Although Yukihiro Matsumoto released Ruby in 1995, it would take more than a decade for the programming language to achieve widespread adoption. Today, Ruby is one of the fastest growing coding languages, and it is behind major sites like Hulu and Twitter. This book describes the history of the language, the relationship between Ruby and Ruby on Rails, and why Ruby is an ideal first language for new programmers, complete with tips on how readers can get started.
Ruby on Rails is a feature-rich, easy to learn, and powerful web application framework that makes creating sophisticated, full featured web applications a snap. With the intuitive, straightforward nature of Ruby and the development platform provided by Rails, anyone can put together full-fledged web applications quickly, even if they're new to web programming. Ruby on Rails Power! is a comprehensive introduction to both the Ruby language and the Ruby on Rails framework, providing you with everything you need to author the next successful Web 2.0 application. It starts with the basics: installing Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and MySQL, and building a simple application in Rails. Then, since the Ruby on Rails framework is powered by the Ruby language, the book moves on to cover the basics of Ruby, making the learning curve for Ruby on Rails much easier to navigate. From there, the fundamentals everyone needs to develop a robust web application in Rails are covered in depth, from creating an interface to create, retrieve, update and delete records in a database with the Rails scaffold generator, to understanding the Model View Controller paradigm (Active Record, Action Controller and Action View) and using web services, AJAX, and Adobe Flex. By the end of the book, you'll have created numerous applications in Rails, including a blog, a wiki, and a forum.
A New York Times bestseller and Oprah Book Club 2.0 selection, the epic, unforgettable story of a man determined to protect the woman he loves from the town desperate to destroy her. This beautiful and devastating debut heralds the arrival of a major new voice in fiction. Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby Bell, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city—the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village—all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, thirty-year-old Ruby finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy. Full of life, exquisitely written, and suffused with the pastoral beauty of the rural South, Ruby is a transcendent novel of passion and courage. This wondrous page-turner rushes through the red dust and gossip of Main Street, to the pit fire where men swill bootleg outside Bloom’s Juke, to Celia Jennings’s kitchen, where a cake is being made, yolk by yolk, that Ephram will use to try to begin again with Ruby. Utterly transfixing, with unforgettable characters, riveting suspense, and breathtaking, luminous prose, Ruby offers an unflinching portrait of man’s dark acts and the promise of the redemptive power of love. Ruby was a finalist for the PEN America Robert Bingham Debut Novel Award, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and an Indie Next Pick.
This book is a comprehensive guide to utilizing and creating Ruby Gems. Coverage provides an enormous code library that will help developers improve their projects. It details 34 of the best and most useful Gems, including ones to speed up web applications, process credit card payments, produce PDF documents, read and update RSS feeds, and acquire real-time shipping prices from FedEx and UPS. Each of these also comes complete with actual use cases and code examples that readers can immediately use in their own projects. In addition, the book describes how readers can package and distribute their own Ruby Gems.
A comprehensive manual of the world's gemstones and includes more than 1,400 examples. Opposite each illustration, this text provides a description of the particular stone, including details of the properties and chemical composition which makes the stone unique. It also gives information on location of major deposits, and alternative names.
NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! From #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer, comes a high-stakes world of adventure, passion, danger, and betrayal. Secret Identities. Extraordinary Powers. She wants vengeance. He wants justice. The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies—humans with extraordinary abilities—who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone...except the villains they once overthrew. Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice—and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to the villains who have the power to end them both.
Eleven-year-old Ruby Danes has a real best friend for the first time ever, but agonizes over whether or not to tell her a secret she has never shared with anyone--that her mother has been in prison since Ruby was five--and over whether to express her anger to her mother.
Praise for Design Patterns in Ruby "Design Patterns in Ruby documents smart ways to resolve many problems that Ruby developers commonly encounter. Russ Olsen has done a great job of selecting classic patterns and augmenting these with newer patterns that have special relevance for Ruby. He clearly explains each idea, making a wealth of experience available to Ruby developers for their own daily work." —Steve Metsker, Managing Consultant with Dominion Digital, Inc. "This book provides a great demonstration of the key 'Gang of Four' design patterns without resorting to overly technical explanations. Written in a precise, yet almost informal style, this book covers enough ground that even those without prior exposure to design patterns will soon feel confident applying them using Ruby. Olsen has done a great job to make a book about a classically 'dry' subject into such an engaging and even occasionally humorous read." —Peter Cooper "This book renewed my interest in understanding patterns after a decade of good intentions. Russ picked the most useful patterns for Ruby and introduced them in a straightforward and logical manner, going beyond the GoF's patterns. This book has improved my use of Ruby, and encouraged me to blow off the dust covering the GoF book." —Mike Stok "Design Patterns in Ruby is a great way for programmers from statically typed objectoriented languages to learn how design patterns appear in a more dynamic, flexible language like Ruby." —Rob Sanheim, Ruby Ninja, Relevance Most design pattern books are based on C++ and Java. But Ruby is different—and the language's unique qualities make design patterns easier to implement and use. In this book, Russ Olsen demonstrates how to combine Ruby's power and elegance with patterns, and write more sophisticated, effective software with far fewer lines of code. After reviewing the history, concepts, and goals of design patterns, Olsen offers a quick tour of the Ruby language—enough to allow any experienced software developer to immediately utilize patterns with Ruby. The book especially calls attention to Ruby features that simplify the use of patterns, including dynamic typing, code closures, and "mixins" for easier code reuse. Fourteen of the classic "Gang of Four" patterns are considered from the Ruby point of view, explaining what problems each pattern solves, discussing whether traditional implementations make sense in the Ruby environment, and introducing Ruby-specific improvements. You'll discover opportunities to implement patterns in just one or two lines of code, instead of the endlessly repeated boilerplate that conventional languages often require. Design Patterns in Ruby also identifies innovative new patterns that have emerged from the Ruby community. These include ways to create custom objects with metaprogramming, as well as the ambitious Rails-based "Convention Over Configuration" pattern, designed to help integrate entire applications and frameworks. Engaging, practical, and accessible, Design Patterns in Ruby will help you build better software while making your Ruby programming experience more rewarding.
An initiatic novel based on ancient teachings and astrological wisdom from bestselling author Barbara Hand Clow A debut novel from bestselling author Barbara Hand Clow • An intricately layered erotic thriller that reveals esoteric teachings on prophecy, power, ritual, and divination • Includes dramatic insights into the suppressed discoveries of the first Christian heretics and secret power rituals at work in the Vatican • From the author of The Pleiadian Agenda and The Mayan Code In her debut as a novelist, bestselling author and acclaimed spiritual teacher Barbara Hand Clow weaves an erotically charged story of romance, deep earth forces, psychic powers, aristocracy, and Vatican world control centered on an ancient ruby that inspires mystical visions. Set in Rome in 2012, the story follows Sarah Adamson, a beautiful young Catholic graduate student from Boston studying at the Vatican Library for her thesis on the first Christian heretic, Marcion of Pontus. She is being courted by two utterly different men: Simon Appel, a descendent of the kabbalist Isaac Luria who covers Vatican affairs for the New York Times, and Armando Pierleoni, the heir to an ancient Italian aristocratic family with strong ties to the Vatican. After a terrible encounter with the dark side at a castle in Tuscany, Sarah is given a ring set with a ruby crystal, a powerful stone that was once the third eye of an ancient Buddha statue in Nepal. With the mystic ring on her finger, Sarah’s visionary abilities are ignited. She remembers her past life as the Sibyl of Cumae, a Roman oracle whose powers are now being channeled by the Vatican to maintain world control. As Sarah’s research and visions reveal the cause of evil in the Church and Simon’s reporting exposes the depth of the sexual abuse scandals surrounding the Vatican, the two form an alliance with an ex-lover of both Simon and Armando, Claudia, who describes secret priestly power rituals going on in Vatican City. As the heightened energies of the winter solstice of 2012 arrive and 2013 dawns, will Simon and Sarah be able to harness their divine powers for transformation? Will the Vatican seek new direction as it elects a new pope? Revealing the very nature of how evil gets into the world, this novel of romance, mystery, heresy, and spirituality uncovers the esoteric foundations for the emergence of a golden new age.
From the dawn of time, ruby and sapphire have both attracted and fascinated humans in ways that few other items could.While objects of desire are found throughout the natural world, physical beauty is too often ephemeral. From the allure of a man, woman, flower or butterfly, through the fleeting moments of a sunset, there is little that lasts and practically nothing that can be passed down to our descendants. The exception is precious stones. Not only are they the most durable creations of mother nature, but their visual splendor is truly eternal.In this companion to his 2013 book, Ruby & Sapphire--A Collector's Guide, Richard Hughes examines these gems from the gemological standpoint, delving into these gems not just from the aesthetic, but also from the scientific point of view.The product of nearly 40 years of firsthand experience, it covers every aspect of the subject from A-Z. History, sources, prices, quality analysis, synthetics and treatments, everything is here. Ruby & Sapphire--A Gemologist's Guide represents the most comprehensive book ever written on a single precious stone. With over 1000 photos, maps and illustrations and 3500 references, it is nothing less than a tour-de-force of gemological scholarship.
