Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

by Why The Lucky Stiff

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.

[Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby is released under the Attribution-ShareAlike License. So, yes, please distribute it and print it and read it leisurely in your housecoat.]

Genres: Programming, Nonfiction, Technology, Computer Science, Software, Technical, Coding

176 pages, website

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

From 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.

Reviews

[Barry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know if I should mark this as read. I've gotten half way through the book and I've given up. It's just not my cup of tea. I'm not a Ruby beginner, so nothing to gain there. (I do hope no one has considered the examples to be good form. Some are very poor.) The "story" is completely impossible for me to follow. I've enjoyed my share of absurd, dark humor, but this one didn't work for me. I'm taking a risk because perhaps it all makes sense in the end.

Taking nothing away from Why. He is much respected and my silly opinion on this one bit of his legacy should not diminish others' thoughts on him in any way.

[Ruby Tombstone Lives!]

Programming huh? And here I was, thinking someone had finally gotten around to writing my unauthorised biography. Sigh..

[Thomas Wolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I decided to read this book based on Ryan Grove's (of wonko.com) and Joel Spolsky's (Joel on software) praise.

Lots of unique humor (that is usually completely off topic) and engaging cartoon characters made this one of the best programming books I've read thus far. Actually, I'd say it's one of the best books I've read thus far.

The ending was pretty depressing in my opinion. So as _why makes very clear from the beginning, he wants you to weep, but you may not only weep due to the beautifully crafted code. There's a pretty sad story buried in here.

It did however contain a few errors, but I think that could be a good thing (reminds me of an old math I had teacher who preferred us to have books with errors in them because it forced us to learn).

[Gaelan D'costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

For perhaps the first time, computer science instruction and /literature/ fuse into one perfect specimen.

Whenever I feel down and out about my profession, I come back to this book to remember that there are people who may one day actually overcome this supposed split between the humanities and the technologies that modern society seems to function under. This is the first positive answer to the question of whether computer science can be adapted (without appropriation) into works of art.

Beyond that, this is actually a pretty excellent Ruby tutorial. As an experienced programmer, I may be banking on previously earned knowledge which means I cannot necessarily speak for a total newcomer.

However, you'll spend half an hour reading up on some seemingly nonsensical tale of Dr. Charn or Why's daughter's organ teacher or what have you, only to find that underneath the whim you have been shown exactly the principles that you will then take ten minutes internalizing in Ruby code.

The only knock is that sometimes the whimsy runs on a bit thick and doesn't hold well enough to be more than charmingly bloated words of wonder. At those moments you may either wish for another code example or perhaps just for the foxes to get on with their tale instead of wallowing in existential despair.

[Venkatesh-Prasad · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I am fine with story-based approach to technical topics, I think they are hard to get right and they need to be done "right" for the reader. In this sense, this was not my cup of tea. I thought it had too much story than content about Ruby; hence, too slow for my taste. I gave up after four chapters.

[rory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great way to learn Ruby, but it deserves credit as the first (and, as far as I know, only) novel written about Ruby, and for its contribution to Ruby culture.

[Enno · Rating 1 out of 5]

I refuse to finish this awful book.

[Bojan Božić · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is pure awesomeness!!! It's by far the weirdest, coolest, and overall greatest introduction to a programming language ever written. Must read for so many different reasons.

[Ivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy is positively insane :) I suspect, Ruby-related stuff from the book could be fit on to a single A4 cheat sheet, while a number of story lines included made the thing bloat quite a bit.

I'm not sure if it could insensibly infect someone from non-IT folks with enough of dose Ruby, but anyway I found it really fascinating read.

This book is also a great example of common geekish English - I'll use stories from it as a reference themes for small talk in case I'll have too much attention from the opposite gender :) Ah, yeah, comics are awesome :) Beard vs skeleton, he-he :)

[Jared Housh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a programming book... from outer space. Ruby for the criminally insane, as a friend put it. This is, without a doubt, the best programming book I've ever read (an admittedly low bar). The sidebars and illustrations alone make this book worth reading. On the flip side, I'm not sure I retained much about Ruby. I did, however, come away with Chunky Bacon, so all is not lost.

[Mihai Damian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely like no other programming book you've ever read; exactly as why promises in the book's introduction.

If you expect a clean introduction to Ruby then this is not the book for the job. why combines examples well suited for non-programmers with more advanced concepts that only someone who's ever written a few programs will understand or appreciate.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun, quirky intro to ruby. not a lot of interactive exercises, but it gives you fun mnemonics to remember parts of the ruby language (we'll see how well they stick though). having studied programming before definitely helps you get through this one.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Add me to the "didn't get it" bucket. Overly verbose with horrible examples and a very weak grasp on actually teaching.

If you're looking for a programming story, this might work out for you.
If you actually want to learn Ruby, run far, far away.

[Piotr Zurek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely worth the read, not necessarily to learn Ruby.

[Leah Dudley · Rating 1 out of 5]

It had some good bits of code, but they were hidden behind so much nonsense that I got distracted and don't feel like I actually learned much.

[Mario · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plainly unreadable

[Craig Vermeer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A programming book written by a crazy person. Interesting.

[Max Darling · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still don't really get what a "Ruby" is - I stumbled my way in here looking for poignant books, after all. But oh boy did this deliver in that regard. Right up there with "Kafka on The Shore", I reckon. Framed up all my favorite quotes and everything:

"Chunky bacon! Chunky bacon!"

and

"That doctor doesn't stand a chance against my Charlie. Charlie'll finish him off...Unless that doctor has technology that Charlie wants. Then Charlie will form an alliance with him. Which would mean a lot more Granny bombings."

and

"Not too long after the lottery ended, Paij-ree felt the crater gull Eb-F-F-A lighting upon his shoulder, which whistled an urgent and sad C-Eb-D C-A-Eb. These desperate notes sent an organ roll of chills straight through Paij-ree. Had the King God of Potted Soil, Our Beloved Topiary, the Mossiah Quos, Literal Father of That Man Who Would Be My Daughter's Organ Instructor-had he truly come to his end? How could this be? Could the great arbors no longer nourish him and guide the moist crosswinds to him? Or did his own spindly lichen hedge up his way and grow against his breathing?"

I just hope things turned out okay for Dr. Cham and Hannah. And the Blix and the foxes. And Why and Quil. I was becoming rather fond of all of them but it ended so soon... Welp, I've got a spare 1" x 6" on my desk here, I better cast this out my window to the WishMaker just in case. Umm...yeah, that'll do, 10 characters: 'whyliveson'. It's a long way to Endertromb from here, but it's worth a shot.

[owlette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't use Ruby, but the fact that this book exists makes Ruby cooler than Python or R in my opinion. I got a lot of Undertale vibe from this book, probably because of the psychedelic quality of the comic strips accompanying each section. I was surprised to learn that the author took the book off the web in 2009 and that what I read is actually a version re-uploaded by a stranger. If you're new to coding, this is a good introductory book that introduces you to how to read code, which should get your engine started to dive into the more stuffy O'Reilley books.

[Stijn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it to be one of the few Ruby resources that actually gives me a succinct overview of the language with some of its intuition. I skipped most of the cartoons or the story lines that were not directly related to Ruby syntax and semantics (which was easy to do).

Also, Ruby is really close to perl, which surprised me ($! anyone?).

[Vinicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book, much more than a simple guide to Ruby, an adventure beyond the strange imagination of Why's the Lucky Stiff, a must-read to new Rubyists, and to someone who is learning how-to programming.

[Chrisman · Rating 5 out of 5]

re-read

I always forget how dark and unhinged this book becomes at the end.

A true classic though. I feel like it's still being imitated today by absurd humor programming books like Clojure for the Brave and True, and Learn You a Haskell For Great Good.

[Dakota Chambers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being written close to 20 years ago and based on Ruby 1.8, still serves as a pretty good first introduction to Ruby. Part fiction, part technical book, part comic book. My main complaint is that some of the comics are hard to read/follow.

[Latitude · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would credit this book with the reason I started finding computer programming interesting.

[J Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there was a 6 this is a 6

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poignant Guide-inspired works like Learn You a Haskell for Great Good! imitate the wacky cartoons but mostly dispense with the random stream of whimsy storytelling. That could be a good or a bad thing, depending on who you ask. I'm undecided.

The whole thing is almost too quirky. Despite some strong elements, the whimsical stories get incoherent, and I think it would be a better book if _why had just toned down the frantic imagination a little and woven the stories more slowly: I can get behind a lot of the individual elements: adventurous Dr Cham and the goat, the organ instructor's lottery, and definitely Dwemthy's Array, but they've all got so much compacted whimisical detail that it all gets a bit overwhelming after a while.

But I love the ideas behind the book, and the union it draws between art and creativity and programming and logic -- there's a false dichotomy of creatives vs. logicals, artists vs. programmers that I have never felt comfortably on one side of. It's enough that something like this exists to show how fun and creative programming should be.

I love the way that, for example, this bit of story just drops into tutorial mode with no fan-fare.

>“Stop hitting me!” screamed the littlest fox. “I’ve almost figured out this one with the dots on it!!”

>Suddenly, with great precision and without warning, Fox Tall grabbed the monkey’s nose and slammed his face down against the counter. The pens and inkpads on its surface rattled and “Bam!” said the fox. The gorilla’s eyes spun sleepily as his arms… then his neck… then his head slithered to the floor behind the counter.

>Here are a few more global variables you might care to use:
>...code listing...

And also I learned a couple new Ruby tricks, which was cool -- I previously had no idea about most of the crazy useful global variables, for instance.

The book doesn't really have any practical code examples, unless you have a real use-case for umop-apisdn fxaf. Should it? Not really, no -- I think the point is just to have fun doing silly stuff with code (something Ruby is very good for). But I wonder how accessible it all is.

The Poignant Guide at some places seems like it's concerned with teaching people new to programming, using vivid metaphors for different bits of syntax -- an array [1,2,3,4] is a caterpillar between two staples (the commas are its legs) -- but even from the beginning the examples have a programmer mindset that's intimate with directory structures and file names, and that's very fastidious and precise about chopping up strings of text and manipulating them, always mindful of whitespace and linebreaks -- a brain that already thinks like a compiler. So I'm not sure I'd recommend this book as a programming introduction, which is a bit of a shame. But then you probably shouldn't learn Ruby as a first language, if only because it'll spoil you for anything else with all its syntactic sugar and custom loop functions.

Still, a worthwhile read, probably best for someone who knows programming, wants to get into Ruby and has a high tolerance for whimsy.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very entertaining introduction to Ruby, and it covers many key concepts. I don't think it was quite comprehensive enough: when I was learning, I had to heavily really upon the API, blogs, and other web resources to make enough sense of the concepts to apply them, but when you know enough background to understand all of the concepts, the book has little value over entertainment.

That said, it's funny; it's lighthearted; and it approaches programming in a new way. The Ruby community is known for its friendliness (even having the motto of MINSWAN, "Matz is nice, so we are nice"), and this is a great introduction to a community that doesn't take itself too seriously.

If you are a beginner Rubyist, I would suggest a few other resources as well:
- http://tryruby.org/levels/1/challenges/0 lets you try out Ruby in your browser (and it even has the same talking foxes as Why has in his book);
- Pragmatic Programming published good introductory and advanced Ruby, Rails, Cucumber, RSpec, JRuby, RubyMotion, Agile, etc. paper and e-books;
- RailsCasts are absolutely invaluable if you want to learn Rails (and they're useful for Ruby too); and
- online tutorials and classes such as those at Code Academy, Code School, and Udacity bring you through the basics step-by-step.

[Anton Antonov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby is a book that has been on my list for months. I've been going in and out the book trying to find inspiration to finish it but always coming short.
Today I finally gathered enough (insanity) to finish it. My opinion on the book hasn't changed.

While it's one of a kind, highly creative and maybe entertaining to some people, the book does a poor job at explaining anything.

I dare to say that the book isn't that accurate either. It lacks exercises,
has weird code examples and explanatory paragraphs mixed with fiction that in the end pass no message to the reader.
Also the code style is not Ruby style guides compliant. Not the best idea to teach beginners bad style before they know anything about Ruby.

If your goal is to learn programming, you won't read 2/3 of fiction.
If you have motivation but not enough to finish a whole programming book, there are the O'Reilly Head First books that can keep you occupied and interested without too much side fiction.

I just can't recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn Ruby and programming.
Lack motivation? - Head First Ruby
Want to learn Ruby well ? - Learn Ruby the Hard Way
A bit of both? - Computer Science Programming Basics in Ruby

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think there exists another programming book in the world that mixes comics, literature, and code examples into such a strange and interesting (and unfortunately unfinished) stew. Of course it's made even more interesting due to the author's "infosuicide" once his real identity was "outed" (he's always saying in the book he might burn out and blow his head off one day). Once it gets going and you see what the book is, the story line and comics slowly draw you in; I found myself really liking the left-brain/right-brain mix feeling it produced in me. I have programming experience with procedural and object-oriented languages, but Ruby has features that take it all a step beyond that and are very intriguing, but it's still _why and friends that are the stars of the book. Hopefully one day he'll resurrect himself and finish it off and update it to Ruby 2.0 syntax, but in the meantime I really do recommend this.

[daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A truly strange book about life, programming and everything between.


I found Why The Lucky Stiff when Smashing Magazine covered his disappearance but haven't come around to reading his Guide to Ruby until now.


It's a strange book, by a strange man, but if you're up for a challenge I recommend reading it. I found a mirror of it and read the whole work in about two weeks.


The book is a mix of a strange journey in space, richly illustrated and who will show you some basic fundamentals in Ruby.