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

_why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]

scribd.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 140 posts

Re: _why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]

#41

Post by jacquesm »

coffeejunk wrote: post #26

It is easy to see _why as "the crazy ruby guy who wrote some scripts and created all this drama around his persona". Even though _why did indeed write some (very useful) programs, I think this view of him misses the point and probably explains why so many people seem to be puzzled by his newest endeavour. Yes, he wrote some Ruby code, but the code was his least important contribution. _why was the first person to act…

> _why was the first person to actually create art around and about software.

That's complete rubbish. But it probably is correct that he was the first person that created art around and about software that you are aware of.

Re: _why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]

#42

Post by phren0logy »

Printing a book as a print spool, including a self-referential handwritten program to print the spool? If you don't think this is fun, I just don't know what to tell you.

Speaking purely for myself, the absurdist nature of _why's work is part of the fun. The feeling of being a little bit confused but enjoying the moment is why I find programming interesting in the first place.

Keep up the great work _why!

Re: _why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]

#43

Post by Swizec »

coffeejunk wrote: post #26

It is easy to see _why as "the crazy ruby guy who wrote some scripts and created all this drama around his persona". Even though _why did indeed write some (very useful) programs, I think this view of him misses the point and probably explains why so many people seem to be puzzled by his newest endeavour. Yes, he wrote some Ruby code, but the code was his least important contribution. _why was the first person to act…

> a love and passion for coding as a recreational activity that defies our conventional beliefs about software as a craft & industry.

I must be in the wrong "conventional", but I always thought everyone saw coding/hacking as a past time that they are lucky enough to be able to turn into money as well. Most if not all of top developers are hobbyists first and professionals second.

Re: _why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]

#44

Post by nnq »

peterwwillis wrote: post #40
pervycreeper wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I still don't know how to program in Ruby That says something, although I'm not sure exactly what

it says the poignant guide never really was about Ruby. It was a wonderfully quirky book that happened to be using Ruby as its language

For the record, the poignant guide to Ruby was what made me turn my attention towards Python... everything about it felt "wrong" to me in a way that seemed generalizable to the whole Ruby culture (yeah, this changed for the better in the meantime, and now it's an ok language with a "culture" that doesn't feel so "wrong" for people who think like me).

Re: _why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]

#46

Post by pekk »

parnas wrote: post #37

I'm sorry.. I don't understand the fanatical devotion and sacrifice(for example, having a nervous breakdown, or leaving a job for some startup when you've got wife and family because of devotion to the python community) for scripting languages that are all more-or-less the same +- curly braces as ruby/python/perl/php/C whatever. Look for something else to be interested in--OCaml and F#.

Languages don't matter, so use OCaml and F#. What?

Re: _why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]

#48

Post by ritchiea »

nnq wrote: post #44
peterwwillis wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it says the poignant guide never really was about Ruby. It was a wonderfully quirky book that happened to be using Ruby as its language

For the record, the poignant guide to Ruby was what made me turn my attention towards Python... everything about it felt "wrong" to me in a way that seemed generalizable to the whole Ruby culture (yeah, this changed for the better in the meantime, and now it's an ok language with a "culture" that doesn't feel so "wrong" for people who think like me).

Can you be more specific about what seemed wrong to you about the culture surrounding ruby? I'm curious.

Re: _why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf]

#49

Post by sergiotapia »

peterwwillis wrote: post #40
pervycreeper wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I still don't know how to program in Ruby That says something, although I'm not sure exactly what

it says the poignant guide never really was about Ruby. It was a wonderfully quirky book that happened to be using Ruby as its language

I read it and it's quirky sure, but in a 'so randum!!11 NACHO BEANS! holds up spork' sort of way. I'm probably going to get modded down here, but that's just my opinion on it.

'A++' for effort though? It couldn't have been easy to draw all those cartoons.

Post reply on HN