Pickaxe

ruby-talk
1

I kept hearing you guys talking about pickaxe, I tried to search it in
google, it seems not related to ruby? Could you give me a URL or some
hints? Thanks a lot

Shannon

2

I kept hearing you guys talking about pickaxe, I tried to search it in
google, it seems not related to ruby? Could you give me a URL or some
hints? Thanks a lot

Shannon

I’ll give you a hint. See the document “Things Newcomers to Ruby Should Know”
(or similar - we’ve got to shorten that title!), recently posted to the list.

Cheers,
Gavin

···

From: “Shannon Fang” xrfang@hotmail.com

3

I’ll give you a hint. See the document “Things Newcomers to Ruby Should Know”
(or similar - we’ve got to shorten that title!), recently posted to the list.

Maybe I’m just being stupid today, but I couldn’t find any reference to
pickaxe in this document (even using ‘grep’).

I’m under the vague impression that pickaxe is the book “Programming
Ruby”:

http://165.193.123.250/book/index.html

Though I really can’t fanthom why it’s called ‘pickaxe’ or how we are
supposed to know that this is it.

Daniel.

4

Hi –

···

On Mon, 2 Dec 2002, Daniel Carrera wrote:

I’ll give you a hint. See the document “Things Newcomers to Ruby Should Know”
(or similar - we’ve got to shorten that title!), recently posted to the list.

Maybe I’m just being stupid today, but I couldn’t find any reference to
pickaxe in this document (even using ‘grep’).

I’m under the vague impression that pickaxe is the book “Programming
Ruby”:

http://165.193.123.250/book/index.html

Though I really can’t fanthom why it’s called ‘pickaxe’ or how we are
supposed to know that this is it.

It has a pickaxe on the cover (print version, at least). Learning
this is one of the Ruby rites of passage :slight_smile:

David

–
David Alan Black
home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
work: blackdav@shu.edu
Web: http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav

5

This vague impression is correct.

It’s called the Pickaxe because the print version has a picture
of a pickaxe and some (raw?) rubies… this is a long-standing
tradition in the computer world, dating back at least as far
as the Dragon Book on compilers (Aho, Sethis, and Ullmann, I
believe).

As for how you know: This should be in the FAQ and/or the
newcomers’ list of questions. It’s just a slang expression
that you pick up as you hang out here.

I made a half-serious attempt to hang the nickname “Coral Book”
on The Ruby Way, for no particular reason except that
nicknames are kinda cool. It didn’t work, probably for two
good reasons: 1. These things Happen, they aren’t Planned.
2. If you don’t already know it’s coral, you probably wouldn’t
guess. :slight_smile: The exact species of coral is apparently some kind
of dendronephthya, but I never felt “the Dendronephthya Book”
had a ring to it.

Hal

···

----- Original Message -----
From: “Daniel Carrera” dcarrera@math.umd.edu
To: “ruby-talk ML” ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 9:56 AM
Subject: Re: pickaxe

I’m under the vague impression that pickaxe is the book “Programming
Ruby”:

http://165.193.123.250/book/index.html

Though I really can’t fanthom why it’s called ‘pickaxe’ or how we are
supposed to know that this is it.

6

It has a pickaxe on the cover (print version, at least). Learning
this is one of the Ruby rites of passage :slight_smile:

<dawning_comprehension> OOOOhhhhhh! </>
Now I get it. On-line the background depics pickaxe. :slight_smile:

At least I figured what book it was, even if I didn’t realize why. :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Daniel.