Throughout my life, I’ve learned and used a great number of programming languages. That list as it stands now is something like BASIC, C, C++, C#, Java, Haskell, Lua, Oz/Mozart, Pascal, PHP, Prolog, Python, Scheme, Visual Basic, and probably a few that I’ve forgotten. Over time, I’ve come to the conclusion that (no, don’t kill me, it’s not what you think) BASIC is one of the greatest languages ever created. Why, you might ask? Well, for one, it’s an interpreted language. That means that error messages and program results are produced much faster than with compiled languages (no, really, it’s still true today). BASIC also has rather potent string processing (for being what it is) and a good library of base functionality. What this lends to the language is the ability to be used as a RAD platform for algorithms and problem solving, and that is exactly how the high school I went to managed to win the WNEC High School programming competition so many times. Other teams would use C, C++, or Java, and we’d be cranking away on the BASIC (maybe Pascal if we needed data structures), and we’d be done a good hour before everyone else. Why? Because it didn’t take 45 seconds for it to tell us we mistyped something.
Enough nostalgia though. Even though I’m somewhat older and somewhat wiser, I still use interpreted languages for prototyping. Although, my weapon of choice is now Lua (which if you know me will just make you groan… but it really is a great language). The fact that I can forget about the type of numbers if I’m prototyping something mathematical, the fact that I can make pretty much any data structure and not worry about pointer issues, and the fact that errors are returned rather quickly (although not until it encounters them) just makes it so much more worth it to use than the language that I’d eventually be writing the final program in (if that’s the case). I know that there are a lot of people that feel this way about their own favorite interpreted/scripting language, and this is exactly the way it should be. Everyone who has to do any sort of processing work with computers, or any sort of scripting or parsing, or any other ordinary, every-day computerized task should learn and use scripting languages. It’s worth it that much. Whether you want to use Lua, Perl, PHP, Python, or some other language is irrelevant. Just do yourself a favor and make life easier: let go of the shackles that compiled languages bind you in, and start enjoying programming again (or for the first time).
I’ve finally gotten around to posting photos from my trip to Bar Harbor, Maine with my family in August. Some of them are pretty random, and some are pretty nifty. go check them out.
So, it has been about a month since I launched the shout experiment, and I figured that I should say something. I feel mildly reluctant to do this, but well, it’s not that bad to talk about it. Anyway, shout started out as a simple idea and an ache of mine to make a page that was very “Web 2.0”-ish (ugh) with rounded corners and whatnot. In some ways, the experiment is a jab at the ways in which the Internet makes us more disconnected socially.
The basic idea behind the project, is that everyone is anonymous, and they are given 100 characters every 12 hours to say whatever they want. It’s a basic exercising in brief of First Ammendment rights (at least in the United States). There is one request that I put forth, and that was that people couldn’t say stuff that had names or was considered defamation. I didn’t and don’t expect these to be followed. They’re merely guidelines. There is mild censorship, but in reality, it’s weak and there’s only one word that I really censor. Not that it matters anyway. Also, I know now about Post Secret. I had no clue that it even existed when I started this. So, I don’t particularly take kindly to people that point out similarities and what not, mostly because I am fully aware of them and don’t care to be reminded.
Anyway, on to the juicy stuff. The psychological impact that it has upon the people that use it. This information is from my own observations and from metagaming with some of the people that use it daily. The first observation, is that the current relatively small userbase causes a sense of paranoia in the users because of human nature to try to make things fit in places they don’t. Another thing is finding meaning that isn’t there. Some of the shouts are actually replies, and some just seem like them. Attempting to find any real correlation between two given shouts is ill-advised. I will admit to having posted responses just to say things opposite of what the expected answer is. Mostly, the general feeling that comes with the site is that it’s not a community at all. It really might as well be a Markov chain generator. Or course, there’s that whole possibility of interaction between users, so it’s a little different.
Overall, I think it’s been interesting. I’m looking for directions in which to take this before it ends in late May. I may just switch it over to my hosting provider rather than taking it entirely offline. In the meantime, I’m going to try to come up with nifty stuff to enhance the experience. One last thought, is that this would work better with a much larger user base and an available count of users because that’d reduce/eliminate paranoia.
I’ve finally gone live with something that I was working on over the summer. It’s just a little experiment. See the “shout” link on the sidebar.
The current scheduled date of my return is the 21st. See you all then!
