Ruby Programming language literature

[dogman_1234]

Hey guys,

I am interested in learning how to program in Ruby for computer security. What book(s) do you recommend?

Much appreciated!

 

[Alabalcho]

Ruby on Rails is more geared toward web applications, so your mentioning of "computer security" is misleading.
Do you want to learn to program in Ruby in particular, or programming in general?
Programming is very wide subject - you can create desktop applications, web applications, and anything between.

 

[dogman_1234]

Ruby on Rails is more geared toward web applications, so your mentioning of "computer security" is misleading.
Do you want to learn to program in Ruby in particular, or programming in general?
Programming is very wide subject - you can create desktop applications, web applications, and anything between.

Im sorry, I seem to be missing something?

Where did I mention web applications?

Yes, I do want to learn how to program. I was recommended Ruby, Python, or Pearl for languages to learn.

 

[Pinhedd]

Ruby on Rails is more geared toward web applications, so your mentioning of "computer security" is misleading.
Do you want to learn to program in Ruby in particular, or programming in general?
Programming is very wide subject - you can create desktop applications, web applications, and anything between.

Im sorry, I seem to be missing something?

Where did I mention web applications?

Yes, I do want to learn how to program. I was recommended Ruby, Python, or Pearl for languages to learn.

Ruby, Python, and Pearl are scripting languages, not programming languages. You will not learn proper programming techniques from any of them, and you will not learn anything about computer security.

If you wish to learn about programming, start from the bottom with C and work your way up from there.

 

[Ijack]

That is completely wrong. All three are general-purpose programming languages and can be used to teach programming techniques. Of the three, Python would be the best choice for a beginner. It's concepts are more akin to other programming languages. Python is the language of choice for the Raspberry Pi, which is widely used in educational establishments.

OP - forget Ruby for the time being and try Python. There is a very good introduction to it written by it's author (I forget the exact name but it's easily found on Google). It will provide a much better introduction to modern programming paradigms than C. An alternative, If you are using Windows, would be C#; this would be my #1 recommendation. It is available as part of Microsoft Visual Studio Express and there are a host of books and web-based tutorials.

 

[randomizer]

No love for Ruby eh? Python does seem to be more commonly used in this field, although Ruby is hardly a niche language given that the entire Metasploit framework is written in Ruby.

 

[Ijack]

I've nothing against Ruby (particularly as it borrows from SmallTalk, my favourite language) but it is, undeniably, a little different to the mainstream languages, and not as comprehensively documented. OK as a secod or third language, but I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner.

Python is a very good language for that purpose, being very interactive and having extensive documentation. C# is a better choice for Windows because of its excellent integration with the OS.

 

[dogman_1234]

No love for Ruby eh? Python does seem to be more commonly used in this field, although Ruby is hardly a niche language given that the entire Metasploit framework is written in Ruby.

True. That is why I asked about Ruby. MSF has been written in Ruby, so I felt that for pentesting, it would be a language of choice.

I've nothing against Ruby (particularly as it borrows from SmallTalk, my favourite language) but it is, undeniably, a little different to the mainstream languages, and not as comprehensively documented. OK as a secod or third language, but I wouldn't recommend it to a beginner.

Python is a very good language for that purpose, being very interactive and having extensive documentation. C# is a better choice for Windows because of its excellent integration with the OS.

Currenty, I am running Linux. I can tell you that I need to read up on bash scripting as I am not familiar with the bourne-again shell.

 

[randomizer]

Unless you are writing or modifying MSF modules I wouldn't say that ruby has an inherent advantage for that reason. Between ruby and python it really comes down to which language you prefer to read and write and which has the tools available to help you write less. Python definitely has the larger ecosystem and the interpreter is on basically every Linux machine (ruby's interpreter is usually not included OOTB with most distros).

You're going to want to become familiar with Bash because you'll spend alot of time using it.