Design Patterns in Ruby
by Russ Olsen · first published 2007
63% recommend38% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Readable, entertaining take on design patterns from a Ruby point of view, one pattern per chapter with a simple example. Suits Ruby beginners and Rails developers, especially those put off by the Gang of Four.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
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Really? Eloquent Ruby is one of the best Ruby books I've read - Russ Olsen is one of the best and most well respected technical writers out there. Design Patterns in Ruby is also excellent.
on “New to Ruby? Tips for the new Rubyist.” ↗The Rails Way is pretty good. http://www.amazon.com/Rails-Way-Addison-Wesley-Professional-... I've found the peepcode webcasts worth their weight in gold, but that's not a book =) And I found Design Patterns in Ruby pretty good for Ruby beginners http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Ruby-Addison-Wesley-Pr... http://peepcode.com/
on “Can you recommend some good RoR books?” ↗if you are new to programming you should read these two books (not free i'm afraid): Design Patterns in Ruby (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby… by Russ Olsen The Art of Rails (Programmer to Programmer) by Edward Benson
on “Rails references” ↗…format - Ruby Toolbox, RubyTrends : all about the ecosystem in real-time. You'll learn here what modules to use/digg in, how to extend your sources of information. Personally I would recommend two books: Design Patterns in Ruby by Russ Olsen and The Art of Rails by Edward Benson
on “Ask HN: Learning RoR, Books & Tutorials?” ↗I LOOOOOOOVE Eloquent Ruby - Russ Olsen's writing style is so awesome. Design Patterns in Ruby is just as enjoyable. I have never heard of POODR before...but given that so many people are listing it in the same "top list" as Eloquent Ruby - I am definitely gonna get it. Hartl's tutorial was a…
on “Rails 4.0: Final version released” ↗I loved it. Beyond pure technical chops, Russ Olsen is a great writer which makes his books stand out to me from other programming books I've read. In Design Patterns in Ruby each chapter handles a different pattern with a simple example that's easy to understand. And at the end of each chapter Olsen points out where that pattern is used "in the wild" in popular ruby projects…
on “Read your Standard Libraries” ↗…design patterns have emerged or the original patterns had mutated. A couple of those worth checking out are "Head First Design Patterns" http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Freeman/dp/... "Design Patterns In Ruby" http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Ruby-Russ-Olsen/dp/032... "Learning JavaScript Design Patterns" http://www.amazon.com/Learning-JavaScript-Design-Patterns-Os...
on “Ask HN: How best to learn software design principles?” ↗I believe I started with Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional by Peter Cooper. I liked The Well Grounded Rubyist and I've heard Eloquent Ruby is also good. Design Patterns in Ruby is less about ruby and more about design patterns, but still a good read. I learned a lot about Rails from Michael Hartl's Ruby on Rails Tutorial book. I learned the most through doing, though. I would…
on “Lambda School wants to teach nursing” ↗…I've mostly steered away from the classics (Gang of Four just didn't make sense from a Ruby point-of-view), but there are often more practical, up-to-date equivalents in the language of your choice. "Design Patterns in Ruby" and "Eloquent Ruby", both by Russ Olsen, stand out for me. Ruby Koans, and then implementing a bunch of common sorting algorithms have kept me keen to keep learning the more theoretical side of stuff.…
on “Ask HN: How many "self-taught" programmers and how did you do it?” ↗about Rails: - Rails Antipatterns - Rails 3 in Action - The Rails 3 Way - Ruby for Rails about Ruby: - Eloquent Ruby - Design Patterns in Ruby - Well Grounded Rubyist - Metaprogramming Ruby
on “Learning Ruby on Rails Book/Tutorial Literature” ↗Design Patterns in Ruby would probably be a good place to start, then the original GoF Design Patterns book, along with Enterprise Design Patterns which came later. Also check out the DDD/CQRS google group: http://groups.google.com/group/dddcqrs
on “The problem with controllers” ↗…exposure to stuff like design patterns. The whole experience left me in a bad place. Now after all these years, Ruby feels like a breath of fresh air, and the texts that I have come across on the subject - Design Patterns in Ruby, Practical OOD in Ruby, Ruby under a Microscope etc. have increased my interest in the language. But more and more frequent articles on Ruby's decline are pretty disheartening.
on “Python Is Eating the World” ↗…much I emailed the author and - embarrassingly - told him he was the Mark Twain of programming books! He replied and was also very embarrassed by the comparison. Or maybe that was for his other book, Design Patterns in Ruby, I don't remember as I try hard to forget the details of embarrassing moments. I'm still waiting for a Lacuna-like company to arise and help me forget them all… Still, either book is well worth a read,…
on “_why's Estate” ↗The Tao te Ching – Lao Tzu. Classic and calming. Also Design Patterns in Ruby, which is rather entertaining for a programming book.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading right now?” ↗…right up your street: http://patshaughnessy.net/ruby-under-a-microscope If you're looking for more general but advanced books there are loads of fantastic ones - some of my favourites are Eloquent Ruby, Design Patterns in Ruby, Metaprogramming Ruby and there's Crafting Rails Applications for Rails (though I haven't started this myself yet - but I hear it's very good).
on “Anyone Can Ride Rails - should I write this book?” ↗