Now, I don’t program every day, but I can see why PERL is popular. It does so much that’s useful and has the vast CPAN library. But, I think Ruby is easier to learn and does much of the same work.

The issue for me isn’t Ruby, it’s Rails. I find Ruby a language that fits well with the way I think. As I’m reading “Ruby for Rails” by David Black, I’m beginning to understand Rails better as well.

I think the problem early on for me was that “Agile Web Development with Rails” didn’t get me where I needed to go with understanding Rails. If the authors user test it and make changes, then I think it’d be a dynamite book.

I read through Why’s books and liked it, but it doesn’t touch on Rails, if I recall. I do think the Pickaxe book does a good job as well.

As far as Ruby goes, I’d say you might want to play around a bit with Perl, which I’ve found has very similar syntax. Additionally, there’s a great (and free) PDF book floating around, called “Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby” which is a good overview of the underlying language.