Comments on: if programming books were written by crazy people...

if programming books were written by crazy people...

reklaw — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 20:03:29 -0800

Do you find programming books so dry and boring that they're difficult to concentrate on? Do you want to learn Ruby? You need Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby.

By: Ethereal Bligh

Ethereal Bligh — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 20:05:18 -0800

Yay! Ruby! But this will mean almost nothing to most of the MeFi audience.

By: bz

bz — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 20:16:56 -0800

Wow. Talk about strict OO.

By: ericost

ericost — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 20:46:07 -0800

But the writing is hilarious. Chapter 2 requires no prgramming literacy to enjoy. And I should know!

By: shoepal

shoepal — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 20:57:21 -0800

[this is very Charlie Kaufman]

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 21:15:43 -0800

OK, the cartoon foxes are pretty funny. ("Chunky bacon! Woohoo!")

By: infidelpants

infidelpants — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 21:31:48 -0800

Ruby is by far my favourite programming language, and Why has been one of my heroes ever since I happened upon his site. As ericost notes, the writing (especially the digressive sidebars) is worthwhile even if you don't care about programming. Speaking of Why's site, it's now powered by Hobix, a lightweight weblogging tool of his recent invention, and RedCloth, a Textile implementation for Ruby. Hobix is still very unfinished and mostly undocumented, though.

By: Ayn Marx

Ayn Marx — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 22:22:32 -0800

Good to see other Ruby fans here. While, sadly, I must code in Java in order to get paid, I sneak in Ruby on the job when I can, and do all my side code in Ruby.

By: mosch

mosch — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:45:15 -0800

Ruby is the one language. And that guide is way more fun than the pick-axe book.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 23:48:05 -0800

very pretty CSS. er... Wait, I have to add more or you won't think I'm enough of a sarcastic bastard. Is this enough?

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 00:01:50 -0800

Best. Programming. Language. Ever.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 03:39:04 -0800

wow -- sad ive missed this for so long -- glad that ive found it

By: leotrotsky

leotrotsky — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 04:33:00 -0800

How about some of you well-informed folk sharing why Ruby's so darn special?

By: aladfar

aladfar — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 05:54:58 -0800

How long has Ruby been around? I discovered it the other day while looking for something that would turn my exported Yahoo! mail into something OS X could read. I found a ruby script, and read something about it being installed and ready to go in OS X. Low and behold - it worked just fine. Apparently it will work just as well in Windows, Linux, etc. Also, after asking a question about a personal Wiki in the green, I was pointed in the direction of instiki, also written in Ruby and also cross platform. It worked out of the "box" in OS X. So is this a new phenomenon, or has it been around for a while and is just now catching on? Whatever the case, I'm going to look into it - I'm not a programmer but would like to be able to do a few things every now and again. Ruby looks like an accessible way to get into it.

By: Stoatfarm

Stoatfarm — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 07:32:17 -0800

To some of us Ruby fans, we don't just code with it, we just can't stop watching and even dining on it.

By: escher

escher — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 08:59:32 -0800

Ruby has been around since 1995 but the main thing that kept it from catching on was the lack of english documentation. As more English documentation (such as this one) is coming out, the hype train has been picking up speed. Perhaps i'll have to learn it.

By: mindless progress

mindless progress — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 09:10:45 -0800

What a great guide. It's so entertaining I nearly forgot it was about programming.

By: qDot

qDot — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 10:36:45 -0800

This reminds me a lot of the Mr. Bunny series. Good stuff.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 18:36:19 -0800

i kinda wish it didnt stop where it does --- it was just starting to get really good

By: weston

weston — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 20:09:19 -0800

(found at the beginning of chapter 3)

By: Ayn Marx

Ayn Marx — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 22:05:00 -0800