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why's poignant guide to ruby
from the introduction:
This is just a small Ruby book. It won’t crush you. It’s light as a feather (because I haven’t finished it yet—hehe). And there’s a reason this book will stay light: because Ruby is simple to learn.
This edition of the book was published for Brighton Ruby.
Also available online and for download.
earlier edition:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
This is just a small Ruby book. It won’t crush you. It’s light as a feather (because I haven’t finished it yet—hehe). And there’s a reason this book will stay light: because Ruby is simple to learn.
This edition of the book was published for Brighton Ruby.
Also available online and for download.
earlier edition:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
255 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2020
2 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Why The Lucky Stiff
6 books41 followersFrom Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_...
why the lucky stiff (often known simply as why, _why) was an anonymous, but prolific writer, cartoonist, musician, artist, and computer programmer notable for his work with the Ruby programming language. Along with Yukihiro Matsumoto and David Heinemeier Hansson, he was seen as a key figure in the Ruby community.
His best known work is Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby, which "teaches Ruby with stories." Paul Adams of Webmonkey describes its eclectic style as resembling a "collaboration between Stan Lem and Ed Lear". Chapter three was published in The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky.
On 19 August 2009, his online presence was drastically truncated; his accounts on Twitter and GitHub were shut down, along with many of his personally maintained sites.
In April 2013, a complete book attributed to _why was digitally released via the website whytheluckystiff.net and the GitHub repository cwales. It was presented as individual files of PCL (Printer Command Language) without any instruction on how to assemble the print outs into a book. Based on timestamps from the git repository, Steve Klabnik compiled the pages in the order in which they were released into a PDF file which he titled CLOSURE since the book provides some resolution to the story of _why. Although no authorship is claimed in either the book or the git repository, the writing style and content are remarkably comparable to that of _why.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_...
why the lucky stiff (often known simply as why, _why) was an anonymous, but prolific writer, cartoonist, musician, artist, and computer programmer notable for his work with the Ruby programming language. Along with Yukihiro Matsumoto and David Heinemeier Hansson, he was seen as a key figure in the Ruby community.
His best known work is Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby, which "teaches Ruby with stories." Paul Adams of Webmonkey describes its eclectic style as resembling a "collaboration between Stan Lem and Ed Lear". Chapter three was published in The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky.
On 19 August 2009, his online presence was drastically truncated; his accounts on Twitter and GitHub were shut down, along with many of his personally maintained sites.
In April 2013, a complete book attributed to _why was digitally released via the website whytheluckystiff.net and the GitHub repository cwales. It was presented as individual files of PCL (Printer Command Language) without any instruction on how to assemble the print outs into a book. Based on timestamps from the git repository, Steve Klabnik compiled the pages in the order in which they were released into a PDF file which he titled CLOSURE since the book provides some resolution to the story of _why. Although no authorship is claimed in either the book or the git repository, the writing style and content are remarkably comparable to that of _why.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 5, 2025
i want whatever he's on
April 22, 2023
The book is interesting and I think I would enjoy it more if I were interested in the mixed crazy and creative stories and comics used throughout the book. My main interesting in reading this book was just for entertainment and just a different way to revisit some Ruby programming language (which I personally like). I would consider this book an introductory guide to Ruby though.
I think if you are really interested in learning Ruby and want don't want to spend too much time on what is irrelevant for your learning journey, maybe this book is not a good idea. But if you want to play with Ruby in an entertaining way, this book will be an interesting experience.
I'm giving 4 stars because although I started getting bored by the stories, I like how creative could be the author on writing this book (the book is even free). I can see that the author put effort and care writing it, but I just couldn't enjoy reading it to the end. I ended up skimming through the last two chapters going straight to what was technical.
I think if you are really interested in learning Ruby and want don't want to spend too much time on what is irrelevant for your learning journey, maybe this book is not a good idea. But if you want to play with Ruby in an entertaining way, this book will be an interesting experience.
I'm giving 4 stars because although I started getting bored by the stories, I like how creative could be the author on writing this book (the book is even free). I can see that the author put effort and care writing it, but I just couldn't enjoy reading it to the end. I ended up skimming through the last two chapters going straight to what was technical.
September 29, 2020
Short, quirky, endearing, and poignant guide to a simple computer programming language, Ruby. You'll need a sense of humor and some lateral thinking to enjoy this book. Give it a try! Also available at poignant.guide.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews