CODING

Review
BOOKS
RASPBERRY PI
BESTSELLERS
RAILS 5
The latest Rails can do anything;
probably even make your coffee!
LEARNING RAILS 5:
RAILS FROM
THE OUTSIDE IN
Author: J Mark Locklear
Publisher: O’Reilly
Price: £31.99
ISBN: 978-1491926192
magpi.cc/2gFZC78
A very good intro book, but
errors in code mean you’ll also
learn from debugging as you
go along. Sample projects build
very logically through learning
how to ‘do’ Rails.
RUBY ON RAILS
TUTORIAL
Author: Michael Hartl
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Price: £40.69
ISBN: 978-0134598628
railstutorial.org
Hartl’s comprehensive
boot camp of a book (and
online read) is highly praised
by those who suit his immersive
teaching methods. An excellent
grounding, well updated for
Rails 5 features.
AGILE WEB
DEVELOPMENT
WITH RAILS 5
Author: Sam Ruby
Publisher: Pragmatic
Bookshelf
Price: £32.99
ISBN: 978-1680501711
magpi.cc/2gG1mNr
A beginner’s guide into which
agile, Ajax, REST, testing,
and many best practices are
closely woven into both its
warp and its weft. Clear and
thoughtful updates for Rails 5.
FREE TO MAKE
Authors: Dale Dougherty
& Ariane Conrad
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Price: £17.50
ISBN: 978-1623170745
magpi.cc/2gFUrnw
Few revolutionary
changes in the past
have been as well
chronicled as the still
nascent maker movement, but if
anyone is well-placed to give that
commentary, it’s Make: magazine
and Maker Faire founder Dale
Dougherty. As well as the who,
what, and where of the movement,
Dougherty gives us a philosophical
background to this “global
countercultural phenomenon”,
which empowers people to move
away from passive consumerism.
This exploration starts off
with a look at the diverse range
of makers – and their projects
– spurred on by a love of what
UNDERSTANDING
ECMASCRIPT 6
Author: Nicholas C Zakus
Publisher: No Starch
Price: £24.99
ISBN: 978-1593277574
magpi.cc/2gFYgsZ
ECMAScript 6 is a
huge set of changes to
JavaScript – everything from
Promises, to improve asynchronous
programming, to several
improvements to the good old array.
What’s needed to get the average –
or even occasional – JS coder up to
speed is a guide to put these changes
in context, and to show what they can
do. Enter Zakas, creator of ESLint,
and a very experienced JS developer.
Starting with Block Bindings,
one of ECMAScript 6’s solutions
to previous versions’ problematic
variable declarations, the author
demonstrates admirable clarity
in his explanations of how and
why things work, followed by best
they are doing. The ‘where’ takes
us on a tour of makerspaces,
fab labs, and less formal
workshops. The ‘how’
explains the boards, tools,
technologies, and whole
maker ecosystem. The
chapter on ‘The Maker
Mindset’ is an essential
examination of what
drives us to create – from
playfulness, to a need to
understand more fully.
The closing chapters on makers’
impact on the world, and a look at
future development, provide food
for thought. The notes, chronology,
and bibliography are also of benefit.
This fascinating book should, as
Tim O’Reilly puts it in the foreword,
help you to “find your own inner
maker. And start to measure
yourself by what you make,
not what you own or buy.”
Score
practice examples. So in the chapter
on Iterators and Generators, Zakas
gives you the historic background,
then changes from 5 to
6, how to implement,
and only then –
understanding accomplished
– 6’s built-in Iterators.
Classes are a big feature
in 6, and get appropriate
treatment – including their
first class citizenship (you
can pass them into functions
as arguments). ECMAScript 6’s
tail call optimisation, changes to
defining Object String Tags, userdefinable
non-enumerable and
non-writable object properties: it’s
all here. Rounds off with a guide
to ECMAScript 7 – or ECMAScript
2016 – first of the new, yearly
release cycle, containing only
minor changes. Very readable.
Recommended to any JavaScript
user looking to grok ES6.
Score
84 January 2017
raspberrypi.org/magpi