User since: Jan 03, 2001 at 04:59 UTC (18 years ago) Last here: Oct 09, 2010 at 23:40 UTC (8 years ago) Experience: 701 Level: Pilgrim (8) Writeups: 115 Location: Cleveland, Ohio area User's localtime: Sep 22, 2018 at 17:22 -05 Scratchpad: View For this user: Search nodes

(new!)

Soon-to-be Classic Quotes

• adrianh's clever remarks about the condition of some poor saps without a "...tight grip on the clue stick..."
• merlyn says: "...capture the regularities with code, and the irregularites with data..."

Perl-ish insights I've had

• This reply on the topic of Prgramming(!) vs. Coding.
  I would still be interested to see how music has affected other people's programming. After all, I was a musician* before I was a programmer...
• A reply I made to the "remedial map" thread.
  My insight into map, shallow as it is, became obvious to me as I pondered the following bit of Smalltalk code:

  | aCollection aNumber |
  aNumber := 0.
  aCollection := #('one' 'two' 'three').
  aCollection do: [ :element |
      aNumber := aNumber + 1.
  ]
  Trans‎crip‎t cr;
      show: 'There are ', aNumber asInteger, ' of strings in your collec
  +tion of strings.'.
  [download]

  It got even better when I equated map with this:

  | aCollection anotherCollection |
  aCollection := #('one' 'two' 'three').
  anotherCollection := aCollection collect: [ :element |
      element
  ].
  [download]

  Smalltalk is still a neat, powerful language (as is Perl).
• This is my favorite. It was about the time that I was able to formulate a question like this that I began to grok Perl. Well, began to begin to grok Perl. References were the first big leap for me...

Music is great

What else can I say about this? Only that performing is more enjoyable that listening. Here are the instruments I play, in decreasing order of skill:

1. string bass
2. piano
3. guitar

At one job I had, one of the survey questions (How well do you like working at this place? Are you satisfied with working conditions? management? coworkers? etc.) was whether or not I felt all my "career goals" could be met working with this company. No way! (unless they're going to start a house orchestra or band sometime soon...)

Computer languages I know something about

...but not necessarily a lot about; I'm still learning.

1. Applesoft basic -- my first and only!
2. Logo -- well, maybe the turtle was the first...
3. Fortran-- of which I forgot everything I ever learned.
4. Forth -- I bet you haven't heard of it; too bad for you.
5. C++ -- college days.
6. Java -- more college days using at the new job.
7. VB -- (h)ack!
8. C -- at the end of the college days; kind of backwards, don't you think? (the order I learned them, that is)
9. SQL
10. Perl -- picked up a little in college; now I know a bit more...
11. Smalltalk -- one of the things I get paid to do (but see below).
12. JavaS‎crip‎t -- this is the most recent addition to my collection; I'm amazed at how Perlish it can be at times (but if I read the docs right, that's what the creators of the language intented), which lets me get some things done when I'm stuck at work without Perl
13. ASP/VBS‎crip‎t/more VB -- I know, but I gotta' pay the rent mortgage. (well, as of June 6, see "Java" above)
14. Lotus Notes programming/design ("design" is in there because most of what you do in Notes is not coding)
15. C#
16. PHP

Of course, I should also throw in a bit of shell programming as well...how could you use Linux without it?

Still important enough to leave in here

Learn to spell!

(Which came first: parentheses or parenthetical remarks?)

Well, as of today (10/14/2003) I have assumed new powers. (I'm only recording that fact so I can find the node describing those powers again after I've forgotten what they are.)