From: Ashley Moran <work@...>
Date: 2006-05-23T06:36:44+09:00
Subject: Re: program writing


Hi Corey

On May 22, 2006, at 10:04 pm, corey konrad wrote:

> hmm i dont really have any problems in life that could solved by
> programming. Everything i can think of writing is something that  
> already
> exists. It would be kind of rediculous to write a program in ruby that
> already exists in another language wouldnt it?

Actually, no... you can write such beautiful code with Ruby sometimes  
it is worth rewriting stuff for the sake of it.  Of course, you need  
an understanding of what the program is trying to *do* before you can  
write it yourself.  You also need to understand all the features of  
the Ruby to take advantage of them.  And the catch 22 is you have to  
write code to understand how to do it.

Someone suggested you look at past Ruby Quizzes and I think that's  
the right idea.  Maybe you should search out some programming puzzles  
that will teach you programming ideas.  I remember the book "The C  
Programming Language" had loads of questions at the end of each  
chapter (some REALLY hard!).  Something like that would get you  
started... perhaps not that book though.


> I think i would fall
> asleep from boredom doing that kind of translation. I dont know i  
> guess
> i thought it would be more of a creative and exciting thing to get  
> into
> that would fill my head with ideas. I thought i would be able to do
> anything on my computer i guess is what i mean, like just deciding to
> write a paint program that does something that other paint programs  
> dont
> do, but i realize now that a project like that would probably take  
> years
> of experience and alot of people working many hours. Like i said i  
> think
> my expectations of programming were unrealistic


Writing anything with a GUI is a big job.  I wouldn't even think  
about writing a desktop application right now!  You'd have more luck  
with Ruby on Rails, but even that is not simple (it's simple if you  
already write web applications, but that's just not an easy job).

Good luck
Ashley