Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Does Not Compute

Have you ever been programming and thinking, "There has got to be a more efficient way of going about this... but I don't feel like figuring it out." ?

And then, twelve methods and several days later (exaggeration), it hits you exactly how to be more efficient, so you write one method that scraps all the other twelve.

And you want to pound your head against your keyboard in a fury of angst for having wasted so much time, not having sat down and thought things through...

... but then you realize that those twelve other methods were actually what led you to the more ideal method and better understanding not only of how to solve the problem but of how the language, itself, works...

Deep.

I know.

2 comments:

  1. Yes, except for the part about the twelve methods and several days being an exaggeration. :)

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  2. What Scott said ...

    Although ... [soapbox] this is a problem I have with higher level languages. There are often twelve ways to do the same thing with little guidance on why a certain way might be better is a particular situation. [/soapbox]

    - former S/360 assembly language programmer

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