note
Zarathustra
<p>First off, I am not a programmer either -- but striving to be.
<br>( however I *am* very Lazy, Impatient and excessively pridefull of my code... )
<br>
<p>At any rate, I've picked up a few things along the way nonetheless.
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<p><i>When YOU need to know something, where do you ( ... ) turn to for help first, second etc</i>
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<p> First place I go is <CODE>perldoc</CODE>, everytime. Perldoc rules - it's quick, it's on your system, it's informative.
<br> <CODE>perldoc -f</CODE> is one of my favorites - I use that numerous times throughout any given week.
<br> <CODE>perldoc perl</CODE> is of course all you *really* ever need to get you on the right track.
<br>
<p> After that comes <a href="http://www.deja.com/home_ps.shtml">dejanews power search</a> -- I *really* like dejanews.
<br> When I have a question about something I'm not grasping, or want to find an answer to just about anything, I head
<br> on over to the power search, enter a few keywords, enter <CODE>*perl*</CODE> in the Forum field, start browsing, and
<br> almost invariably, within 20 minutes or so I'll either have found a direct answer to my question, or found something
<br> close enough that twiddles my mind into solving the problem on my own.
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<p> The Camel comes in mostly when I just feel like getting away from the monitor and kicking back with some dead-trees.
<br> I bring the Camel with me everywhere I go. It's like a bible to me. I swear by it.
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<p><i>When you are just starting to write a program of any sort, do you have a specific way you go about it?</i>
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<p> My personal approach is very strange I believe. I first tend to just sit there and stare vacantly into space for some
<br> length of time, then fire up vi and just start typing stuff - kind of this pure stream of conciousness deal, it's
<br> pretty far out. Ultimately it looks like nothing more than a bunch of jumbled psuedo-code, comments, real code,
<br> and unformated notes just haphazardly strewn together.
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<br> Then I sit and stare a little longer and attempt to make sense of it all. After that point, a new file is created -
<br> which begins with the line <CODE>#!/usr/bin/perl -w</CODE>
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<br> Then comes alot of frantic typing into numerous xterms, followed by loud cussing, gnashing of teeth and the ruckus
<br> of various books and things getting thrown about -- this is my debugging stage. Which is then followed by more coding,
<br> more thinking, and more outbursts. Until I finally have something that works.
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<br> At that point I clean up, make things as elegant as possible, reform/re-evaluate logic, modularize and abstract where
<br> possible, etc. etc. This stage lasts perpetualy. I *still* don't have any "perfect" code out there, and don't think
<br> I ever will. There's somehow just always something else I'd like to modify/add/drop or rewrite... It's a most vicious circle.
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<p>I look forward to being a real programmer one day.
<br>
<p>But then again, I'll be happy to remain nothing more than just another perl hacker...
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