# Ruby is for Fun by the commenter

3 Hacker News commenters recommended Ruby is for Fun by the commenter and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A free Ruby book written for a child that people recommend as a lasting, human-written resource filling a gap in Ruby learning material.

## Why people recommend it

- Written for a child, meant to last (1 comments): "I wrote it for my son who was 5 years old back then, in hopes it will be useful over time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50160634))
- Fills a gap in Ruby resources (1 comments): "It was exactly what has been missing in Ruby landscape and what I wanted." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48614487))
- Human-written, stable, unlikely to change (1 comments): "written by a human, and will stay the same forever I think" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48613784))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Crafting Interpreters by Robert Nystrom](https://hackerapproved.com/p/crafting-interpreters.md): 60 recommend
- [Clean Code by Robert C. Martin](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clean-code.md): 31 recommend
- [The Pragmatic Programmer by Hunt and Thomas](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pragmatic-programmer.md): 28 recommend
- [How to Design Programs by Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/how-to-design-programs.md): 18 recommend
- [Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mastering-emacs.md): 17 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Ruby+is+for+Fun+%28free+book+on+Leanpub%29&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Ruby is for Fun by the commenter", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ruby-is-for-fun/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).