Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

MacRuby: The Definitive Guide

macruby.labs.oreilly.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 11 posts

Re: MacRuby: The Definitive Guide

#2

Post by mattparcher »

Especially relevant after recent news that Apple is working on bringing MacRuby to iOS:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1684403

Which is finally possible now that Apple has eased restrictions on development tools and languages for iOS apps:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1675131

Re: MacRuby: The Definitive Guide

#5

Post by thefrostytruth »

mattparcher wrote: post #4

The book’s author, Matt Aimonetti, explained his reasoning for writing an open-licensed book back in May: http://merbist.com/2010/05/09/writing-an-open-licensed-book/

Thanks, pretty interesting to see that.

I wonder how Matt feels about getting feedback in this way, apart from the open licensing. So many of the comments seem superficial (something a good copyeditor might simply fix, later in the process). He seems to be a good sport in responding, though.

And will his developmental editor at O'Reilly use this interface? Or can public scrutiny stand in for editorial oversight, and the 'true' editing will be minimal? Perhaps a new model for book publishers.

Is there a post mortem written anywhere by authors who have used a public commenting feedback system like this (The Django Book, Real World Haskell, among others)? I'm curious if it would be helpful or mostly annoying to authors.

I wonder if the commenting system itself encourages trivial, nitpicky corrections rather than big picture feedback.

Re: MacRuby: The Definitive Guide

#6

Post by lurch_mojoff »

This book is an awesome introduction to OS X programming for rubists. There is one additional thing I'd like to see (in this book or in another) and that is a good demonstration of hotcocoa, which hopefully will reinvigorate the interest in and the development of it.

Re: MacRuby: The Definitive Guide

#7

Post by baxter »

One of the things I really like about this book is that it covers 'method_missing' really early on. This is criticised in the comments, but I don't think it's an especially difficult concept to understand.

Re: MacRuby: The Definitive Guide

#9

Post by ichverstehe »

baxter wrote: post #7

One of the things I really like about this book is that it covers 'method_missing' really early on. This is criticised in the comments, but I don't think it's an especially difficult concept to understand.

It is not difficult to understand. The trouble is, that it is very easy to misuse.

Re: MacRuby: The Definitive Guide

#10

Post by mattetti »

thefrostytruth wrote: post #5
mattparcher wrote: post #4

The book’s author, Matt Aimonetti, explained his reasoning for writing an open-licensed book back in May: http://merbist.com/2010/05/09/writing-an-open-licensed-book/

Thanks, pretty interesting to see that. I wonder how Matt feels about getting feedback in this way, apart from the open licensing. So many of the comments seem superficial (something a good copyeditor might simply fix, later in the process). He seems to be a good sport in responding, though. And will his developmental editor at O'Reilly use this interface? Or can public scrutiny stand in for editorial oversight, and…

So far the feedback has been great. You are right a lot of comments are 'superficial' but they are still very helpful. Editors only come at the end of a project and I was eager to share the book content with people interested.

My publisher is looking at the comments and they are helpful to reshape the book's target and content.

It's also very encouraging as an author to see people interested in helping, even if it's just to help you with your grammar.

- Matt

Post reply on HN