On Fri, 8 Oct 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Programming is possible. Not being intimidated is much harder than
> programming. But it's like that 'journey of a thousand miles' - or like
> spring-cleaning. Pick a step you know you /can/ take, and take that one.
> Then the next. Then the next. After a while, it looks manageable.
Frankly, I think one of the reasons that so many women aren't coders in
open source is that it IS intimidating. People with people skills learn
that there's a lot of grey areas in dealing with people. Unfortunately,
computers always do exactly what you tell them to and it's often not what
you expect. In essence, programming takes a strong ego because you are
being told that you did it wrong all the time. The thing I sometimes have
to remember when I'm feeling frustrated is that it's not the same as a
PERSON telling me I've done something wrong. It doesn't hurt the
computer's feelings and I don't have to apologize. :)
When you look at projects, don't look at what you don't know how to do.
Look at what you DO know how to do. Do that. When you've done doing what
you know how to do, pick a piece that seems like something you can face.
Do any necessary research. Code it. Test it out, see if it works.
That's really the process and that's how most everyone does it. Some
people pick the parts they don't know how to do to do first. Some don't.
But if you're having trouble because it looks so huge, START SOMEWHERE. It
doesn't really matter where.
My rule of thumb: if it's a project that's big enough and strange enough
to intimidate, there's no amount of design that'll make it easier (in
fact, it tends to make it look HARDER). Start with code, make some
mistakes and then you'll know better how to do it. Design is something you
learn through experience more than through formal methods.
> So feel free to be intimidated by the project as a whole. But don't
> be intimidated by the bit right in front of you.
>
> Look down at your feet, not out at the horizon.
For example, today at work I'm writing an APOP (mail delivery agent)
server. I sat there and wrote the basic structure (something that listens
to a port and answers). Then I started implementing commands.
I felt the APOP authentication was a pain, so at first I tried listing my
messages by hardcoding my user name. Doing that gave me the steam to do
the APOP authentication (which I did today).
I've still only implemented about 1/5 of a server, but I've done the bulk
of the work in 2 days between other stuff.
Last night, I was so deep in hack mode, I didn't realize it was 8:30. I
just thought everyone had gone off somewhere at work. :)
--
_Deirdre * http://www.linuxcabal.net * http://www.deirdre.net
"Mars has been a tough target" -- Peter G. Neumann, Risks Digest Moderator
"That's because the Martians keep shooting things down." -- Harlan Rosenthal
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, retorting in Risks Digest 20.60
************
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.linuxchix.org
