Learning a new language can be fun, but what does one do next after learning the syntax and the basic constructs? A good introductory book presents the fundamentals of the language, but does not really apply that language to problem solving. For Ruby, this book is the answer, if the reader is willing to put some effort into studying good code.

Interest in Ruby is rapidly growing, fueled somewhat by the Rails Web development framework. Ruby stands on its own as a very expressive, dynamically typed language with impressive meta-programming capabilities. James Edward Gray II, the author of this series, has been posting weekly quizzes online (98 as of this writing). Their topics include various games and puzzles that really do incorporate fun into problem solving. Moreover, they are an ideal successor to a first text, and would appeal to even experienced Ruby programmers who want to relax.

This book includes 25 of the best quizzes from the first year. The quizzes appear first, followed by their solutions. The book’s quiz statements and solutions are more polished and more concise than the material found on the Web site. The word “best” in the title reflects this polish, which makes the published quizzes even better for learning than the online versions, which include many contributed solutions for each quiz. One can learn much more from elegant, concise code than from code that solves the problem in a pedestrian manner. Elegant code makes clever use of Ruby language features, while pedestrian code could be done as well in C++, Java, or C#.

For example, consider Quiz 14, which evaluates poker hands in the card game Texas Hold’em. The author identifies the Ruby features used, but leaves it to the reader to explore how they actually work in the code. The text is like a map, in that it points you in the right direction, but does not get you very far unless you start walking. Many readers would need to refer to Ruby documentation, readily available online, for more detail about the Ruby core and library methods used. Careful study of the solution would be a great way to learn more Ruby. Ruby experts might prefer to solve the problem independently, and compare their solutions to the published version. This chapter, like the others, concludes with a few exercises, to give the reader more practice.

Reading code is often overlooked in favor of programming, but, especially for Ruby, with expressive features not found in the commonly used languages, it helps more to read good code than to recreate based on past experience. Much Ruby open-source code exists, but it would probably overwhelm those relatively new to Ruby. These quizzes are short, and at just the right level to be interesting and not too frustrating.

As the author gratefully acknowledges, some of the code and some of the quizzes were submitted by online readers. The author adds “(and the Ruby community)” after his name on the title page. The result is both useful and fun. In the introduction, the author expresses the hope that this book teaches readers half of what it taught him, which would be an accomplishment worth striving for.