What is Digg?100 Comments
- asuraci, on 10/11/2007, -1/+37He looks like Jack Black!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff
(Either that or I'm going insane.) - merr, on 10/11/2007, -1/+31why (or "why the lucky stiff") is a pretty big figure in the Ruby/Rails community. He does some excellent work and gives sort of unorthodox presentations with weird animations...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Du_RTMmofWM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ng95M-cRb44
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mXZ_htL1rOI - asdfasdf, on 10/11/2007, -1/+30You can go here and skim down to some code if you're impatient:
http://poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-4.html
Wiki (where I got digg desc from):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why's_(poignant)_Guide_to_Ruby
Author:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff - morninglorii, on 10/11/2007, -1/+23I just finished the second page... this book is really really funny. I think I could end up learning Ruby as an unintentional byproduct of trying to enjoy this book.
- Roger, on 10/11/2007, -1/+16_Who?
- dfg59, on 10/11/2007, -0/+12I learned ruby to the point where I use it for all my day to day scripting over a period of about 5 months. My best resources:
http://poignantguide.net/
http://www.rubycentral.com/book/index.html
http://www.rubyquiz.com
At the risk of sounding like a zealot, it's hard to go back to any other language (including python) after ruby. Despite the fact that performance isn't quite there yet, the expressiveness of the code and it's ability to remain concise is astonishing. - cthcth, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12This has been posted before, but its still awesome. Be sure to check out some of _why's other projects
http://hackety.org/ - GruffPelt, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10"I could never understand why there's so many different programming languages. They all can do the same things right?"
That question is similar to asking: "Why are there different types of vehicles? They can all get you from here to there, right?" The answer is choice -- some are quick and easy to learn (automatic) while others give you more control (stick-shift), some have more power (diesel heavy truck) while others give you speed (Formula 1), and some have everything you could want ($100,000 Phaeton) while others have just the basics (Yugo).
Programming and scripting languages are very much the same. High-level scripting languages such as Ruby (or Python, AppleScipt, ECMAScript, etc.) are fairly easy to learn, but are slow and lack the detailed control available compared to a low-level programming language such as C or C++. Some languages, like COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language), FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation), or SQL (Structured Query Language), are designed with special needs in mind, some are experimental or for teaching (LISP, SmallTalk, PLEC), but most are much more general (PERL, C, PASCAL, Java, etc.).
The language that you use depends partly on what you want to do, partly on how you want it done, partly on how fast you need it done (and how fast you need to program it), and partly on how it needs to be used. A good example is an OS (Operating System) -- it needs to be fast, efficient, have finely detailed control of the hardware and all applications, be as error-free and secure as possible, and be able to manage huge amounts of resources. Only a low-level programming language like C (or one of it's derivatives such as C++, C#, or Objective C) is able to give you what you need, but at the costs of being difficult and complex to create (meaning LOTS of time, energy and code), and difficult to maintain and troubleshoot (also meaning LOTS of time, energy and code). The end result, though, is something that you simply couldn't do with a high-level scripting language.
Hopefully this answers, in part, your question. - tony134340, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12....Nam!
....Nam who?
....I'm calling for Nam Hu!
....This is Nam!
....Nam Hu!?
....Yes..... - vednode, on 10/11/2007, -2/+12http://www.kebabshopblues.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/RubyGuideBook.pdf
Mirror of PDF - puggy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10As a programmer by profession and speaking on my opinion, this book is terrible if you are an experienced programmer who is learning a new language. If you have no time for distractions, go straight to reading the pickaxe book. It's the same reason why I disliked the Perl bible (Camel Book). The offtopic tidbits and Star Trek references really impede's the readers' flow.
- umbrae, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9I used this guide to learn ruby about a year ago. Even though it's zany, it's still incredibly useful.
I've recommended it to many people. - danidentity, on 10/11/2007, -4/+12When I was learning Ruby I ran across Why's guide. It may be creative and entertaining, but it's pretty much useless when it comes to learning the language. Way too much fluff.
- daftman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7something bug me about ruby books including rails. I've read alot of books on ruby but non of them have the advance stuff. They basically covered the sketchy details of the language but never go in depth when it comes to things like threading, GUI, distributed, sockets, xml, databases.
Python and Perl books on the other hand are much more descriptive. - Leach, on 10/11/2007, -3/+10There is a soundtrack to the guide also.
http://poignantguide.net/sdtrk/
Chunky Bacon. - jambarama, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8Awesome book. Great for making Ruby interesting as well as easy. And how many programming books can say they have a soundtrack? http://poignantguide.net/sdtrk
- GruffPelt, on 10/11/2007, -2/+9Chunky Bacon!!
- tony134340, on 10/11/2007, -1/+8No Jerky Boy fans here?
....ahhh, ya pinsy iss bistids! - Stonekeeper, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8It's Jack Black's alter-ego!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff - Niten, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Absolutely. I'm really, really looking forward to Ruby's current interpreter being replaced with YARV; once current issues with threading, performance, and memory leaks (and heck, proper Unicode support while we're at it) have been fixed, Ruby will absolutely replace Python in my life – any maybe even Perl too, as RubyGems eventually approaches the size of CPAN...
- wiremonkeymommy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6kickass and hilarious; "weird" makes for "memorable", exactly what I need to remember arcane and abstract information
- Roger, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6@tony134340
No one's gonna get that... Jerky. - Error601, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5The best programming books are the ones that don't have any extra junk in them. The old K&R C book is the model for how to explain a programming language. These days all I need is a list showing syntax for types, literals, variables, conditionals, loops, and functions. For an OO languages, add classes, instances, and inheritance syntax. It usually fits in under 20 pages.
- san1ty, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5"it includes quite a lot of strange humor and narrative side tracks that don't necessarily have anything to do with the topic."
And this is a good thing? - asdfasdf, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I don't think Ruby's syntax is ANYTHING like perl.
- turpenine, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5agreed, I like it a lot but I just didn't like reading through a bunch of stories without knowing if I needed them or not. Now I am using the pragmatic's guide.
- Nat3r, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6down.
http://www.duggmirror.com
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:KWZYT69439EJ:poignantguide.net/+poignantguide&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a - seabre, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5@GMorgan
*Technically* LISP is functional, procedural, and OO, but that further illustrates the need to understand programming paradigms. - ogden, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Ruby has a lot of innovative ideas ... But I find the syntax terse and perl like, and thus prefer python...
- adolfojp, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4@danidentity (#6892619)
Maybe its style is immensely useful to some people. To me it read like a propaganda manual of why Ruby is so great with scattered ruby teachings. - GMorgan, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Nah, you don't try to remember huge swaths of programming languages. You learn the overriding theory and deal with the language as and when you need it.
You learn to program functional, procedural or OO. Not LISP, C and Java. - insomniac8400, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Dumb!
- asdfasdf, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3"As someone looking to begin learning programming, do you have any further suggestions?"
This might not apply to everyone, but the best way to learn is to do. Why do you want to learn how to code? Say you want to program something. Set that as your goal, and spend time working towards completing it. You'll learn concepts and syntax along the way.
For example, say you want to code a very basic text editor. Start out by saying, OK I need to open and close files.. how do I do that? Research and code that, then you want to save/save as/search/replace/etc.. learn those, then you want to give this app a GUI, or you want to give it some advanced features (regex support, network support to edit files on your FTP web server, etc). Little by little, you'll learn and have coded a text editor. Then move on to something else, gradually building more complex apps. You'll have to learn different algorithms, how to sort, and as your code gets more complex you might want to start learning OOP.
If you're learning Ruby, start with _Why's book and then read http://www.rubycentral.com/book/index.html coding lots of examples along the way.
If you're learning C, I suggest The C Programming Language. It's small and short, but very thorough and to the point. Ruby is a very advanced language, or at least it can be. For a complete beginner, I'd recommend Python. I don't recommend Ruby because it doesn't have as much support/resources as Python (yet). - regeya, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Totally agree. I grabbed a copy of the Pickaxe book in a hurry, because I knew this book wasn't going to help.
Not that I'm dissing Why; Why's done a lot of things for the Ruby community, and is insanely helpful. It's the 'insanely' part I have trouble dealing with. ;-) - merelyjim, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Oh, bloody.... Okay, as the Code Gods have decreed, it's time to learn programming in Ruby. Let no one question the wisdom of the Code Gods...
- anoopkumar, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I personally prefer the "Head First" writing style - it is humorous and to the point thus helping you grasp the subject better and retain the concepts longer.
- Rostin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I read about half of it a couple of years ago. It's written on the level of a new programmer (not just new to Ruby), so if you are looking to just learn the language, it's not your best choice. The reason I read half is that like everyone is saying, it's funny at first. The humor comes packaged as part of a silly fantasy story. The trouble is, the story started getting really tedious and dumb after a while, but I couldn't just read the technical parts because I had to know the story to follow his examples. For anyone actually interested in learning Ruby, I recommend the Pragmatic Programmer's Guide ( http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/ ) over Why's book. The information to fluff ratio is a lot higher, and it still manages to be funny and clever in places.
- TimidTiger, on 10/11/2007, -5/+7I've never tried to learn a programming language other than basic until now, this wacky book is very creative and compelling. Definitely a must read.
- Mechel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2wow is there a reason he got dugg down for asking a simple question?
- badken, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I guess I don't get it. It did nothing for me.
Crossed the fine line between "wacky creativity" and "dumb rambling nonsense." - EricJ2190, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Why's Poignant Guide owns. A friend of mine showed it to me, and it is just so fun.
- boaman, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2The Ruby Way by Fulton is much better.
- asdfasdf, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Most of the Ruby on Rails books only go over the framework, not the language, which is what their purpose is. If you want to learn Ruby, Programming Ruby : The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide is the K&R of Ruby books, and is a must-read for Ruby programmers. It's available free online: http://www.rubycentral.com/book/
_Why's book might be filled with fluff, but it's very creative and it's a book I read (new chapters come out from time to time) in my leisure time. Keep in mind that it is intended for people new to programming. One of his other projects is aimed at teaching programming to teenagers ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackety_Hack ). - sintaxi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3You could use Microsoft word to format a photo but you would be better off with photoshop. You could use Photoshop to write a document but you are better off with Word. Different tools for different tasks. Both Ruby and C++ are "high-level" programming languages. Ruby is for server-side scripting(useful for web) and C++ is more used for games and such (system-language). C++ also uses a compiler to interpret the code proir to running while Ruby uses an interpreter and runs in real-time.
Short explanation but hopfully that clarifies some things for you - Solis, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4I could never understand why there's so many different programming languages. They all can do the same things right? I mean what Ruby do that C++ can't and vice versa? Can one only do web programming, can the other only make video games?
- cbartlett, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I can't believe this is just getting dugg now. This has been around for _ages_. We've all read, or at least browsed, _Why's Guide at my company, as we do Ruby on Rails development.
- IntenseTech, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1yeah - same here.
Think I read it almost 1 year and a half ago. Pretty funny tho. I seem to remember "CHUNKY BACON!" - Ethyriel, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1As someone looking to begin learning programming, do you have any further suggestions? All I've seen are books that try to teach you a language, not a paradigm.
- Kamael, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2He's my new hero.
- gfixler, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2I'm reminded of "There Are No Electrons" - a good beginner book on electronics that simplifies it all, and manages to be absurd about concepts and theories of electronics, and electricity - though in a simpler, older-fashioned style of absurdity. Also, years ago I read "Assembly Language, Step-By-Step," for no particular reason, which while not attempting to be funny, spent 75% or more of its time explaining how a computer works at all the fundamental levels (electrons/diodes on up), such that by the time it did get to assembly language, everything about what went on under the hood made so much sense, the actual Assembly commands, and how they accomplished higher-level tasks seemed very obvious, and easily memorable. It does a good job of conversationally bridging the great divide between beginner and core-level programmer.
http://www.amazon.com/There-Are-Electrons-Electronics-Earthlings/dp/0962781592
http://www.duntemann.com/assembly.htm -
Show 51 - 97 of 97 discussions
Browsing Digg on your phone just got easier with our enhancements to the 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is