Last Friday I sent the first chapter of my book to the Development Editor. It’s only one chapter, which is about 30 pages or so of text and figures. I foresee and fully expect that the real challenges are still to come; yet a great deal of work already went into this first stepping stone and I feel very satisfied by the initial results.
While I briefly mentioned, on Twitter and here, that I was going to write a Rails book, I never provided any details given that the book was still being discussed and the contract had yet to be finalized. Now I can finally provide you with a bit more information. The book will be Ruby on Rails for Microsoft Developers and it will be published in December 2008 by Wrox (in their Professional Series).
I’m always motivated by a sense of purpose, and wouldn’t be able to find it if the book were to be yet another generic Rails one. I’m ecstatic about this project, because I feel that it’s a book that matters. If I do a good job, this title will be more than a Rails guide for .NET programmers, it will be an immersion course into the Rails community and culture for those developers who come from a very different background and have, more often than not, different opinions and viewpoints on development. I’m writing it because I feel it’s a book that needs to be written.
Being a book by Wrox, you’ll also get to see my chubby face on the cover, a very strong argument against the otherwise nice personal touch that Wrox covers convey. 😉 Given that self-portraits are discouraged, I’m open to suggestions and recommendations for a good professional portrait photographer in Toronto or the GTA. More than a photographer, I’d need a miracle worker. But oh well, I started a proper diet nevertheless, even if it won’t have done any good by the time my picture is taken in June. 🙂
Frivolous matters aside, so far the journey that just began has been great and characterized by the distinctive feeling of working with a team of real professionals who’re eager to help. I’ll keep you posted as I progress through this marathon.
Get more stuff like this
Subscribe to my mailing list to receive similar updates about programming.
Thank you for subscribing. Please check your email to confirm your subscription.
Something went wrong.
congratulations Antonio, i am sure your book will be a must-read for .net developers willing to go for Rails 😉
Thanks Paolo, I’ll do my best. 🙂
Congrats, Antonio!
.NET is not exactly my passion, but I can guess it will be a great success!
Good luck (in bocca al lupo)!
This sounds like a very interesting and promising book. I’ll be looking forward to reading it and reviewing it!
Keep us posted!
I will be looking forward to your book. On thing you have made a little bit of mention of is Ruby on Steel but at some point would be interested to hear more of your thoughts.
I have tried using other Windows editors but have settled on Ruby on Steel due to misxed results otherwise. Just wondered as it seems to tie with Microsoft Developers.
Hi Norman,
thanks for your comment. In the first chapter that I sent to my editor, I actually dedicated quite a bit of space to discuss a few popular editors and IDEs available. Ruby In Steel is amongst them (I even included a screenshot) and suggested that it’s one of the most friendly options for Microsoft developers. Perhaps I should cover the subject more within this blog, or even start one dedicated to the subject in support of the book. That would be neat. 🙂 I’ll consider both ideas.
Antonio,
I’ve seen your picture. Some good lighting and a little photoshop and you’ll be fine.
Antonio,
This idea looks great! I have been trying to convince my ASP.Net friends about Ruby on Rails for years now, but they can’t pull away from Winforms :-). Have you written any other Ruby on Rails for ???? books? Is this a new series you’re doing?
Looking forward to it!
@Josh: Thanks. 🙂 The book will be published by Wrox in their Professional series, so there isn’t a specific Wrox series of books for Rails, even though they’ve already have published 3 other Rails titles.
Cool idea – RoR is totally alien to most VB guys I know. Are you going to explain the whole Rails culture (MVC, TTD, etc) or just explain how to build websites? Also, how come this book isn’t listed on the Wrox “to be” titles on their website? I may know some people who would be interested in pre-ordering.
Hi Mike,
my book is definitely going to be focused on the Rails culture as much as it’ll be a Rails guide. Just to give you an idea, the first chapter has the Agile Manifesto in it. 🙂
The book will be available in December, so it’s a bit early to be listed in the Wrox “to be” titles, as far as I know. But this should change soon.