats what-his-name who developed it). Ruby on Rails is also very recent, which will probably hamper the range of books available on the subject.

I'm kinda going through a similar phase as yourself; I'm currently trying to figure out Python and wxPython, with an eye to Ruby and ROR later. In case you haven't seen them, check out IPython for a better interactive python shell, and www.pythonchallenge.com for an interesting way to learn a language (or at least it is so far for me, only a few levels in)

Just thought I'd mention this stuff in case it's useful...
Gadget

I agree that shell scripting is just that, scripting, but I'm of the opinion that most of what you see while writing shell scripts you'll also see in more complex forms later on in other languages. I was looking at a snippet of code a few days back and was suprised to see it was C, and not a shell script. So in short, I see shell scripting as an excellent place to start into programming, no matter what you plan to do.

For Python and Ruby after that, using Portage in Gentoo Linux inspired me to give Python a look at and for Ruby, I want to work on something web related.

Feh, I'm sure someone will jump in saying I should just go and learn C++, Java or whatever, but those languages frankly don't interest me right now. I'm learning for my own knowledge, not for a career path.

I'm installing iPython right now, BTW, I'll see how it goes.

rsynnott

Inspector Gadget wrote:

The bash "language" you're learning is merely a variant of what I'd (and I imagine quite a lot of other people would) call "shell script" - bash (a.k.a. the "Bourne Again SHell") is only one of a number of variants (sh, csh, ksh, tcsh, zsh...). Personally, I think the only reason it (bash) sticks in people's heads is that every linux distro I've ever seen uses it as its default shell; on the other hand, OS X, for example, uses tcsh, if I remember correctly. In other words, you may have more luck looking for books on "shell scripting" than "bash" specifically.

Yes, he does indeed. Bash is the major usable variant of sh, and largely consists of cosmetic changes; scripts should be similar enough. The ones with 'csh' are a slightly different, lesser-used language.

Syth

I learned Python from an excellent book called Dive into Python. It assumes you already know another programming language, so it quickly gets the basic syntax out of the way. Then it gets on the the fun Python stuff. The whole book is available online for free at [ur]http://www.diveintopython.org[/url].