{"id":40,"date":"2005-10-14T07:14:19","date_gmt":"2005-10-14T07:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.195.124.246\/~wisecon1\/blog\/?p=40"},"modified":"2005-10-14T07:14:19","modified_gmt":"2005-10-14T07:14:19","slug":"learning_to_pro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/?p=40","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

At work, I am a manager, and the truth is that I’ve always been a little bit embarrased that I don’t really know how to do so many of the things that the people for whom I work do–especially, program.  I’ve been working with computers since my Dad got me my first Zenith Z-148 (an IBM XT Clone)  The catch is that I’ve always been content to be a user–working with the programs that others created–learning them, getting a sense of what’s possible.  And even many programs are worlds onto themselves–feature upon feature–tapped and untapped potential.  But somehow I think I am capable of being more than a user–I think I can learn how to program.  I don’t expect it to be an easy road, but I’ve taken the first step of asking for help and my friends Anders<\/a>, Eric<\/a>, and Jonah<\/a> have all responded enthusiastically.  Why am I undertaking this project?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was inspired by a recent post<\/a>
\nwhere Anders outlined an ideal curriculum for new computer science
\nstudents at an area high school.  The curriculum recognized that the
\naudience is multi-level–some kids will become programmers and others
\nwon’t.  Anders took the position that computing need not be "arcane,
\ncomplicated and boring," which was the impression I got after I took my
\nfirst and only programming class back in high school.  (Then again I
\nthought just about everything in school was boring back then.)  But
\nAnders’ post makes clear that programming is about a) solving complex
\nreal-world problems and b) eliminating dull, repetitive tasks.  From my
\nyears of working in the industry, it’s also clear that programming can
\nbe lots of fun.<\/p>\n

\nAnd so I begin.  I have 2 assignments that I am working on because this
\neffort in programming is going to culminate in a final project that
\nwill help triathletes (especially this one) plan their training and
\nhelp them become better athletes.  The first task is to identify the
\ndata structures that I want to track.  Eric’s tip for this step is to
\nfocus on the nouns–I’m still working on the list, but to start my
\nnouns are:  date, duration, focal point, type, level, intensity,
\ndescription and debrief.  The second assignment is to start working my
\nway through How To Think
\nLike a Computer Scientist<\/a> to master basic terminology and
\nconcepts.  I’m also going to be looking at Structure
\nand Method of Computer Programs<\/a> as a point of comparison.  I’m warned that the latter
\nis a bit more dense, but I’m encouraged already by the introduction:<\/p>\n

\n"What’s in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability
\nto see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that
\nyou can make it more.”  – Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922-February 7,
\n1990) <\/p>\n

\nWe can make it more.  Part of what’s so exciting about the web these
\ndays is how it facilitates learning by empowering people to
\ncollaborate.  What’s even more exciting is that I think we’ve only just
\nscraped the surface of what’s possible for learning, for knowledge, and
\nhow we work together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At work, I am a manager, and the truth is that I’ve always been a little bit embarrased that I don’t really know how to do so many of the things that the people for whom I work do–especially, program.  I’ve been working with computers since my Dad got me my first Zenith Z-148 (an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-webtech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wisecontradictions.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}