From: Ryan Leavengood Date: 2006-05-23T05:43:43+09:00 Subject: Re: program writing I understand what you are going through. I frequently see cool Ruby projects released and think "man, why didn't I think of that!" Basically when it comes to programming you need a problem that you want to solve. For example let's say there is some repetitive thing you always do with your computer (downloading and organizing photos from a digital camera, ripping your CDs into mp3s, downloading stuff from the internet, etc.) You can make your life easier by writing a Ruby script to automate something like that. If you just have an empty text editor but no pressing need to solve a certain problem, of course you will draw a blank. If you were an author of novels and didn't have even a basic idea of what you wanted to write about, how much do you think you would write? As a personal example of using Ruby to solve a problem, I wrote a script that uses WWW:Mechanize to log into my local library's web-site and automatically renew books or DVDs that are due. If something cannot be renewed the script emails me. I have this loaded on my web host to run via cron every day. Before I had this I would frequently forget about books that were due and would then have to make a special trip to the library to return overdue books and pay needless fees. Now I can count on the script to let me know when things HAVE to be returned, and live my life normally otherwise. That is the kind of problem you need to think about solving. Technology should make your life easier. Regarding reading source code, like any language, your reading comprehension will improve over time. Still, code is frequently much harder to read than any human language, and even Ruby can be hard to read if it is written badly. But most of us like Ruby so much because it is one of the easiest to read programming languages. Ryan On 5/22/06, corey konrad <0011@hush.com> wrote: > i think i understand the basic syntax of ruby, now what do i do with it? > I open up my text editor and draw a blank. How do i get ideas and > actually start programming? Its alot of different than poetry or art > where i can basically start anywhere and just go wild with creativity. I > guess i just dont understand the creative side of programming. I also > dont understand why when i look at o ther peoples code i have no idea > what is going on. its like i learned the syntax from the book and yet i > cant read source code and understand what is happening. Its kind of > frustrating. I thought when i learned the keywords and syntax of a > computer language that it would open up a new door of creativity but i > just have no idea what to do with it.