Re: Re: Prove/Improve your Self/Skills

[l2kashe]

I agree with Foxcub's statement, in that it can be difficult to continue in leaps and bounds, learning something new with each app written. There are just $x number of ways to process a file.

But I'm finding other ways of improving, that aren't as drastic/exciting as before, but which are much more satisfying. Like optimizations for speed or system efficiency, making use of compression for network transmissions (Thanks Compress::Zlib). I'm no guru. I've taught myself shell scripting, Perl, and C over the last 3 years. But here at work, I truly make a difference. Things which took a long time, now take fractions of the original time due to perl. Things which relied on random notification methods, with no standard across the board, are now centralized as well as standardized. When things come up that are akward or repetetive people come find me.

What I'm attempting to state is that I think I have the basics worked out (code style, modules I use frequently, etc..) and I get statisfaction from the code sometimes, but nowadays the satisfaction I get isn't so much the coding itself, as the ability to scratch other people's itches to their satisfaction (which is key, I've found, as opposed to how I would scratch it for myself).

It's also nice that now it's a fairly frequent occurance that my boss or a co-worker to walk up and start a conversation with "I need a script to....". Peer respect is a Good Thing(TM). This has led to all sorts of new possibilities with the code, and new frustrations :P, but hey ain't that life/code.

/* And the Creator, against his better judgement, wrote man.c */

[John M. Dlugosz]

it can be difficult to continue in leaps and bounds, learning something new with each app written. There are just $x number of ways to process a file.

Hmm, but there are more ways to write that in Perl. So, is that why TIMTOWTDI makes Perl so appealing to so many who feel passionate about it?