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The Rust Programming Language Book has been a fantastic resource. I was recently complaining to myself about some style and grammar issues (e.g. "Book" is redu

The Rust Programming Language Book has been a fantastic resource. I was recently complaining to myself about some style and grammar issues (e.g. "Book" is redundant in the title of a book), but I realized I'm complaining about style and grammar issues of comprehensive documentation for a recently released programming language! I respect the effort Rust and Steve have invested in documentation and hope their effort is replicated elsewhere.

steveklabnik 11y ago
Thanks so much <3 Generally speaking, I would love complaints about style and grammar issues, to a point anyway. It's important to me that the informal / conversational tone remains, but generally speaking, I try to get the details right. (We don't have 'book' in the title of the book, that's just the HN title.)
- agwa 11y ago
  I read the book last week - thank you for writing it! I really hope you reconsider your stance on the conversational tone, which made reading the book difficult at times. Being informal or conversational is not bad per se, but it leads to verbosity that obscures the content. Cutting out some of the current verbosity would make the book a lot clearer and easier to digest, and I think you can do this without sacrificing the friendliness and approachability of the book.
  - eropple 11y ago
    > Cutting out some of the current verbosity would make the book a lot clearer and easier to digest For you. I find good rhetorical writing easier to read and more likely to stick.
  - billpollock 11y ago
    In my experience, both styles can be remarkably clear and both can be impossibly obtuse.
  - steveklabnik 11y ago
    You're welcome. And understood, though as my siblings here mention, not everyone feels that way. I've heard a lot of things similar to what you're saying, but I've also heard a lot of "Thank you for not writing minimalist, dry prose."

steveklabnik 11y ago

Thanks so much <3 Generally speaking, I would love complaints about style and grammar issues, to a point anyway. It's important to me that the informal / conversational tone remains, but generally speaking, I try to get the details right. (We don't have 'book' in the title of the book, that's just the HN title.)

agwa 11y ago
I read the book last week - thank you for writing it! I really hope you reconsider your stance on the conversational tone, which made reading the book difficult at times. Being informal or conversational is not bad per se, but it leads to verbosity that obscures the content. Cutting out some of the current verbosity would make the book a lot clearer and easier to digest, and I think you can do this without sacrificing the friendliness and approachability of the book.
- eropple 11y ago
  > Cutting out some of the current verbosity would make the book a lot clearer and easier to digest For you. I find good rhetorical writing easier to read and more likely to stick.
- billpollock 11y ago
  In my experience, both styles can be remarkably clear and both can be impossibly obtuse.
- steveklabnik 11y ago
  You're welcome. And understood, though as my siblings here mention, not everyone feels that way. I've heard a lot of things similar to what you're saying, but I've also heard a lot of "Thank you for not writing minimalist, dry prose."