Horizon

2006 Horizon Awards II: Most Surreal Programming Language Tutorial

Back in college, I used to read programming manuals to go to sleep at night. This worked so long as the language was thoroughly obsolete and had no relevance to my coursework. A particular COBOL manual was perfect — good for perhaps 20 minutes of pre-slumber reading. After I finished it, I tried others. A System/370 Assembler was too dry so I'd get bored and start worrying about life, while my copy of VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures kept me up for a full hour each time.

It's a very good thing I never stumbled across Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. I'd have never slept, and my sophomore grades would have been even worse than they actually were, if that's possible. Why (who blogs at why the lucky stiff and played the banjo at SXSW this year) is brilliant. He manages to integrate cartoon foxes, surreal prose, and morbid anecdotes about his family life into a decent Ruby tutorial.

Could you learn Ruby more quickly elsewhere? Sure. But I'll bet you wouldn't stay up all night reading.

I’ll be straight with you. I want you to cry. To weep. To whimper sweetly. This book is a poignant guide to Ruby. That means code so beautiful that tears are shed. That means gallant tales and somber truths that have you waking up the next morning in the arms of this book. Hugging it tightly to you all the day long. If necessary, fashion a makeshift hip holster for Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, so you can always have this book’s tender companionship.

Posted by Ben Brumfield at May 4, 2006 10:02 PM