Why the lucky stiff

Infobox Person
name = Unknown (alias "why the lucky stiff")
other_names = why, _why

---

caption = _why at RubyConf
occupation = Ruby programmer, author
known_for = "Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby", " Camping"

why the lucky stiff (often known simply as "why" or "_why") is the persona of a prolific writer, cartoonist, musician, artist, and computer programmer notable for his work with the Ruby programming language. Along with Yukihiro Matsumoto and David Heinemeier Hansson, he is sometimes seen as a key figure in the Ruby community.

Why the lucky stiff was the keynote speaker at "RailsConf" in 2006. [ [http://www.scribemedia.org/2006/11/25/why-oh-why/ RailsConf Keynote: Why the Lucky Stiff] ] , He also had a speaking session titled "A Starry Afternoon, a Sinking Symphony, and the Polo Champ Who Gave It All Up for No Reason Whatsoever" at the 2005 O'Reilly Open Source Convention held in Portland, Oregon. [ [http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2005/view/e_sess/6948 O'Reilly Open Source Convention 2005] ] It explored how to teach programming and make it more appealing to adolescents.

Works

Tutorials

His best known work is "Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby" [cite book | author=Michael Fitzgerald|year=2007|publisher=O'Reilly|isbn=0596529864|title=Learning Ruby] , which "teaches Ruby with stories." [cite book | author = Lucas Carlson | author = Leonard Richardson |title=Ruby Cookbook | publisher=O'Reilly | year = 2006 | isbn=0596523696] Paul Adams of Webmonkey describes its eclectic style as resembling a "collaboration between Stan Lem and Ed Lear".cite web | year=2003 | editor= Paul Adams | title= Getting Your Feet Wet With Ruby On Rails | url=http://web.archive.org/web/20061231080418/http://www.webmonkey.com/05/28/index4a.html] . Chapter three was published in "The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky"cite book | year=2005 | publisher=Apress | title="The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky" | url=http://www.apress.com/book/view/9781590595008 | isbn=978-1590595008] .

" [http://tryruby.hobix.com Try Ruby] " is an online interactive learning tool that provides a browser-based Ruby shell and an instructor that guides beginners through their first steps in Ruby.

His latest project, "Hackety Hack", is a Ruby- and Mozilla- based environment used to teach programming to children.

Code

_why is the author of several libraries and applications, most of them written in Ruby.

*"Camping", a microframework inspired by Ruby on Rails and based on Markaby that is less than 4 kilobytes.cite book | year=2007 | publisher=O'Reilly | title=Advanced Rails| isbn=0596510322 | page=235]
*" [http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/parkplace Park Place] ", a "nearly complete clone of the Amazon S3 web service."
* " [http://hobix.com/ Hobix] ", a YAML-based weblog application written in Ruby.
* " [http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/hpricot/ Hpricot] ", an HTML parser.
* " [http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/markaby/ Markaby] ", (markup as Ruby), a DSL to generate valid HTML using Ruby blocks and methods instead of tags.cite book | year=2007 | publisher=Apress | title="Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional | isbn=978-1-59059-766-8 | page=443]
* " [http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/mouseHole/ MouseHole] ", a personal web proxy that can rewrite the web "à la" Greasemonkey.
* the " [http://whytheluckystiff.net/ruby/redcloth/ RedCloth] " library, which implements the Textile markup language.
* the "Sandbox", a library for managing several Ruby environments in a single process.
* " [http://whytheluckystiff.net/syck/ Syck] ", a YAML library for C, Ruby, and several other languages. Syck has been a part of standard Ruby libraries [ [http://stdlib.rubyonrails.org/libdoc/syck/rdoc/index.htmlRuby Standard Library documentation for Syck] ] since Ruby version 1.8.0.
* " [http://shoooes.net Shoes] ", a UI toolkit "for Making Web-like Desktop Apps" [InfoQ: [http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/09/ruby-shoes Ruby Shoes for lightweight GUIs, graphics and animation] ] [O'Reilly Network: [http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/ruby/2008/01/14/shoes-meets-merb-interfacing-a-gtk2-front-end-and-a-rails-web-service.html Shoes Meets Merb: Driving a GUI App through Web Services in Ruby] ]

Music

_why has appeared with his band The Thirsty Cups live at conferences and has recorded a soundtrack for his book "Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby".

Art

He has illustrated The Ruby Programming Language, authored by David Flanagan and Yukihiro Matsumoto. [cite book | publisher=O'Reilly Media | author=David Flanagan, Yukihiro Matsumoto | url=http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596516178/ | title=The Ruby Programming Language | isbn=978-0596516178] He also dedicates his illustration every year to "RubyKaigi", the biggest Ruby conference in Japan that's like "RubyConf".

Etymology of the name

Although the exact origin of _why's name is unclear, it may be derived from Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead", in which Peter Keating exclaims, "Why, the lucky stiff!" [cite book |last=Rand |first=Ayn |title=The Fountainhead |url=http://www.scribd.com/doc/3297457/Ayn-Rand-The-Fountainhead |accessdate=2008-07-12 |origyear=1943 |publisher=Bobbs Merrill |pages=pp. 92 |chapter=Part One, Chapter 9 ]

External links

* [http://hackety.org/ hackety.org] , _why's current blog about artful computer hacking and the successor to RedHanded
* [http://podcast.rubyonrails.com/programs/1/episodes/the_camping_episode Episode of the Ruby on Rails Podcast about Camping]
* [http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/ A list of _why's open source projects]
* [http://www.rubyinside.com/shoes-roundup-ruby-gui-app-development-goodness-597.html Shoes Roundup: Ruby GUI App Development Goodness, lists a few resources for Ruby/Shoes development]
* [http://www.poignantguide.net/sdtrk/ Soundtrack for the book, "Why's (poignant) Guide to Ruby"]
* [http://redhanded.hobix.com/ RedHanded] , a defunct blog dedicated to Ruby culture
* [http://whytheluckystiff.net .c( whytheluckystiff )o.] , _why's personal blog
* [http://whytheluckystiff.net/quiet/ (.~) what a quiet stiff (~.)] , a photo and image blog by _why
* [http://jp.rubyist.net/RubyKaigi2008/?Goodies RubyKaigi2008 Goodies] , _why's illustration used in RubyKaigi2008 (Japanese page)
* [http://jp.rubyist.net/RubyKaigi2007/Goodies.html RubyKaigi2007 Goodies] , _why's illustration(s) used in RubyKaigi2007 (Japanese page)

References