{
Each year, as many people gear up for their New Year's resolution that they will ultimately fail, I make my own doomed promise that this will be the year that I become proficient in perl. As the year wears on I get more engrossed in project work and "lose" time. Or I work on my own pet projects which I can prototype and finish so much more quickly in C#, or whatever else I know well.
But my encouragement for the upcoming year's attempt is coming from all directions.
One is YAPC, which will be in Chicago this year. That's within reach, and it's not so expensive that I can't afford to be there.
Another has been Josh McAdam's perlcasts. While I'm at work moving pixels or writing C# I've been listening to quite a few prime hackers in the background.
The second encouragement came from a post on Joel On Software about having a "night time" language:
Long live the night language.
}
Each year, as many people gear up for their New Year's resolution that they will ultimately fail, I make my own doomed promise that this will be the year that I become proficient in perl. As the year wears on I get more engrossed in project work and "lose" time. Or I work on my own pet projects which I can prototype and finish so much more quickly in C#, or whatever else I know well.
But my encouragement for the upcoming year's attempt is coming from all directions.
One is YAPC, which will be in Chicago this year. That's within reach, and it's not so expensive that I can't afford to be there.
Another has been Josh McAdam's perlcasts. While I'm at work moving pixels or writing C# I've been listening to quite a few prime hackers in the background.
The second encouragement came from a post on Joel On Software about having a "night time" language:
"For the purposes of this argument I am assuming the programmer uses the language he likes best at night, and maybe not his favorite during the day. If you wish to debate this, start another thread and I will. Why does the programmer like the language that he likes at home so much? I would argue that it is largely about efficiency in the language. If you can do something quickly in a language you get that feeling of control that I think most programmers enjoy. " - threaded hereIt's nice to know that other people out there feel as I do, and have their own "night" languages.
Long live the night language.
}
You should know, Randal, that you're one of my professors; my llama book is well used and tattered.
You may also be amused that I went to school with Chris Nandor and even wrestled him once for possession of a remote control; he wanted to watch the Red Sox and I wanted to watch the Lakers.