This is why I should have tried much harder to make him pick the language instead of leaving it to me. I'll advocate Perl, others will point out PHP is most commonly used, Ruby has a single obvious choice for frameworks, or Python is a better choice for unknown reasons. I thought each of these languages have good support for web programming, so I figured to steer him towards the language with the finest books. Unfortunately, I'm only familiar with the Perl books, and he just wouldn't pick a language. The client side books might be good, but he asked for something web and linux related, so that doesn't fit what I think he's looking for -- he may already have knowledge of that side from Windows work.
Too bad _Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby_ doesn't have a printed edition. Ruby appeals to me second after Perl, but somehow I got the impression it was on decline after it's pinnacle a couple years ago, more so than Perl. I have trouble giving a book with _Agile_ in the title a fair chance. This is a better book than David Black's _Ruby for Rails_? Some of the reviews make it sound like it's not a first book for Ruby or Rails. Maybe in combination with David Flanagan's and Matz's _The Ruby Programming Language_? Or maybe I should just get him that. I've read a little of it, and it reads quite well.
|