1 Mar
2022
1 Mar
'22
3:25 a.m.
Hoi.
[2022-02-28 14:25] Dan Cross <crossd(a)gmail.com>
On a personal note, when I was learning to write C for Unix, I read a lot of
open source code to see how to do it. So much of it was riddled with complex #
ifdefs that I kind of got the impression that that was how things were
_supposed_ to be written. Then I read the Spencer/Collyer paper, and modified
some program that I'd written to use abstract interfaces; it was so much easier
to reason about that I was kind of shocked that others didn't do the same.
I suppose the point is that many programmers learn by copying what has come
before. However, so much of what's out there is a poor example of how to do
things; we're stuck with a feedback loop of poor design.
... and I am very happy that I found my way into a different feedback
loop, called Unix philosophy ... with sources meant to be read, great
documentation, and books that actually feature real life code (already
a thing by itself) but also that the production code is on the same
``acts as a good example'' level.
If programmers have never experienced such wonderful worlds -- how
poor their programming lifes must be!
meillo