Glossary

The words and phrases you'll hear thrown around the Ruby community, A to Z.

Chunky bacon

A nonsense catchphrase from _why's Poignant Guide, and a pure inside joke.

Convention over Configuration

Rails' defining idea: sensible defaults instead of endless setup.

MINASWAN

"Matz is nice and so we are nice." The community's core social rule.

"Optimize for programmer happiness"

Ruby's founding value: bend the language toward joy, not the machine.

"Rails is omakase"

Let the framework choose for you, like a sushi chef's tasting menu.

The Pickaxe

The nickname for the first big English Ruby book (there is a pickaxe on the cover).