7fff – think max value

How did Ranters come to say these naughty words?

I have been reading some recently about Zed Shaw’s rant (incidentally, if you Google for “zed shaw rant” you get his piece on why programmers need to know statistics, which is a good one). But the rant I mean is, of course, his curse on the houses of Rails. I actually live in the ‘hood, and it’s not that bad, so I don’t exactly understand why “ghetto” gets to be the term of opprobrium, but whatever. Also, as I read his rant, I frequently think, WWZD? (What would Zed do?) I don’t know. Googling for WWZD does not bring up anything about our Zed, which is too bad.

In any case, Zed really is a smart guy, and Utu is neat. His talk on Utu for the Boston Ruby Group made me think – watch it.

But what’s really been bugging me about this, and I bet Zed knows this, is that the Ranters were the good guys. They really just wanted to love everyone:

Maybe that’s why they were so hated. I am thinking that a really great Ruby on Rails rant would be more in the spirit of “minaswan,” and would remind us of all of the good that Rails has brought the world. Rails can’t solve all the problems (though you get your “each”) — but if you’re looking for a savior, or the framework equivalent of John Lennon, god help you.