Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
spin.atomicobject.com
Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
1–10 of 25 posts
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#2At least he is honest about his motivations.
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#3I bet Harry ends up in computer security.
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#4Reminds me of this quote from the Mythical Man Month:
"The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures.
Yet the program construct, unlike the poet’s words, is real in the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs separate from the construct itself. It prints results, draws pictures, produces sounds, moves arms."
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#5I think it is a bit sad so many people see programming as pure magic. A programmer should not, in my opinion, see itself as a wizard doing tricks.
Maybe see yourself as a modern magician instead: you have to work hard, you have to do the tough job, you have to know every tiny part that can go wrong during the show. Only then your work will appear to the audience as a great piece of wizardry.
Never fool yourself!
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#6I think it is a bit sad so many people see programming as pure magic. A programmer should not, in my opinion, see itself as a wizard doing tricks. Maybe see yourself as a modern magician instead: you have to work hard, you have to do the tough job, you have to know every tiny part that can go wrong during the show. Only then your work will appear to the audience as a great piece of wizardry. Never fool yourself!
There is nothing wrong with adding a little fun and imagination to anything in your life. I don't know how many people fool themselves, versus viewing things with a particular narrative (magic) for enjoyment.
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#7Entertaining post.. I tend to relate programming (in my mind) to engineers and architects designing a large building, or civil engineers designing a city... but considering "software engineering" is a named discipline, I guess that's not a novel idea.
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#8I think it is a bit sad so many people see programming as pure magic. A programmer should not, in my opinion, see itself as a wizard doing tricks. Maybe see yourself as a modern magician instead: you have to work hard, you have to do the tough job, you have to know every tiny part that can go wrong during the show. Only then your work will appear to the audience as a great piece of wizardry. Never fool yourself!
> you have to work hard, you have to do the tough job, you have to know every tiny part that can go wrong during the show
I absolutely agree. My intent wasn't to describe programming as magic in the sense that it's easy or as simple/nonsensical as waving a wand around. It's very much a discipline. I was drawing the parallel to magic in that it's an ethereal exercise—you describe what you want to happen, and then the letter of your description comes to pass. Getting this description to accurately model a moving system is a huge part of what makes the field so challenging.
dyeje was on the mark with their fantastic quote further up the thread:
"The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure thought-stuff. He builds castles in the air, from air, creating by exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual structures. Yet the program construct, unlike the poet’s words, is real in the sense that it moves and works, producing visible outputs separate from the construct itself. It prints results, draws pictures, produces sounds, moves arms."
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#9I think it is a bit sad so many people see programming as pure magic. A programmer should not, in my opinion, see itself as a wizard doing tricks. Maybe see yourself as a modern magician instead: you have to work hard, you have to do the tough job, you have to know every tiny part that can go wrong during the show. Only then your work will appear to the audience as a great piece of wizardry. Never fool yourself!
> you have to work hard, you have to do the tough job, you have to know every tiny part that can go wrong during the show I absolutely agree. My intent wasn't to describe programming as magic in the sense that it's easy or as simple/nonsensical as waving a wand around. It's very much a discipline. I was drawing the parallel to magic in that it's an ethereal exercise—you describe what you want to happen, and then the…
The message was not indeed directly at you but more for new comers in the programming world. Just to remind them that without the hard work part, they'll end up doing small tricks at dinner. They can't expect to run the show in Vegas. And yes I feel very alike Gandalf some day, summoning intruders: you shall not pass!
Re: Yer a Developer, Harry – Programming Is Magic
#10I'm reminded of a scene from the Inheritance series of books that I read when I was younger. The main character, Eragon, was telling his mentor how he blessed an orphan baby with the magic words "Atra gülia un ilian tauthr ono un atra ono waíse skölir frá rauthr".
His mentor's response was "Wait what? Are you sure you said skölir, and not sköliro?"
Turns out while he had meant to say "May luck and happiness follow you and may you be shielded from misfortune", he instead said "May luck and happiness follow you and may you be a shield from misfortune". Because of this, the girl grew up prescient, supernaturally aware of when other people were in danger or about to be harmed, and compelled to do anything in her power to protect them from it.
I'm pretty sure I've seen problems that are almost as bad in some of the codebases that I've worked with.