From: Jeremy McAnally <jeremymcanally@...>
Date: 2008-03-15T06:22:17+09:00
Subject: Re: How to Read Ruby API / Documentation :NUBY

I agree with you.

I'm not sure why people want to learn Ruby in a vacuum or something.
"These docs don't teach me every possible behavior of method (x)!!!!
THESE SUCK!!!!"  Get your hands dirty in irb, otherwise you won't
really *learn* how to use it right, IMHO.

Ruby documentation needs help (no I haven't submitted patches to Ruby
but I have submitted a lot to Rails), but hopefully some things that
are being worked on will bring up the ease of doc edits, the quality
of generated documentation, and the quality of documentation content.
We shall see though.

--Jeremy

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 1:02 PM, Gregory Seidman
<gsslist+ruby@anthropohedron.net> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 15, 2008 at 01:39:00AM +0900, 7stud -- wrote:
>  > You will have to get used to the fact that the Ruby docs are horrible.
>
>  The *free* Ruby docs leave something to be desired. The Pickaxe book is
>  pretty good in a lot of ways, and I've also gotten a lot of value out of
>  the O'Reilly Ruby Pocket Reference I won at RubyConf.
>
>  Beyond that, Foo.instance_methods.grep(/bar/) is your friend. Playing
>  around in irb is invaluable. I even look things up in ri occasionally. The
>  wealth of expertise available on this mailing list and on #ruby-lang on
>  freenode.net have also helped me a great deal. And Google is always your
>  friend.
>
>  Complaining that the free documentation for the free (and Free)
>  language/platform you're using leaves something to be desired is absurd.
>  Feel free to contribute better documentation if you think it's a good use
>  of your time. (Saying it's worth someone else's time but not your own is
>  the height of hypocrisy unless you're willing to pay money for that other
>  person's time.) Otherwise, use the other resources available to you.
>
>  --Greg
>
>
>



-- 
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Ruby in Practice (http://manning.com/mcanally/)
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