From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2002-12-02T02:14:27+09:00
Subject: Re: pickaxe

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daniel Carrera" <dcarrera@math.umd.edu>
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: pickaxe


> I'm under the vague impression that pickaxe is the book "Programming
> Ruby":
> 
> http://165.193.123.250/book/index.html
> 
> Though I really can't fanthom why it's called 'pickaxe' or how we are
> supposed to know that this is it.

This vague impression is correct.

It's called the Pickaxe because the print version has a picture
of a pickaxe and some (raw?) rubies... this is a long-standing
tradition in the computer world, dating back at least as far 
as the Dragon Book on compilers (Aho, Sethis, and Ullmann, I 
believe).

As for how you know: This should be in the FAQ and/or the
newcomers' list of questions. It's just a slang expression 
that you pick up as you hang out here.

I made a half-serious attempt to hang the nickname "Coral Book"
on _The Ruby Way_, for no particular reason except that
nicknames are kinda cool. It didn't work, probably for two
good reasons: 1. These things Happen, they aren't Planned. 
2. If you don't already know it's coral, you probably wouldn't 
guess. :)  The exact species of coral is apparently some kind
of dendronephthya, but I never felt "the Dendronephthya Book"
had a ring to it.

Hal