From: why the lucky stiff Date: 2004-02-18T04:58:00+09:00 Subject: [ANN] Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, Chapters 1 to 3 Greetings. Man, I'm giddy about this announcement. My blood is visibly pulsing. On Nov. 11, 2003, during RubyConf 2003, I kinda mentioned a major project of mine that I believed would "change the Ruby world significantly." [1] Well, we'll see about that. Sorry if that was a bit pompous, but I'll let you be the judge of that. Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby is a free, open-source book for anyone wanting to learn Ruby. I have finished the first three chapters. You can start reading at http://poignantguide.net/. This book is not so much a manual. There will be no reference. This book is closer to a novel, a comic, or maybe a biography. Or all three. Ultimately, I'd like to have a book that could be so accessible that it could be a NYT bestseller. Of course, I don't ever expect that to happen, but that's how plain I'd like the instruction to be. Face it. This is the future. Kids are going to be programming their skateboards, their GI-Joe tanks, their shoelaces, their oatmeal. Ruby could easily be that language that the common man can get his hooks into. This probably isn't the book that will make Ruby become universal, but it's a steppie in that vicinity. My roadmap has the book finished next summer. This gives me a couple months for each chapter. I'd like to release early and often. The best thing you can do is bug me. Feedback. Constant reminders when a new chapter is due. Bug me to death. The demand will motivate me. If you don't like the book, tell me why. I have no intention to print the book. I have no desire to publish. I am not working on PDF, Palm, TeX, etc. versions of the book. I am writing the book and I am going to leave those matters for later. However, I will be setting up a RubyForge project soon. The YAML/Textile source for the book will be available for any of you to format, print or reuse. I am releasing it all (graphics included) under the GPL'ish Attribution-ShareAlike [2] license of the Creative Commons. Cool? Okay, then. I *starch* you all! _why [1] http://whytheluckystiff.net/arch/2003/11/17 [2] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/