I’ve been reading a few books lately on the topic of Ruby on Rails, namely Professional Ruby on Rails (by Noel Rappin, published by Wrox) and The Rails Way (by Obie Fernandez, published by Addison-Wesley). The topic is something that I’m very interested in but it’s definitely not going to appeal to anyone who’s not a programmer or software designer/developer.

One thing I’ve noticed, especially with these two books, is that the nature of the author-to-reader discussion seems to have become a whole lot more relaxed. They’ll tell jokes, reference current internet memes and generally come across… friendlier.

On page 551 of The Rails Way you can find the following quote, highlighted in it’s own “pay attention to this” block no less:

Wilson Says…

Writing applications without tests makes you a bad person, incapable of love.

So what’s caused this shift in attitude? I think it’s probably because of the blogging revolution. You’ve now got (technical) people that know a topic very well and have a great amount of experience writing about it. Technical leaders or project contributors often keep journals or blogs in which they outline the direction the project’s taking as well as highlight new or interesting features being integrated into the technology. The communication lifecycle isn’t dependent on monthly technical journals anymore - you hit refresh and get the latest updates straight away.

In the past I think you would have been a technical writer or author first and a subject matter expert second. You’d build your career as an author who specialized in technical material. These days every expert is by default an author too.

I first saw the most extreme example of this with why the lucky stiff’s (yes, that’s a real pseudonym) Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby. It’s a technical book scattered with cartoon foxes and chunky bacon, whatever that is. It’s the exact opposite of what you’d expect a technical book to be, and most importantly it’s fun to read. Even Joel agrees, which is why he included why in his collection of influential software essays.

I know I prefer this more relaxed and personal approach authors (and publishers) are taking to delivering what can often be “dry” material.

As a side note, all of the above books mentioned above get “two thumbs up” from me, especially why’s. I’ve got a thing for chunky bacon.