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Hard cider 'n' languages 'n' books
Nov. 1st, 2006 09:35 pmI've had three drinks in the last 7 days. I'm sorry, liver!! And you heavy drinkers can just go ahead and laugh now. I almost always drink on Fridays, drank yesterday because I was at a bar, and tonight there was a work-related social event at which it seemed expected. (Dan the Cat and I were teamed up for the double-elimination pool tournament and we did abysmally... apparently seniority in our team does nothing for skill with social games. But it was fun, and I juggled the pool balls and zapped the TV.)
I've been switching back to C++ over the last few days at work. I've been struggling with the simplest concepts, asking stupid questions and generally stumbling over ground I've been over before. Finally I figured out why: it's because I'm going for a deeper level of understanding than the last time I used this (godforsaken) language. This isn't quite the same ground. I've been refusing to use the stupid Microsoft IDE until I understand the command-line compiler, trying to understand for real how the compiler knows where to look for files that are #included, and so forth. This time around it's seeming almost sensible to read about the model... might clarify a few things. In years past I thought that would just overload my brain, but seeing an implementation of even one language has made me realize I could probably understand others. (My very favorite insight from SICP has been that almost ANY program can be seen as a language interpreter of sorts, anyway.) I'm by no means what I consider a good programmer yet, especially not in C++, but I occasionally realize that I have come a long way and I'm starting to see some directions to move in.
I bought two copies of Worldchanging today as part of the hack to push it up the Amazon sales charts today. It's at #13... so if you're at all interested, or think you know someone who might like it for Christmas, buy it today rather than some other day so you can be part of the hack! Amazon rates things based on the last 24 hours, and the big push happened at about 2PM EST, so 7 hours ago. There's still time.
I've been switching back to C++ over the last few days at work. I've been struggling with the simplest concepts, asking stupid questions and generally stumbling over ground I've been over before. Finally I figured out why: it's because I'm going for a deeper level of understanding than the last time I used this (godforsaken) language. This isn't quite the same ground. I've been refusing to use the stupid Microsoft IDE until I understand the command-line compiler, trying to understand for real how the compiler knows where to look for files that are #included, and so forth. This time around it's seeming almost sensible to read about the model... might clarify a few things. In years past I thought that would just overload my brain, but seeing an implementation of even one language has made me realize I could probably understand others. (My very favorite insight from SICP has been that almost ANY program can be seen as a language interpreter of sorts, anyway.) I'm by no means what I consider a good programmer yet, especially not in C++, but I occasionally realize that I have come a long way and I'm starting to see some directions to move in.
I bought two copies of Worldchanging today as part of the hack to push it up the Amazon sales charts today. It's at #13... so if you're at all interested, or think you know someone who might like it for Christmas, buy it today rather than some other day so you can be part of the hack! Amazon rates things based on the last 24 hours, and the big push happened at about 2PM EST, so 7 hours ago. There's still time.
