From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 31 16:44:41 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1A64816A4CE for ; Fri, 31 Oct 2003 16:44:41 -0800 (PST) Received: from mta6.adelphia.net (mta6.adelphia.net [68.168.78.190]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 02C3D43FD7 for ; Fri, 31 Oct 2003 16:44:39 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wmoran@potentialtech.com) Received: from potentialtech.com ([68.68.113.33]) by mta6.adelphia.net (InterMail vM.5.01.06.05 201-253-122-130-105-20030824) with ESMTP id <20031101004442.WFXN18834.mta6.adelphia.net@potentialtech.com>; Fri, 31 Oct 2003 19:44:42 -0500 Message-ID: <3FA301F6.2010208@potentialtech.com> Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 19:44:38 -0500 From: Bill Moran User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20031005 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: kosmos References: <20031031223405.GA534@dsl-129-176.sea.blarg.net> In-Reply-To: <20031031223405.GA534@dsl-129-176.sea.blarg.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How do hackers drive? X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 01 Nov 2003 00:44:41 -0000 kosmos wrote: >>I recently started reading Eric Raymond's _The_Art_of_UNIX_Programming_ and >>it's gotten me taking another look at the way I am in general. > >>Other programmers drive this way as well, correct? > > You have an argument. Every carload of programmers I have ever been with > (particularly C-programmers) can agree on where to go, but it's an issue > on the specific route to get there. Usually the dominant programmer wins, > and the driver loses. > > I am in professional training change, Journalism->Programming (a hard, > long, math catchup), and if the objective is a 5-minute trip to the > store, I find myself meandering aimlessly though the countryside, miles away, > looking at the cows and trees. > > I am of course _thinking_ about math and C++ projects, but that's probably > not a good sign. I only have this problem when the destination is so well know that I've long since established the optimal way to get there. >>The revelation is that I'm starting to understand that many non-programmer >>_don't_ generally evaluate their car trips like this. > > Just out of curiosity, how do you think C compares to C++? Or what do you > think of OO-languages in general? I've always had a uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach that C++ and other OO languages were more complicated than they needed to be. The book by Raymond that I'm reading seems to agree with this idea and is making me a little more confident about expressing it. On the flip side, I find the way objects and classes control namespace pollution to be a wonderful thing ... so I'm not totally against OO programming. I'm not 100% sure where I feel it fits in overall, but Raymond seems to think that it has a special use for special case applications, such as developing GUIs. -- Bill Moran Potential Technologies http://www.potentialtech.com