why the lucky stiff

For perhaps the first time, computer science instruction and /literature/ fuse into one perfect specimen.

Whenever I feel down and out about my profession, I come back to this book to remember that there are people who may one day actually overcome this supposed split between the humanities and the technologies that modern society seems to function under. This is the first positive answer to the question of whether computer science can be adapted (without appropriation) into works of art.

Beyond that, this is actually a pretty excellent Ruby tutorial. As an experienced programmer, I may be banking on previously earned knowledge which means I cannot necessarily speak for a total newcomer.

However, you'll spend half an hour reading up on some seemingly nonsensical tale of Dr. Charn or Why's daughter's organ teacher or what have you, only to find that underneath the whim you have been shown exactly the principles that you will then take ten minutes internalizing in Ruby code.

The only knock is that sometimes the whimsy runs on a bit thick and doesn't hold well enough to be more than charmingly bloated words of wonder. At those moments you may either wish for another code example or perhaps just for the foxes to get on with their tale instead of wallowing in existential despair.… (mer)