Book Image

Polished Ruby Programming

By : Jeremy Evans
Book Image

Polished Ruby Programming

By: Jeremy Evans

Overview of this book

Anyone striving to become an expert Ruby programmer needs to be able to write maintainable applications. Polished Ruby Programming will help you get better at designing scalable and robust Ruby programs, so that no matter how big the codebase grows, maintaining it will be a breeze. This book takes you on a journey through implementation approaches for many common programming situations, the trade-offs inherent in each approach, and why you may choose to use different approaches in different situations. You'll start by refreshing Ruby fundamentals, such as correctly using core classes, class and method design, variable usage, error handling, and code formatting. Then you'll move on to higher-level programming principles, such as library design, use of metaprogramming and domain-specific languages, and refactoring. Finally, you'll learn principles specific to web application development, such as how to choose a database and web framework, and how to use advanced security features. By the end of this Ruby programming book, you’ll be a well rounded web developer with a deep understanding of Ruby. While most code examples and principles discussed in the book apply to all Ruby versions, some examples and principles are specific to Ruby 3.0, the latest release at the time of publication.
Table of Contents (23 chapters)
1
Section 1: Fundamental Ruby Programming Principles
8
Section 2: Ruby Library Programming Principles
17
Section 3: Ruby Web Programming Principles

Chapter 1: Getting the Most out of Core Classes

Ruby is shipped with a rich library of core classes. Almost all Ruby programmers are familiar with the most common core classes, and one of the easiest ways to make your code intuitive to most Ruby programmers is to use these classes.

In the rest of this chapter, you'll learn more about commonly encountered core classes, as well as principles for how to best use each class. We will cover the following topics:

  • Learning when to use core classes
  • Best uses for true, false, and nil objects
  • Different numeric types for different needs
  • Understanding how symbols differ from strings
  • Learning how best to use arrays, hashes, and sets
  • Working with Struct – one of the underappreciated core classes

By the end of this chapter, you'll have a better understanding of many of Ruby's core classes, and how best to use each of them.