Ruby on Rails is an open-source Web framework to support programming in Ruby. This book uses the development of an imaginary social networking Web site, RailsSpace, to introduce the reader to Ruby on Rails. This networking Web site serves as a vehicle for explaining the concepts of the Ruby language and the Ruby on Rails framework. The book is written as a tutorial for all of the steps needed to get a Web site going, including installation of the Ruby on Rails environment on Linux, Mac, and Windows platforms; selecting an editor; and getting the Web server started.

The book is best suited for beginning and intermediate programmers with some background knowledge in other programming languages, despite the authors’ claim that it also addresses more advanced readers. The book comes to the topic not from the theory side, but from the viewpoint of a practitioner. This has its advantages and drawbacks. This book would be a good companion to a more theoretical book about Ruby on Rails.

Overall, the book is enjoyable to read. However, I could have done without the comparison between good design and pornography, as presented in the introduction. It illustrated the authors’ argument well, but I am sure they could have made their point in a different way. The code examples work well, and can be used as is. The book uses output examples after each code listing, which makes it easy for readers to check their own programming. However, some of the explanations are rather offhand, and are not helpful if you want to know precisely what is going on. For example, being told one should learn the model-view-controller paradigm by osmosis does not sound so promising. Concepts that a reader may be familiar with are often first used in the text, and then explained in a separate paragraph or section. This works very well, as it allows the reader to skip the explanations if they are not required.

The book has two main parts, “Foundations” and “Building a Social Network,” each consisting of several chapters. The “Foundations” part teaches about modeling users, connecting to databases, testing, login and logout, and updating information. Immediately after starting and setting up the databases, the book introduces automated testing. The authors rightfully try several ways to urge their readers not to skip this chapter; they also address the possibly perceived overkill of constant testing in a relaxed and convincing way. The description of automatic testing is relevant and to the point. It goes into the details of unit testing, including functional testing and integration testing.

The second part focuses on creating a working social network site that is more than just an example application. The Web application is built up step-by-step. The complete source code is available on the book’s Web site, http://www.railsspace.com, which makes it simpler to follow the build-up of the Web page by trying it out without having to retype everything. The book encourages readers to explore and find out things for themselves. It explains in an easy-to-follow way how the reader could discover some of the things that are described in the book by using the Rails application programming interface (API), encouraging readers to find further information if needed.

The book has a clear layout and font. The separate code listings could perhaps have been marked even more explicitly. The areas referred to as sidebars are actually boxes in the text, and not on the side. This sometimes makes it harder to skip over them. Unfortunately, the book has a number of annoying typographical errors, such as “@contentforlayout,” which should read “@content_for_layout,” and small but misleading typographical errors in directory names. The list of errata is given on the book’s Web page: http://www.railsspace.com/book/errata.