[ANN] Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, Chapters 1 to 3

Gavin Kistner wrote:

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On Feb 18, 2004, at 7:29 AM, Karl von Laudermann wrote:

One request though… the text doesn’t wrap to the width of the
browser window. The line length is fixed, forcing you to size the
browser to a certain minimum width if you don’t want to get a
horizontal scroll bar.

Why, if you are set against a scalable design (sometimes users need to
be saved from themselves by setting type with an optimal line-length)
may I suggest specifying the width of the content be specified in ‘em’
rather than ‘px’?

This way the column width is locked to the current font size (allowing
you to control a reasonable line-length), which can be scaled by the
user.

And even more off-topic…tables for layout?
May I suggest my (currently-seeking-a-proper-home-on-my-site):
How to Develop with CSS


(-, /\ / / //

Good, yeah. Definitely want the whole thing to be cooperative with
scroll bars and all kinds of rez. Will check out the article.

If any of you would like to follow development of the book or assist in
layout, discussion will continue on the mailing list.
[http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/poignant-stiffs]

_why

why the lucky stiff ruby-talk@whytheluckystiff.net wrote in message news:40329068.7060701@whytheluckystiff.net

how about translations? :slight_smile:

my dutch really does suck but i’d just love to get my
cousins speaking ruby as i’m pretty fluent in that :slight_smile:

Calm down. I want to help everyone’s cousins. Let’s see what we can do.

I have not an whim of idea as to how we could get this book translated.
Especially considering that I am constantly revising and rephrasing. In
addition, I intend to change flow based on audience reaction. I fear
that embarking on translation too soon will either (a) inhibit the
flexibility of revisions or (b) drive the translators to harpoon
theyselves, leaving behind them a smattering of ancient (poignant)
translations. Yeh?

no time to get that quick. Go on writing. when you feel like it,
show us the code (possibly in little chunks). Put it on a versioning
system somewhere. And forget about translators.
The bsd handbook is handled much like this and, somehow, it works :slight_smile:

BTW, in my first mesage I forget to say:
I would adore this if we could have some system to eval/print the
various statements in text itself. If you ever looked at the
VisualWorks intro/tutorial you know what I mean.

I really like the unconventional writing style. It kind of reminds me of the
book “Head First Java” in the way that it really holds your interest. (If
you haven’t seen “Head First Java”, it might give you more ideas).

I do have one question. Who is your target audience?

When I first started reading it I thought, “this is something I could give
my 12 year old boy to learn programming”. But as I got further, I realized
that you would already have to know how to program to understand a lot of
it.

Thanks for the breath of fresh ruby air,
Curt

why the lucky stiff ruby-talk@whytheluckystiff.net wrote in message news:40329068.7060701@whytheluckystiff.net

I have not an whim of idea as to how we could get this book translated.
Especially considering that I am constantly revising and rephrasing. In

Use a version control system, one that does a good job of annotating
the differences between versions. Give your document versions real
versions. Your translators will be able to check out your document
and see the changes, and make their changes in the appropriate places.
Their documents will also have versions, so anybody ready any given
translation will know which version of the “master” document the
translation was made from.

It’d be even better if your master document wasn’t written in HTML,
but was XML docbook, or something like that; then the translators
could run their translations through your style sheet and get the same
look, and you’d reduce the amount of grunt-work, non-content change
management that you’d have with HTML and embedded layout.

— SER