Two new books have arrived: "Dive Into Python" by Mark Pilgrim, and "Defensive Design for the Web" by 37 Signals. Both great purchases.
I've been thinking about getting 37 Signals' book really since it came out, figuring that even though a lot of this topic is, in my humble opinion, about applying common sense (as rare a thing as that may be), but I still figured that it'd be nice to have a book about common pitfalls, and how to avoid them. Sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees, or however the saying goes.
I've only skimmed through it yet, but it seems like every single page contains valuable advice, with thorough explanation and motivations for each. This will be a good read, I bet.
If I remember correctly, I first asked Mark about a printed version of his freely available book "Dive Into Python" a little more than a year ago. I guess good things come to those who wait.
I like Python, it's a comfy language. Unfortunately, the opportunity, or need, hasn't presented itself for me to do something of considerable scope with it. And thus I can't say I really know Python that well, even though I've been studying it, on and off, for over a year now.
Another language I've been looking at for some time is Ruby. At first I really didn't like its syntax, but now it seems like I've managed to handle it; to ignore that icky taste I get in my mouth whenever I write a few lines of it, even.
Ruby has two things going for it which makes me (want to) choose it over Python for web development. The first thing is that it's really and truly object oriented. Python's OO feels kind of like an afterthought, most likely because it is one. And even though the OO aspect is glued onto Python rather neatly, it doesn't permeat the language like with Ruby.
But, even still, that doesn't level Ruby with Python. What settles the matter is Rails. I'm willing to code Ruby, even though I prefer Python, because of Rails. If everything falls into place, I'll be doing a respectable amount of development using Rails in the future. Assuming that I'm not hit with a violent jolt of aspiration resulting in something similar in Python.
Comments
After picking up "Defensive Design for the Web" from the book shop I was at first disappointed, because it seemed to be full of plain common sense. Of course, its the common sense that most sites lack and thats what this book shows us. I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in web design.
On Ruby, the Rails Academy really does a good job with the seeing is believing. I saw, I believe, now I just need time to learn =]
Comment by cyberhill at 08:00, 05 Aug, 2004 #
Altough I'm not agree with sentences about OOness of Ruby versus Python (see you on IM :P) I found Rails quite cool (I did only watch the video), but... did you look at nevow?
Bye!
Comment by Lawrence Oluyede at 11:50, 05 Aug, 2004 #
I think David is responsible for a huge surge in people checking out Ruby because of Rails.
Comment by Austin Moody at 22:27, 05 Aug, 2004 #
I would really like a short review of the design book after you have read it. Been thinkin about that one myself, but you know how it is. There are alot of books out there beggin for you to read them!
I write a couple of sentances about the books i read in my blog, just started that thread. In swedish. It is a good way to promote the stuff that is good and warn about those that aint...
// Bj�rn
Comment by Bj�rn H�glind at 03:18, 09 Sep, 2004 #
The discussion has been closed on this entry. Thanks to everybody who participated.