Metaprogramming Ruby

What Hacker News says

1. matltcOct 2026
   If you found this interesting, and especially if you write Ruby, I cannot recommend Metaprogramming Ruby highly enough. Fundamentally changed the way I think about programming, and opened my mind to what is possible when one frees themselves from dogmatic, generic best practices. It covers these topics in great detail, and uses examples from ActiveRecord and many other gems' implementations of them.
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2. matltcOct 2025
   Love Ruby. Wish I could use it more often. Always end up reaching for Python in day-to-day because of how mature and well-docunented the libs are.

   Anyone who likes this kind of stuff, highly recommend Metaprogramming Ruby [2] by Paolo Perrota. Great look into Ruby innards and inspiring code examples. Gets me pumped

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3. graypeggJul 2023
   Metaprogramming Ruby by Paolo Perrotta is an awesome in-depth resource in comparison. It’s a bit outdated but the base of metaprogramming magic in Ruby hasn’t changed much in 3.0+
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4. steveklabnikNov 2021
   It’s been a while, but imho “Metaprogramming Ruby” is what you want to read.
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5. brigandishNov 2021
   You might try Metaprogramming Ruby 2 by Paolo Perrotta[1] (the link has bits you can read). I haven't read number 2, just number 1, but I'd expect it's pretty much the same. It's written with the conceit of an experienced programmer taking a new hire through the language, so it may be right for you.

   [1] https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/metaprogramming-ruby-2/...

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6. pqdbrOct 2020
   Having picked up Rails 9 years ago and having been using it literally daily ever since, it's joyful to read from someone that is just starting.

   I also started with https://www.railstutorial.org/book, highly recommend it.

   I also loved Metaprogramming Ruby (Paolo Perrotta) - it's more advanced and starts to open your mind to how Rails magic DSL's were built.

   I just bought today "Rebuilding Rails" (https://rebuilding-rails.com/), heard great things about it.

   Ruby and Rails are amazing, and I wouldn't trade it for any other language/framework out there.

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