_why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#1

Post by aaronbrethorst » Sat, May 15, 2010, 8:27 PM UTC

_why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius
smashingmagazine.com

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#2

Post by Luyt » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:20 PM UTC

Heartwarming... One of the first programs I ever wrote, on a PET-2001, was a crude running elephant. Later I made it controllable with the arrow keys.

Why did this enigmatic guy disappear from the nets?

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#3

Post by gjm11 » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:21 PM UTC

There really, really needs to be a leading underscore in the title. (The article linked to gets this right. The submitter seems to be reasonably clueful, so I wonder: did he get it right and the HN software screw it up?)

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#4

Post by squidsoup » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:27 PM UTC

It was a sad day when he disappeared. _Why inspired me to learn ruby, and reminded me that software can be beautiful (and humorous!).

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#5

Post by aaronbrethorst » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:32 PM UTC

gjm11 wrote: post #3

There really, really needs to be a leading underscore in the title. (The article linked to gets this right. The submitter seems to be reasonably clueful, so I wonder: did he get it right and the HN software screw it up?)

Smashing Magazine's title lacks the underscore, but the in-page title has one. HN's submitter bookmarklet copies the title tag's contents, and I neglected to fix it...

update: there, fixed it. thanks :)

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#6

Post by derefr » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:40 PM UTC

Luyt wrote: post #2

Heartwarming... One of the first programs I ever wrote, on a PET-2001, was a crude running elephant. Later I made it controllable with the arrow keys. Why did this enigmatic guy disappear from the nets?

With his level of passion, I can't believe that he doesn't want to come back. I think he's just giving us all a time-out from playing his wonderful game, to teach us to be good.

Although, if he now distrusts the Ruby community too badly, he might be waiting for a new language espousing "programmer enjoyment" to sprout up...

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#7

Post by nir » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:44 PM UTC

It was a sad day when _why left programming. I always thought he was one of the most creative people currently working in any medium, and we were lucky to have him choose code to express his ideas.

Does anyone have any idea what he's been doing since?

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#8

Post by steveklabnik » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:47 PM UTC

I don't think I brought it up on HN yet, because they haven't updated rubysoc.org, but Hackety did get accepted as a Summer of Code project this year: http://librelist.com/browser//hacketyhack/2010/4/21/ruby-sum...

I'm really excited!

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#9

Post by steveklabnik » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:47 PM UTC

nir wrote: post #7

It was a sad day when _why left programming. I always thought he was one of the most creative people currently working in any medium, and we were lucky to have him choose code to express his ideas. Does anyone have any idea what he's been doing since?

> Does anyone have any idea what he's been doing since?

Basically, the Ruby community decided that if his wish was to be gone, we'd respect that wish. Nothing has been heard since his disappearance.

Re: _why: A Tale Of A Post-Modern Genius

#10

Post by iamdave » Sat, May 15, 2010, 9:54 PM UTC

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #5

gjm11 wrote: post #3

There really, really needs to be a leading underscore in the title. (The article linked to gets this right. The submitter seems to be reasonably clueful, so I wonder: did he get it right and the HN software screw it up?)

Smashing Magazine's title lacks the underscore, but the in-page title has one. HN's submitter bookmarklet copies the title tag's contents, and I neglected to fix it... update: there, fixed it. thanks :)

the w shouldn't be capitalized, either.