if programming books were written by crazy people...
July 6, 2004 8:03 PM   Subscribe

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.
posted by reklaw (20 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Yay! Ruby! But this will mean almost nothing to most of the MeFi audience.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:05 PM on July 6, 2004


Wow. Talk about strict OO.
posted by bz at 8:16 PM on July 6, 2004


But the writing is hilarious. Chapter 2 requires no prgramming literacy to enjoy. And I should know!
posted by ericost at 8:46 PM on July 6, 2004


[this is very Charlie Kaufman]
posted by shoepal at 8:57 PM on July 6, 2004


OK, the cartoon foxes are pretty funny. ("Chunky bacon! Woohoo!")
posted by SPrintF at 9:15 PM on July 6, 2004


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.
posted by infidelpants at 9:31 PM on July 6, 2004


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.
posted by Ayn Marx at 10:22 PM on July 6, 2004


Ruby is the one language.

And that guide is way more fun than the pick-axe book.
posted by mosch at 11:45 PM on July 6, 2004


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?
posted by delmoi at 11:48 PM on July 6, 2004


Best. Programming. Language. Ever.
posted by PenDevil at 12:01 AM on July 7, 2004


wow -- sad ive missed this for so long -- glad that ive found it
posted by Satapher at 3:39 AM on July 7, 2004


How about some of you well-informed folk sharing why Ruby's so darn special?
posted by leotrotsky at 4:33 AM on July 7, 2004


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.
posted by aladfar at 5:54 AM on July 7, 2004


To some of us Ruby fans, we don't just code with it, we just can't stop watching and even dining on it.
posted by Stoatfarm at 7:32 AM on July 7, 2004


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.
posted by escher at 8:59 AM on July 7, 2004


What a great guide. It's so entertaining I nearly forgot it was about programming.
posted by mindless progress at 9:10 AM on July 7, 2004


This reminds me a lot of the Mr. Bunny series. Good stuff.
posted by qDot at 10:36 AM on July 7, 2004


i kinda wish it didnt stop where it does --- it was just starting to get really good
posted by Satapher at 6:36 PM on July 7, 2004




(found at the beginning of chapter 3)
posted by weston at 8:09 PM on July 7, 2004


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

Find more documentation at ruby-doc.org
posted by Ayn Marx at 10:05 PM on July 8, 2004


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