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[personal profile] deirdre
I'm not sure when it was exactly, but I heard about it today.

One of my favorite writers on any subject has vanished.

The Ruby (computer) language's most enigmatic and peculiar person, Why the Lucky Stiff, has gone dark. We don't know what that means. People are trying to get a hold of him, but he was (and is) notoriously private.

There's a eulogy here, if only sadness at temporary disappearance.

One of the things _why did that was most beneficial was to write a programming book that even kids could understand, called the Poignant Guide to Ruby. When _why went dark, the main site went offline, but there are still archives.

Here's an example paragraph that I think shows you it's not a normal programming text:

odelay

Of course, the Poignant Guide also features the cartoon foxes with their famous bacon meme.

Chunky Bacon

Just those two things should convey a sense of his idea of what a book on learning a programming language should be like: it should be whimsical and fun. Both analog and digital.

Miss you, _why. Hope you come back soon.

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