Computer Science Programming Basics with Ruby by Ophir Frieder, Gideon Frieder, and David Grossman

Summary: Computer Science 101

The book is a simple, short introduction to computer science and programming. It’s an unusual book as it is really short and concise (side note: compare it to The Art of Computer Programming by Donald E. Knuth – 3168 pages). However, this doesn’t mean it is unusable, contrary, it is a nice introduction for beginners.

If you are person who wants to learn some basics of Computer Science and programming, you don’t have strong attitude towards any particular programming language and you have some basic knowledge of algebra, you should definitely take this book into account.

After reading this book you will learn how to use most common programming constructs: conditional structures, loops, arrays, hash tables, some advanced sorting algorithms (read on my remarks on that), input and output operations. All that presented in a Ruby way. It’s hard for me to say whether Ruby is a good choice here as I grow up on Pascal and C, but I think it might be a good choice after all as it is a dynamic language.

In general, I think this book is worth considering. The only part I would consider hard to follow is a part covering sorting algorithms. In my opinion, explanations provided by authors will left readers in place where they know something but can not understand everything. I’d rather read something regarding standard sorting algorithms provided by Ruby framework.

Anyway. I think this book is worth considering if you have never ever done anything with Computer Science and programming.

O’Reilly (print): Computer Science Programming Basics in Ruby
O’Reilly (e-book): Computer Science Programming Basics in Ruby
Amazon (print):
Computer Science Programming Basics in Ruby
Amazon (e-book): Computer Science Programming Basics in Ruby
Safari Books Online: Computer Science Programming Basics in Ruby