[lmm]

He's arrogant and rude about it, which is bad enough when someone is right and worse when they're wrong and trying to teach beginners. In particular he doesn't understand object oriented programming (look at the piece he wrote about .each vs for in ruby), but is too arrogant to realise that there's something he's missing, so he goes on these sweary rants about how OOP is nonsense/useless/evil/what have you. In any programmer that would be bad. In someone who purports to teach beginners it's disastrous.

[coldtea]

>He's arrogant and rude about it

This comment doesn't sound very modest either.

>In particular he doesn't understand object oriented programming (look at the piece he wrote about .each vs for in ruby)

Actually nothing in what he wrote (in Learn Ruby the Hard Way) about each vs for is related to object oriented programming.

Nor is there any particular indication that he doesn't understand OO (which, I'm sorry, but sounds ridiculous as an accusation). He might not be some prodigy, but he's a senior programmer with a lot of experience building systems in different langauges, and OO programming is not some mysterious researchy thing but a tired old industry staple than programmers with 1/10th his experience can grasp...

[las_cases]

I have no idea what are you talking about regarding OOP issues. From the Lamson project you can see he is using OOP.

Also, how and when is he arrogant? When he is being called names over and over? And just now you've insulted him saying he doesn't understand OOP. You know Linus Torvalds is not very fond of OOP as well, right?

Always use OOP where it makes sense. I don't think he ever argued that.

[lmm]

> And just now you've insulted him saying he doesn't understand OOP.

The laws of politeness are like the laws of war: once you violate them you forfeit their protection.

> You know Linus Torvalds is not very fond of OOP as well, right?

I would emphatically advise beginners not to listen to Linus Torvalds, and be very concerned if he started writing programming tutorials for beginners.

> Always use OOP where it makes sense. I don't think he ever argued that.

I'm thinking specifically of http://learncodethehardway.org/blog/AUG_19_2012.html as that was where I first encountered him. This article is a) something he wrote by himself, not in response to being called names b) self-confident and abrasive in a way that I think it is fair to describe as "arrogant" c) wrong, in a way that seems to reflect not understanding polymorphism - particularly given his replies in the HN discussion of that piece.

[gareim]

I just read the each vs for part and I don't see anything wrong with it. He's saying it's easier for beginners to grasp the for loop and it's also a pretty universal loop. What's wrong with what he said?

[vidarh]

Frankly, after reading that piece, as a Ruby developer that does decidedly prefer "each", I see nothing wrong in it. I also don't find it remotely abrasive and don't see any of that self-confidence (since when is that bad?) you seem to have a problem with. I don't see any arrogance either.

You're not doing yourself any favours by so confidently making abrasive comments about Zed based on that.

[coldtea]

>I would emphatically advise beginners not to listen to Linus Torvalds

Lest they might learn something?

[lmm]

Because he has a lot of experience in one very specialized area of programming which very much doesn't reflect the wider profession. It's the same problem as e.g. http://codon.com/the-dhh-problem

I'd recommend beginners listen to a wide variety of "big names", but only those who are clear about the scope and limits of their experience.