I get less out of computer books than most people on this thread. With the technical/reference books I seem to not read them until I know most of what's in them, and then just use them to mop up any odd corner I missed. And I'd rather learn the more process and theory oriented stuff the hard way. This is kind of weird, because I love to read in general, and like to learn by reading. Just not about programming. Or math. Hmm..
deFreese, Barry wrote: > OK, so this is going to be somewhat of an esoteric question but.. How did > you really delve into development and what is/are your sources of > inspiration. I am trying to dive head first into Python/Perl?/C/C++ and > while it's easy enough to write the "Hello Worlds" and CD-catalog programs > :-) how did you move beyond that. > > For example. I see a lot of questions on debian-user about configuring IP > addresses, so I thought, hey I'll write a quick Python app to configure > /etc/interfaces and /etc/resolv.conf. Of course doing an apt search > produces etherconf, linuxconf, and several other utilities for configuring > interfaces. Would you write the app anyway just for the experience?? How > did you get from the middle ground to guru-dom?? Or is the answer that if I > need to ask, I will never be a hacker!!?? :-) This is a hard question for me to answer in the modern world of computers. I learned to program because I bought a dead-end computer platform (atari 130xe), didn't have money for any software, and so just wrote whatever I needed. This was a powerful motivation for working on just about anything. But how to relate this kind of experience, which was common then, to today? Maybe it's possible to have the same kind of experience on special-purpose platforms, like the palm, or embedded systems or weird architectures. It might be a bit artificial, to limit yourself in such a way if you didn't already have a particular interest in one of those things. After leaving the backwaters of mid-80's atari, I did run into your problem with PC's. I remember it was a shock to run into programs for the PC that were so much better than I could hope to make (as I recall, these included Battle Chess, Doom, Autocad, and BBS stuff; reflecting my interests at the time). It was dispiriting. At that point I had to find another source of inspiration, and I think I mostly muddled through just being interested in learning more about the relatively more complex platforms of dos and windows and how to code for those. This was probably one of my low points for doing much with computers. I completly sympathise with where you're at. When I encountered the net and linux that all changed, and I found a dual source of motivation that has worked for me for a long time. Find something that sucks, and make it not suck. Also, learn, learn, learn, since so much of the system emphatically does *not* suck, and since there is so much interesting history around unix and the internet. I got into debian to make it better, and to learn all about how unix systems work, and I still have many problems I'd like to see solved, and many things to learn to be able to fix them. Of course this is less of a motivation now for the beginner than it was in 1993-4. One other inspiration for me has been helping people. Though this has been spottier than I could hope, I do from time to time end up doing some program entirely because I can see other people need it. This tends to broaden experience a lot. Things like writing programs for an unfamiliar platform (microsoft), in a unfamiliar language (spanish), and needing to work closely with the people who would use it, cannot help but change how you look at things. My most valuable experiences in this area have been when I had direct contact with the people who would be using the program, rather than just noticing a hole and deciding I would try to go fill it like you did with networking. In just the last 4 years or so, I've found one more inspiration. I'm finally doing some fairly unique things, and finally starting to try to develop what seem to be some new ideas. But this has been pretty modest so far. A few flashes of insight, punctuated by a lot of more derivative work. Very satisfying though, for me, when it happens. I don't think I've really anwered your question, though I hope I've provided some perspective. I'd really like to hear from people who have just gotten into programming and learning about computers in the past 2 to 4 years and have managed to find good sources of motivaton, and what those motivations were. I keep running into young teens letely who are clearly interested in computers, but are stuck in the pit of just using and tweaking prepackaged stuff and not learning or creating anything much, and I would like to find ways to help them make the step up. -- see shy jo
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