Re: Timeless Classics of Software Engineering

"_" <no.spam.now_at_aol.com> wrote in message news:opscz2ymuqs2eu50_at_datamave-icwjaz...
> On 11 Aug 2004 15:47:51 -0700, Jeffrey Dutky <dutky_at_bellatlantic.net>
> wrote:
> > Many, if not most, hackers started out as regular users and should be
> > able to recall what it felt like to deal with the recalcitrant
> > machine: I can certainly recall the feeling of helplessness I
> > experienced for the first few years I used unix, and I try to channel
> > that feeling into my programs and documentation.
>
> They can't or won't because they develop into egotistical know-it-alls
> that will devalue anyone that is lower than themselves. The machine is
> just a machine, the language is a language to solve problems in.
>

Many of us started out, not as regular users, but as programmers in school or on our own. So our first programs were written for ourselves. We figured it out the hard way, because there was no one else who knew any more than we did. That's where a lot of the "figure it out yourself" mentality comes from - it's how we learned, and really the only way TO learn anything.

Read about it, try it out, figure out the mistakes, fix it. Repeat.

-- 
Mabden