Zed A. Shaw is a software developer best known for creating the ''Learn Code the Hard Way'' series of programming tutorials, as well as for creating the
Mongrel web server for Ruby web applications. He is also well known for his controversial views on programming languages and communities.
Software
Shaw authored the
Mongrel web server for
Ruby
Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...
web applications. Mongrel was the first web server used by
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
, and inspired
Node.js, according to its creator
Ryan Dahl
Ryan Dahl (born 1981) is an American software engineer who is best known for creating the Node.js JavaScript runtime as well as the Deno JavaScript/TypeScript runtime.
Biography
Dahl grew up in San Diego, California. His mother bought him an ...
.
Mongrel2 is the language-agnostic successor to Mongrel.
He has also written a
Python mail server called Lamson, on which the mailing list site LibreList is built.
Learn Code the Hard Way
Shaw is the author of learncodethehardway.org, which offers to teach users Python, Ruby, C, Regex, and SQL.
Polemics and controversies
Shaw has been outspoken in his criticism of certain programming languages and technical communities.
Ruby on Rails
His most famous and well-covered piece was the article "
Rails
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
* Railway track or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' (1967 fi ...
is a Ghetto" which has since been removed from his site.
Opposition to Python 3
"There is a high probability that
Python 3
The programming language Python (programming language), Python was conceived in the late 1980s, and its implementation was started in December 1989 by Guido van Rossum at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, CWI in the Netherlands as a successor ...
is such a failure it will kill Python." - Zed Shaw
Shaw has
long-standing rantopposing Python 3, where he finds the new string type difficult to use, and as a result believes it should not be adopted. Nonetheless, in February 2017 he published a first draft of Learn Python 3 The Hard Way.
He stated in November 2016 that "Python 3 is not Turing complete" due to claims from Python project developers that Python 2 code cannot be made to run in the Python 3 VM. This statement has drawn a lot of criticism.
Criticism of certain behaviors within startup culture
Shaw has spoken about the amounts of vague and misleading information that is pervasive in the startup and entrepreneur culture, particularly concerning self-proclaimed startup advisors or entrepreneurship "gurus", having demonstrated publicly how some notable figures in the industry appear to speak and provide advice from a background of success that they never actually attained.
Shaw is also behind an initiative entitled "Programming, Motherfucker", whose manifesto claims that programmers are "tired of being told we're socially awkward idiots who need to be manipulated to work in a forced
pair programming
Pair programming is a software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. One, the ''driver'', writes code while the other, the ''observer'' or ''navigator'', reviews each line of code as it is typed in. Th ...
chain gang."
Books
* ''Mongrel (Digital Shortcut): Serving, Deploying, and Extending Your Ruby Applications.''
Addison-Wesley Professional
Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...
, 2006.
* ''Professional Ruby Collection: Mongrel, Rails Plugins, Rails Routing, Refactoring to REST, and Rubyisms CD1 (Ruby Series).''
Addison-Wesley Professional
Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...
, 2007.
* ''Learn Python the Hard Way.'' Self-published (1st and 2nd Editions), 2010 and 2011. and
* ''The Command Line Crash Course.'' Self-published, 2011.
* ''Learn Regex the Hard Way.'' Self-published, 2011.
* ''Learn SQL the Hard Way.'' Self-published, 2011.
* ''Learn Python the Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code 3rd edition.'' Republished under
Addison-Wesley Professional
Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...
, 2013.
* ''Learn Ruby the Hard Way: A Simple and Idiomatic Introduction to the Imaginative World Of Computational Thinking with Code.''
Addison-Wesley Professional
Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...
, 2014
* ''Learn C the Hard Way: Practical Exercises on the Computational Subjects You Keep Avoiding (Like C) (Zed Shaw's Hard Way Series).''
Addison-Wesley Professional
Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...
, 2015.
* ''Mongrel: Learn to Build the Greatest Ruby Web Server Ever.''
Addison-Wesley Professional
Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...
, 2015.
* ''Learn Python 3 the Hard Way: A Very Simple Introduction to the Terrifyingly Beautiful World of Computers and Code (Zed Shaw's Hard Way Series).''
Addison-Wesley Professional
Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...
, 2017.
References
External links
Zed Shaw's homepageZed's Web Framework, Tir Web FrameworkLibreList, mailing list site built on LamsonZed Shaw's GitHub pageLearn Code the Hard Way Home Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaw, Zed
Living people
Computer programmers
Web developers
Year of birth missing (living people)