Broken link to "Programming Ruby (first edition)" on the documentation page

[ablzh]

The link https://ruby-doc.com/docs/ProgrammingRuby/ is no longer accessible. Possible fix: replace it with an archived version from the Wayback Machine, or we can just use another link if anyone knows a working one.

[ablzh]

I understand this may seem like a minor issue, but any broken link or outdated information creates a poor impression of the documentation’s freshness.

I checked the link via the Wayback Machine, the access issue seems to have appeared this summer.

Possible options:

1. Try to fix the issue on ruby-doc.com if it’s within our control.
2. Use the archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20250630065331/http://ruby-doc.com/docs/ProgrammingRuby/
3. Simply remove the hyperlink but keep the book reference.

[schneems]

@noelrappin is the author of the latest edition of that book. The first edition of this book was made available for free. I'm not sure how it got onto ruby-doc.com, but somehow it did and that's where we linked to. Do you know if there's a more recent version that is made available for free? We could possibly use that.

The first edition would refer to a Ruby version that's quite old and not much practical value for a new user. I would rather take it down than link to an archive link.

I was curious about contributing. It looks like that site is run by James Britt https://mastodon.social/@jamesbritt. I'm not able to find a github repo for it (but doesn't mean it doesn't exist).

I think we should prefer our own doc site https://docs.ruby-lang.org/en/3.4/ where possible over ruby-doc. I also REALLY like https://rubyapi.org/ and would like to consider making that canonical in the future.

[noelrappin]

I don't know that you want the 1.0 version linked anywhere, it's like 25 years out of date, and probably only useful for historical/archive purpose.

The section it's in is marked as historical though, and there's a link to the current book higher on the page.

[ablzh]

I totally understand that this section is meant for historical context, that makes sense.

I just wanted to point out that the link itself is currently broken, not just outdated.

Since it’s on the ruby-lang.org documentation page, it might make sense to either remove the hyperlink entirely or replace it with an archived version, just to avoid confusion for readers.

upd: Alternatively, if updating the link is simple, that could work too, no need to overcomplicate it.

[schneems]

I traced the blame back 14 years ago https://github.com/ruby/www.ruby-lang.org/blame/d061151a5ee6ad137894f0693ce5308f7d538042/documentation/index.html. It's been there quite some time.

I am leaning towards updating it with the web archive link.