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A letter from _why

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Re: A letter from _why

#31

Post by gbog »

tristanstraub wrote: post #23
javadyan wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's okay, but he is also indirectly encouraging a beginner to not care about the quality of the code he produces. That's bad. You should be afraid to write crappy or unsafe code. Writing clean and safe code is a mandatory skill for any programmer and beginners (especially beginners) should practise it. After all, if you want to be a programmer, eventually you will have to write code that will be used by other peop…

If you want to be a programmer and write code for other people, then yes, cleaner code is easier to hand over. But, when I first started coding, I wrote it for myself and because it was fun! Why was it fun? Because the code made things happen! Not because it was clean. Clean code makes writing large projects by yourself and with other people easier. It doesn't necessarily make coding more fun.

I didn't check "Why"'s code but if he is a real good writer and coder, as many seem to think, his code will be clean even against his own claims. It is only when you have the greatest maestria that you can dismiss the rules. Only after 20 years of violin will you be able to play "out of tune" (without people jumping through the windows). So I take Why's advices as very elitist, and necessary, but not to be followed too closely in a normal environement (where you have peers, where your code will have to be modified, etc.)

Re: A letter from _why

#32

Post by lallysingh »

javadyan wrote: post #17
angrycoder wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is encouraging a beginner to have fun and experiment, not write enterprise software.

That's okay, but he is also indirectly encouraging a beginner to not care about the quality of the code he produces. That's bad. You should be afraid to write crappy or unsafe code. Writing clean and safe code is a mandatory skill for any programmer and beginners (especially beginners) should practise it. After all, if you want to be a programmer, eventually you will have to write code that will be used by other peop…

I disagree.

You shouldn't learn to write maintainable software by rote. You just mechanically learn what to type, and how to type it, without ever learning why. Which is important. Knowing why certain constructs are hard to understand prevent you from doing the same spaghetti in perfectly-sanctioned style. Knowing how people read unfamiliar code is important, and teaches you which parts of the style-guide-mandated documentation are best kept short (for someone scanning your file to see what-does-what) and which parts long (to describe the edge cases).

Honestly, the best way I've found to write software is to start with a complete proof-of-concept mess. That way there's minimal friction during the get-it-right phase. Then I factor out the actual 'hard work' code from there into a reusable component, and turn the rest into the start of my test harness.

Re: A letter from _why

#33

Post by pygy_ »

jessedhillon wrote: post #4

Can someone write an explanation for why this is important? Who is this person?

He's a top notch high and low-level programmer with excellent taste for API design (and a language geek). He's also a talented poet/writer, painter/cartoonist/web designer and composer/singer/musician.

From ~2002 to 2009, he released a tremendous amount of material (dozens of code projects, thousands of blog posts), then disappeared abruptly, deleting almost everything he had ever published. His blog posts were humorous yet insightful. His libraries were excellent, some of his snippets were completely baffling. The libraries were always artfully and pedagogically documented.

He wrote in 2005 an essay lamenting the high barier of entry to programming for children in the 2000's whereas Basic was available in every 8/16bit computers when he was a kid. From then on, he tried to improve the situation: first by writing his Poignant guide to Ruby, then by writing http://http://tryruby.org/, the first online REPL, wrapped in an interactive tutorial. At last, he started the Hackety Hack project: an development environment to teach programming to children.

Extremely creative, he (used to?) consider programming to be an art in and of itself, but frequently mixed genres too. His programming book is illustrated with cartoons, fantastic stories and has a sound track that illustrates either the code, the stories, or the book writing process itself. The "This book is made (of rabbits and lemonade)" and "The parts of Ruby/Chunky Bacon" songs gives you a good sample of what his overall production felt like (see below).

He was also excellent at promoting his works, but was ambivalent regarding his own fame.

He also sometimes displayed a darker side (like in the Poignant Guide where he jokingly predicted that he was going to burn out and shoot himself in the head).

Watching him was at the same time entertaining and enlightening, and more, and I definitely wasn't the only person to deeply enjoy what he was doing... When he disappeared people went to no end to recover his works.

Most of his deleted work has been restored from backups (git forks and RSS feeds helped with this). Some of his code projects have been taken over by others, and all are archived here: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/

While active, he was admired. When he disappeared, he became a legend. It's a pity he left so many things unfinished.

--

The Poignant Guid to Ruby: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/

--

The Redhanded blog, covering all things Ruby: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/redhanded/

Hackety.org, his next blog on artful programming: http://viewsourcecode.org/why/hackety.org/

--

The SoundTrack of the Poignant Guide: http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/soundtrack/

Recommended:

- This book is made (of rabbits and lemonade): http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%...

- The parts of Ruby / Chunky Bacon : http://s3.amazonaws.com/mislav.baconfile.com/poignant-guide%...

.

.

I just found out that it was still possible to buy Chunky Bacon t-shirts: http://www.cafepress.co.uk/blixytees

Re: A letter from _why

#36

Post by wyclif »

enneff wrote: post #18
oemera wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know much about _why but as I read all the stories about his disappearing I can't help but think he had serious problems in his life. To take it personally and go away only because your code is getting old and slow while other learned from it and wrote something better is IMO wrong! You should also learn from libraries and go on write something new and challenge yourself again. Giving up because of a loses ma…

He was "unmasked" at one point. Last I heard - shortly after his disappearance - he was alive and employed. My take on his disappearance is that he just wanted to bow out of the limelight. Fair enough, IMO.

People started digging too deep, trying to unmask him, so he pulled the plug. I admire the people who do know his identity but kept it under wraps: kind of like a geek code of omerta.

Re: A letter from _why

#37

Post by wyclif »

nikcub wrote: post #11
wisty wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why (with an underscore) was a cool pseudonymous Ruby programmer / writer, who completely disappeared. He's like the Bobby Fisher of programming, without the crazy. (OK, he sounds a little ... artistic, but that's not really crazy). Some people say he stopped writing because he was in danger of being "outed" by people trying to find his identity. Or maybe he got sick of Ruby, and wanted to do something else (without…

I don't blame him for disappearing. The entire cult that appeared around him was completely against a lot of what he talked about.

I like to think of _why today living a quiet, reclusive life in Pennsylvania with his wife and children, peacefully working on his own projects and art.

Re: A letter from _why

#38

Post by felipemnoa »

gbog wrote: post #31
tristanstraub wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to be a programmer and write code for other people, then yes, cleaner code is easier to hand over. But, when I first started coding, I wrote it for myself and because it was fun! Why was it fun? Because the code made things happen! Not because it was clean. Clean code makes writing large projects by yourself and with other people easier. It doesn't necessarily make coding more fun.

I didn't check "Why"'s code but if he is a real good writer and coder, as many seem to think, his code will be clean even against his own claims. It is only when you have the greatest maestria that you can dismiss the rules. Only after 20 years of violin will you be able to play "out of tune" (without people jumping through the windows). So I take Why's advices as very elitist, and necessary, but not to be followed t…

You are really missing the point. One of the best ways to learn is to make a lot of mistakes, in everything.

Re: A letter from _why

#40

Post by betageek »

oemera wrote: post #16
philwelch wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not entirely true. why was happy to remain in the public eye long after he and his book gained notoriety. What you don't mention is his prolific open source work, including the html/xml parser hpricot. why's disappearance seemed to happen just as nokogiri, a technically superior parser, became prominent, though why's motives will never be known for sure. why's last tweets include: "caller asks, “should i use h…

I don't know much about _why but as I read all the stories about his disappearing I can't help but think he had serious problems in his life. To take it personally and go away only because your code is getting old and slow while other learned from it and wrote something better is IMO wrong! You should also learn from libraries and go on write something new and challenge yourself again. Giving up because of a loses ma…

I think _why left because he didn't want to do it anymore, it's that simple. Being _why must have taken up a load of time and one day he just wanted to spend it some other way - I'd suggest that it shows he was far more balanced than the average "rockstar" programmer, he may really just have left to spend more time with his family.

He gave a lot to the community, far more in the short time he was around than most people produce in their lifetime, and we should be/are thankful for it.

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