# Why?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why/94510>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 5, 2006, 11:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why/94510 "2006-05-05T11:54:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![David\_ASBoyd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@David\_ASBoyd](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/David_ASBoyd)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 11:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why/94510/1 "2006-05-05T11:54:05Z")

</div>

In Praise of Why

A few years ago I found an essay I loved (  
[http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030301studentasnigger.html](http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0303critic/030301studentasnigger.html))  
I  
guess mainly because it was so outrageous and I was a graduate student  
at  
the time.

So I love attack mode and Why’s opening lines in the Poignant opus that  
rail  
against Java (…huge wall of Java books …) charmed me. But the rest  
of  
the thing struck me as weird (still does, but read on).

I’m an old fart now and have forgotten what it’s like to be a kid and  
discover humor, the only exception being an abiding and inordinate  
fondness  
for the three stooges (especially Curly – knyuck, knyuck, knyuck).

So I got dragged to a Scooby Doo movie recently and fell asleep, but not  
before witnessing with a horror a couple of gross farting scenes. I  
told  
by boss about it the next day with the qualifier “they show this stuff  
to  
kids???”. He said “yeah, kids love it”. I thought about it and began  
to  
remember…then I think I actually got it.

So I now also grok Amanda … and the world of Why was revealed to me.  
I  
trotted my 11 year old son over to the Poignant Guide and he laughed  
like  
crazy at the Cartoon Foxes and did a little programming, but soon got  
bored. Wait a minute Alex, let’s try one more thing, Dwe… Array. Wow,  
how  
do I make my R kill big time (He knows all about cheats). I showed him  
the  
character’s values and he promptly put in a hugh number for the Rabbit’s  
strength. He was delighted to see the larger and larger negative life  
values appear whenever he attacked. Dad, is this how all my Gameboy  
programs work? Yes, son. Hey, dad I want to do 6dof animation too, can  
you  
teach me? Yes son, here’s a few books for you – Computer Graphics,  
Foley  
et al and Physics for Game Developers, Bourg. Not sure he’ll read them  
right away, but the whole episode saved me another $49.95 Game Cube  
cartridge.

Life is good and Why does indeed RULE…my son asked me on the way home  
from  
school the other day can we stop and check the bookstore for Learn to  
Program. So Why, how olde are you, really, somewhere around 11?  
Rhetorical  
question … you are a genius and may have changed a young life. I can  
see  
it now "Alex, the game programming guru has just released another grisly  
but  
eagerly awaited, best selling 6dof Rabbit game. Alex, in his press  
release  
credits his Dad, who lives in his son’s mansion in Beverly Hills…no  
mention of why.