Polished Ruby Programming

Elevate your Ruby skills to an advanced level by deepening your understanding of the design principles, best practices, and trade-offs involved in implementation approaches to future-proof your Ruby applications

Key Features
Learn Ruby web application design principles and strategies for databases, security, and testing from a Ruby committer
Understand the design principles behind polished Ruby code and trade-offs between implementation approaches
Use metaprogramming and DSLs to reduce the amount of code needed without decreasing maintainability
Book Description
Anyone striving to become an expert Ruby programmer needs to be able to write maintainable applications.

Polished Ruby Programming will help you get better at designing scalable and robust Ruby programs, so that no matter how big the codebase grows, maintaining it will be a breeze.

This book takes you on a journey through implementation approaches for many common programming situations, the trade-offs inherent in each approach, and why you may choose to use different approaches in different situations.

You'll start by refreshing Ruby fundamentals, such as correctly using core classes, class and method design, variable usage, error handling, and code formatting. Then you'll move on to higher-level programming principles, such as library design, use of metaprogramming and domain-specific languages, and refactoring. Finally, you'll learn principles specific to web application development, such as how to choose a database and web framework, and how to use advanced security features.

By the end of this Ruby programming book, you'll be a well rounded web developer with a deep understanding of Ruby.

While most code examples and principles discussed in the book apply to all Ruby versions, some examples and principles are specific to Ruby 3.0, the latest release at the time of publication.

What you will learn
Use Ruby's core classes and design custom classes effectively
Explore the principles behind variable usage and method argument choice
Implement advanced error handling approaches such as exponential backoff
Design extensible libraries and plugin systems in Ruby
Use metaprogramming and DSLs to avoid code redundancy
Implement different approaches to testing and understand their trade-offs
Discover design patterns, refactoring, and optimization with Ruby
Explore database design principles and advanced web app security
Who this book is for
This book is for Ruby programmers who are comfortable in coding with Ruby but want to advance their skills by mastering the deeper principles and best practices behind writing maintainable, scalable, optimized, and well-structured Ruby code. This book won't teach you the basics of Ruby – you'll need intermediate knowledge and practical experience before you can dive in.

Table of Contents
Getting the Most out of Core Classes
Designing Useful Custom Classes
Proper Variable Usage
Methods and Their Arguments
Handling Errors
Formatting Code for Easy Reading
Designing Your Library
Designing For Extensibility
Metaprogramming and When to Use It
Designing Useful Domain-Specific Languages
Testing to Ensure Your Code Works
Handling Change
Using Common Design Patterns
Optimizing Your Library
The Database Is Key
Web Application Design Principles
Robust Web Application Security