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A Change of Pace

by jynx (Priest)
on Jul 23, 2001 at 07:23 UTC ( [id://98904]=perlmeditation: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


A quick script yesterday got me thinking about the way i code. Currently i'm hung up in a big project that while close to being finished, has been a year or more in the making. Most of my perl coding reflects this, since i find myself using everything and the kitchen sink for safety/security whilst i'm still in big project mode. But yesterday i coded a quick hack for fun, and remembered why i got into perl.

i haven't been in the perl culture for that long, a few years, little more. But while i've tried to get into cultures of other languages, i've never succeeded. It's not necessarily that perl culture is that much better than others (though i think so :), but more that i can continue to have fun while coding in perl. Sometimes i'll think up a script to write just because i haven't done perl in a few days, it will be a quick hack, or a professional enterprise, or maybe just something for myself. But i continue to write perl.

Now, not that my experience ties into others lives well, but i think that coding often can be good to keep the mind sharp and alert, the keyboard fingers dextrous, and the laziness extreme. But coding the same style all the time can be boring/tedious/whatnot, and while it's good for keeping a job, it's not good for mental stability. Diversity(tm) is good.

So, here is my meditation in a nutshell: code variously. If you are constantly worried about security 24/7 you'll only get migraines. On the side, write a short little fun script that lets you forget about those headaches for a couple minutes/hours (it's my guess that obfuscation started out this way, some bored coder in his office couldn't keep thinking about the project at hand, but oh wouldn't that be nifty and hard to read? <evil grin>). If you're always writing fast and loose, write something stringent with strictures that doesn't make mistakes (or realistically, as few as possible).

i originally got into perl because it was fun. Over the time i've been coding perl, i've personally found that changing up my style or doing something sdrawkcab or reinventing a wheel can be fun. i'm not a social expert, but i would venture a guess that many people here also think perl is fun.

Yet many times people seem uptight about how to do things. Often this is reasonable as many here deal with production code, but sometimes it is wholly undeserved as the coder was merely having fun. This is why i am asking people to code variously, to remember what fun it is to write code. Note the lack of adjectives on that word 'code'. It doesn't have to be good code to be fun.

i've rambled enough, but my point, if i truly have one, is that we should not only write good code, but we should write bad code, and silly code, and strict code, and dangerous code, and saintly code, and above all fun code.

nuf fo tnuoma etairporpa eht evah,
jynx

PS This post does not encourage bad code, merely having fun and learning from mistakes :-)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: A Change of Pace
by footpad (Abbot) on Jul 23, 2001 at 07:35 UTC

    You can't learn if you don't play.

    Or, as Larry Wall put it in one of his Onion addresses:

    Anyone who can't laugh at himself is taking life far too seriously.

    Or something like that, at any rate.

    Arthur: What would happen if I pushed this button.
    Ford: I wouldn't...
    Arthur (pushes) Oh.
    Ford: What happened?
    Arthur: A black sign lit up with black lettering that says, "Please don't push this button again."

    Note: This post does not encourage bad *production* code. What you write for experimental reasons is your own lookout.

    --f

Fun as a language's main functionnality !
by arhuman (Vicar) on Jul 23, 2001 at 12:06 UTC
    I originally got into perl because it was fun

    I've learnt many languages, and what makes me prefer Perl is precisely the fact that Perl is Fun !

    I mean I really have pleasure while coding in Perl.
    I just didn't realize how important it was until I've read this in a Nathan Torkington's interview :

    Best thing (about Perl)? The way that it values programmer fun as much as anything else.
    Perl delights in being a language that is supposed to be fun.
    Having seen many people burn out, fun is a good thing.
    Fun is what keeps you sane, keeps you interested, keeps you going.


    I was just 'feeling' it was important but M. Torkington made me realize why :
    This fun that makes boring things acceptable, keeps me learning,
    keeps me interested and so makes me a better coder...


    "Only Bad Coders Code Badly In Perl" (OBC2BIP)

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