This is one of the final post leading up the the launch of the Build a Ruby Gem Ebook, which is now available for sale in 3 packages, including 14 chapters of code and over 2 hours of screencasts.

This past weekend I added ~ 6,000 words to the existing content. I’m really excited to be nearing the end of the road. I’ve gotten some great feedback since I started and wanted to gather a bit more to finalize the chapter list.

Here’s the chapter list I’m working with so far:

Introduction What is a gem? Why build a gem?) File structure of a gem Testing/debugging setup Code implementation of of example gem Versioning Release (how to release? and when to release?) Changelog (What is it? and what to include?) Responsibility of a gem author Loading additional libraries within a gem Command-line utilities Configuration patterns Rails hooks Rails view helpers Rails controller includes Rails Model Includes Rails rake tasks Rails engines (when/why to use?) Open source management Summary

Phew! That’s a lot…so with that in mind, have I covered everything?

Please leave a comment if you’re interested in reading about something I haven’t mentioned.

One of the things I’m most excited about is being able to use real-word examples for each chapter. I learn by reading and writing my own code and really appreciate when a book/post does the same. I’ve tried to do that at every step of the way. Hopefully this will make the book more valuable to you.

I will be in touch in the next few weeks with a sample chapter or two, along with some feature blog posts.