[ANN] Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, Chapter Four: Little Leavesof Code

[why the lucky stiff]

Just wanted everyone to know that Chapter Four of the (Poignant) Guide
is now available. Read the new chapter here:
http://poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-4.html

Is it okay with everyone if I make chapter announcements on ruby-talk?
I guess I figure it's as pertinent as a new software release, but I
don't want to make an assumption. Please say.

There are a few mailing lists now which cater to those who want to
participate in this project.

stiffs list: open discussion concerning the flow of the book, the
technique (or lack of), the scripts behind it
http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/poignant-stiffs

watchers list: this list is read-only. low frequency updates.
http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/poignant-watchers

translators list: open discussion, come help offer the guide in your
native tongue.
http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/poignant-translators

I don't expect the translation effort to take off or anything. I have
had a handful of people ask, so I figured I'd open a list and see what
happens.

I am considering offering art to those who play a major part in
faithfully translating the book to another language. I have quite a bit
of original artwork related to the book which I would like to give those
who stick with it and finish a translation. Paintings of the foxes and
Blix the Cat. Line art used in the book. I've made a few t-shirts as
well. I've also been working on some cartoon paintings of Matz that are
quite fun.

Okay. Back to filling excavated mushroom clouds with squirrel napkins.

_why

 

[Tom Copeland]

Just wanted everyone to know that Chapter Four of the (Poignant) Guide
is now available. Read the new chapter here:
http://poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-4.html

Is it okay with everyone if I make chapter announcements on ruby-talk?

FWIW, I'm interested in hearing about them here...

Tom

 

[Bermejo, Rodrigo]

FWIW, I'm interested in hearing about them here...

Tom

nice reading ...
interested+=1

 

[Harry Ohlsen]

Just wanted everyone to know that Chapter Four of the (Poignant) Guide
is now available. Read the new chapter here:
http://poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-4.html

I absolutely love your work, but please, please, please can you change the layout so that it prints without chopping off the right hand side?

Alternatively, if someone with more HTML knowledge can tell me what it is about this HTML that causes it to do that, I'll stop pleading and just try to write myself a script to fix it .

Previously, I tried changing the widths of some of the tables. That worked for chapter two, but not for chapter three, so there's presumably something else I need to fiddle with.

Cheers,

Harry O.

 

[why the lucky stiff]

I absolutely love your work, but please, please, please can you change
the layout so that it prints without chopping off the right hand side?

yeah, sorry. the comics are 800 pixels wide and are keeping the pages
from shrinking. how much of the page is getting cut?

presumably you are printing with internet explorer? in firefox, the
pages print swell. and zooms out to 70% in some cases.

_why

 

[Harry Ohlsen]

yeah, sorry. the comics are 800 pixels wide and are keeping the pages
from shrinking. how much of the page is getting cut?

The main title of chapter 4 gets cut just after "Floating Leaves of Co". The sentence on the second? page that ends in " ... Ambrose Caverns is with the elf. He is" gets cut off just after "Amrbose Cave".

presumably you are printing with internet explorer? in firefox, the
pages print swell. and zooms out to 70% in some cases.

Yes, I'm using Avant, which uses IE's rendering engine.

However, given your point about Firefox, I just tried it in Mozilla and (at least the print preview) seems to do a much better job. It's cutting off just a couple of letters, which I can guess from the context.

Now that I know it's browser-specific, I'll just print from Mozilla for the time being. Thanks for the pointer ... and thanks for the great work!

Harry O.

 

[why the lucky stiff]

However, given your point about Firefox, I just tried it in Mozilla
and (at least the print preview) seems to do a much better job. It's
cutting off just a couple of letters, which I can guess from the context.

Better, better. Also go to 'Page Setup...' and set all the margins to
zero. Turn off all headers and footers even, if you want it to print to
every edge.

_why

 

[Andre Nathan]

why the lucky stiff said:

Just wanted everyone to know that Chapter Four of the (Poignant) Guide
is now available. Read the new chapter here:
http://poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-4.html

"You want to climb aboard a jet bound to Brazil with it. And after five
days and four nights at the leisureful Costa do Sauipe Marriott Resort &
Spa, to marry it, to bear a family of 55,000 starmonkeys with it."

Did come for Brasil Open or something?

Is it okay with everyone if I make chapter announcements on ruby-talk?

Please do...


Andre

 

[Harry Ohlsen]

why the lucky stiff wrote:

Better, better. Also go to 'Page Setup...' and set all the margins to
zero. Turn off all headers and footers even, if you want it to print to
every edge.

Excellent! It now fits just fine. Thanks for the suggestions.

Harry O.

 

[dhtapp]

Is it okay with everyone if I make chapter announcements on ruby-talk?

I can't speak for the more experienced folks (which is to say, everybody
else on the list), but I'd prefer that you delivered such announcements to
me in person.

And as soon as I become governer of my very first (smallish) state, you're
in charge of all the public school textbooks.

- dan

 

[Ralph Amissah]

I can't speak for the more experienced folks (which is to say, everybody
else on the list), but I'd prefer that you delivered such announcements to
me in person.

And as soon as I become governer of my very first (smallish) state, you're
in charge of all the public school textbooks.

- dan

Heh, Why_ promises a smallish book unless we are to to distinguishing here
between light/small and light/easy reading, which I hope we are:

On the book's home page Why_ writes:
"This is just a small Ruby book. It won't crush you. It's light as a
feather (because I haven't finished it yet'hehe). And there's a reason
this book will stay light: because Ruby is simple to learn."

I don't think I want him to stop writing, he should do a Dilbert or
something and just go on and on... on everything Ruby, and any related
tool that catches his fancy, (eventually converting and incorporating his
previous writings on more specific subjects (what's new in ruby 1.8oh) or
tools he uses or recommends with Ruby, like sqlite, or yaml into this style
as later chapters of his book).

Don't rush to finish (writing) it, and do write much, if you have the time
it does not need to end.

And as I don't write here that often, I'd like also to thank Andy and
Dave here for writing the Pickaxe. When your book came out, I needed it,
and could hardly wait for it, (and yes I still have a battered old
hardcopy). To have it online as well, has been wonderful, not least when
attempting to promote Ruby. Ok there are many others to thank lots in the
Ruby community, and many of these too obvious to mention:

Thank you all (don't stop),
and Why_ please keep writing.

ralph

 

[Jamis Buck]

I don't think I want him to stop writing, he should do a Dilbert or
something and just go on and on... on everything Ruby, and any related
tool that catches his fancy, (eventually converting and incorporating his
previous writings on more specific subjects (what's new in ruby 1.8oh) or
tools he uses or recommends with Ruby, like sqlite, or yaml into this style
as later chapters of his book).

Have you seen his blog? If not, it's a must-see:

http://whytheluckystiff.net

It's often just as entertaining as the Poignant Guide, though perhaps
not as "directed"...

--
Jamis Buck
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.jamisbuck.org/jamis

ruby -h | ruby -e 'a=[];readlines.join.scan(/-(.)\[e|Kk(\S*)|le.l(..)e|#!(\S*)/) {|r| a << r.compact.first };puts "\n>#{a.join(%q/ /)}<\n\n"'

 

[Josef 'Jupp' SCHUGT]

Hi!

* Jamis Buck:

must-see:

http://whytheluckystiff.net

Another facet is the feed:

http://www.whytheluckystiff.net/why.xml

Josef 'Jupp' SCHUGT