Ruby, Io, Prolog, Scala, Erlang, Clojure, Haskell. With Seven Languages in Seven Weeks, by Bruce A. Tate, you'll go beyond the syntax-and beyond the 20-minute tutorial you'll find someplace online. This book has an audacious goal: to present a meaningful exploration of seven languages within a single book. Rather than serve as a complete reference or installation guide, Seven Languages hits what's essential and unique about each language. Moreover, this approach will help teach you how to grok new languages.

For each language, you'll solve a nontrivial problem, using techniques that show off the language's most important features. As the book proceeds, you'll discover the strengths and weaknesses of the languages, while dissecting the process of learning languages quickly--for example, finding the typing and programming models, decision structures, and how you interact with them.

Among this group of seven, you'll explore the most critical programming models of our time. Learn the dynamic typing that makes Ruby, Python, and Perl so flexible and compelling. Understand the underlying prototype system that's at the heart of JavaScript. See how pattern matching in Prolog shaped the development of Scala and Erlang. Discover how pure functional programming in Haskell is different from the Lisp family of languages, including Clojure.

Explore the concurrency techniques that are quickly becoming the backbone of a new generation of Internet applications. Find out how to use Erlang's let-it-crash philosophy for building fault-tolerant systems. Understand the actor model that drives concurrency design in Io and Scala. Learn how Clojure uses versioning to solve some of the most difficult concurrency problems.

It's all here, all in one place. Use the concepts from one language to find creative solutions in another-or discover a language that may become one of your favorites.

（Biography）

I started in this industry back in 1985, as a co-op with IBM in Austin. I joined IBM full time in 1987, and spent 13 years with them. I later left to join a startup, and ultimately started my own business where I focus on helping customers build software with lightweight technologies.

I've been writing technical books for more than 10 years now, with the last 7 coming since 2000. I write for the love of the craft.

Others have told me that my fundamental strength as an author is the ability to quickly recognize emerging trends. I do tend to find emerging frameworks just as they become popular, and that skill is a mixed blessing that--combined with my complete lack of political tact--gets me in trouble sometimes, as it did with Bitter Java (Java is too hard), Beyond Java (Java is not going to last forever), and most recently, From Java to Ruby: Things Every Manager should Know (there's a better language for some problems, but our managers don't know it yet.)

My promise to you is this: I will always seek to find better ways to do things, and will work hard to tell you the truth, without regard for any notion of political correctness. Thanks for reading.