A new kind of tech book, move over O'Reilly

If like me you have heard about the new craze that is Ruby on Rails then you really need to check out Why's Poignant Guide. Go read it now, no don't finish reading this sentence. Or this one. Just go and fracking read it.

For anyone who is still in a disobedient frame of mind, this is a book that is so far from the normal drone of O'Reilly style tech books that they are barely comparable. The style of writing is so full of bizarre imagery and fanciful language it sounds more like a funky new novel than an introduction to a new scripting language.

This writing style is more than a gimmick though, the use of descriptive language and analogies throughout the text really act as an aid to memory. To get a taste of what I mean read the snippet below.

Method arguments are attached to the end of a method. The arguments are usually surrounded by parentheses and separated by commas.

front_door.paint( 3, :red )

The above paints the front door three coats of red.

Think of it as an inner tube the method is pulling along, containing its extra instructions. The parentheses form the wet, round edges of the inner tube. The commas are the feet of each argument, sticking over the edge. The last argument has its feet tucked under so they don’t show.

I find this way of writing positively juicy in its description. I fully intend to install Ruby and work my way through the guide with the intention of shifting these ramblings onto a platform I can claim is marginally more original in it's construction.

Technical authors everywhere, read this, learn from it and realise that technical writing doesn't have to be sterile and dull.