Coding Frustrations

I hate not being able to know where to begin with a coding project, especially one where the requirements are made for me, such as in a homework assignment. Especially coming out of Boken week, I still have no will to work, even after 12 hours of sleep.

The start of the day was spent doing class things, but even then I was barely in academic mode. I then ran some post-Boken errands, and then finished other Boken house-keeping things and goofed around for most of the afternoon until dinner with DJ, which ended up in a bit more Boken things and procrastination.

For the past hour I've been looking at the assignment, and the work I did for the assignment before it (since the one continues from the other/we could use stuff from the last assignment), and I have no idea where to begin. It also doesn't help that I have some Maya renderings to complete as well as a final for the class this assignment is for on the same day... With a presentation. Whoop-de-do.

I feel like the assignment will require me to redo a lot of things I did, which will make me very angry. I'm very big on code reuse, and I really don't want to have to rebuild something. It's hard to find a way to use certain things if your past homework was about a month ago with other things distracting you. Buh.

I wanted to make a short post, sharing my coding frustrations. Nothing too specific, and I'm also using this as a procrastination outlet. I already blogged on my tumblr today; crazy, I'm blogging more than once a day! AHH!

(KeyboardDucks.lastPostDate().getSecondsSince() > secondsInMonth) ? post() : chillax;

So this is just something random because I noticed no one has posted anything here for quite some time. Since I haven't posted anything blog like since my intro post, I'll ramble in your general direction for a little while.

So I've recently compiled a list of computer languages that I want to learn (no pun intended). When I went about this, the first thing I did was list the languages I know and feel comfortable with. Here is that list:

Java

C#

shell/bash scripting

eggplant scripting (aka SenseTalk)

I use three of these four languages everyday, so I get a fair amount of practice in them. I'm the most comfortable using Java and can program something quickly, such as a catch rate calculator for Pokemon, with ease. C# I don't use often enough, but because of the similarities to Java and the syntax I know, I can still easily make a program in it. Shell scripting I'm learning now for work, and eggplant scripting I've also learned for work and have made a bunch of tests with it (which is what it's used for).

Now, after looking at this I noticed I'm missing something: A web-based language. Although I'm not too fond of web-based programming, I find it shows up a lot and could potentially be really useful, especially since I'd like to make myself a website at some point to house and display all of my programming projects (there is a lot of them). So I looked at some languages and picked a few that were either recommended to me or that I've seen others use:

Javascript - Good start, in my opinion. Easy entrance into other web languages.

Actionscript - Flash's language, so it can be used to make regular executable video games or some fancy animation for a web site or just because, I think this will be a good one to learn especially since my friends and I have worked on a video game that was programmed in this, and we only had two coders (a bit of an overload for them). Learning this will let me give them a helping hand.

PHP - Of course. I don't know a lot about this one, but I plan to.

MySQL/SQLite - Not just for web stuff, but for my own projects that require some form of database.

Python - This really has nothing to do with web programming, but I want to learn this so I have an alternative to shell/bash scripting.

I think this is a pretty good list. Once I've learned these languages, I'll have a pretty rounded knowledge in programming. Now all I need to do is find the free time to learn all of this and I'll be good to go.

Something completely off topic: I've decided to start up my LiveJournal again. Why, you ask? Well, I used to have one. Three, actually, from when I was in high school. There was only one that I updated somewhat regular and I just finished reading through all of it the other day. I definitely enjoyed reading the journal entries from my younger teen years. Very nostalgic. It got me thinking that maybe I should do this again, so that in another 5-6 years I have another LiveJournal to look at, have a nostalgic moment, and laugh at myself (which I did, a lot). I'll post the link to it eventually.

Just as a note, this is going to be a journal, not a blog. Anything that seems close to blog related, such as a random rant or some rambling like this post will be copied from the journal and put on here as well, so I'm still going to keep this up. At least with the journal I'll have more posts for this blog also since a lot of my rants and rambles come from everyday life.

Anyway, back to the programming.

So those are the languages I will be learning. To learn some of the web-based stuff, I'll be making a site. Its going to be pretty basic, nothing fancy like Caroline's or WillyWorld (when its finally up). Just something to house programs. Also when I get my desktop computer completely set up and permanently operational, I'll create a subversion repository for those of you who would like to download my projects. All of my stuff will be open source, so its yours to take and edit at your pleasure, it would be polite of you to give me credit for the original code though (if any of you do actually take it). Not necessary, but it would be nice.

So thats it for this. I'll post some updates about the upcoming site and code repository when I get stuff set up. Also I may change from Subversion to GIT, since I here only good things about GIT and Subversion can be stupid. We'll see.

Have a good April Fool's Day!

(Edit) I fix'd the title.

~Rob, ramblin' man (pun intended)