On the thread:

I agree with sentiments stated previously that coding is a 'Craft' as opposed to science/art. It is proven time and again via downloads and code reveiw. TIMTOWTDI, but not all possible solutions are accurate and/or approriate in a given situation for a slew of reasons, yet how many times have you fired up vi, only to be greeted by a cut-n-paste job. Somewhere in this thread was the statement that programming is nowhere near the point where just anybody could pick up a book and code an app. I personally dissagree. No offense intended towards anyone or any language, but Visual Basic anyone? Visual C++? Lets even consider a quasi-code generator for HTML i.e FrontPage. (I'm not attempting a MS bashing here, rather that platform has a predisposition to automate as much as possible for the end user). While the code generated is functional, 9 times out of 10 (or even 99 out of 100) when the 'code' is reviewed by a human, a feeling of utter disgust at the 'code' is felt.

Personally I wonder where this discussion comes from. There is always a thread on whatever system on the 'net about this exact topic. There have been points where certain groups were 100% positive that "coding" would become a way of the past, while other groups were as sure that coding would never go away. I'm sure that the shift will come, where the focus is higher level writing, but I don't see programming (as it stands right now) ever going away. (At least not until we get massive, parallel, async, neural network driven AI running the day to day business, but then we'll be fighting for our lives not to be 'coppertops' :} ). I just don't understand why this comes up. Yes, programming is a specific, logical process but it's also an avenue for creative expression and giant leaps in terms of efficiency and code size, so where does the need to attempt and pigeon hole it come from? Why? To what end?

On another note I saw a post about differences in logging facilities, and how windows has a slight advantage over the *nixs due to the Event Logger. Syslog is all I have to say on that subject. But since I'm feeling verbose.. Granted its a little flaky, but its tried and true. Single config file for all system logs, custom definitions can exist for applications without needing multiple conf files all over the filesystem, dependant on what OS is installed. It's not so much the platform's fault as it is people reinventing the wheel on a regular basis. Imagine if all your apps registered a syslog facility, and used syslog.conf for the log file declarations. Syslog is even smart enough to log across the network as well as locally, for centralized log storage/processing. Instead people decide to do it their way, or don't trust the syslog facility. Maybe it's due to security? Maybe someone could whip out a SSsyslog, making use of application keys or some such to secure/encrypt certain logs or network transmissions. I dunno, just thinking out loud. Again this isn't so much a rant as an attempt to edjucate.

On to the slightly off topic portion...

I would *_LOVE_* to work on an OOP implementation for a centralized app to keep track of a system's (meta)? data about installed components/applications. It's been a pet peev for a long time. Please contact me (kashimiku@hotmail.com), or message me, or start a thread, or whatever else it takes to get this rolling.

/* And the Creator, against his better judgement, wrote man.c */