Green on Black Reprise

She came into the office after she ate her stir fry. She had a smile on her face and offered her lap to the (barking) dog.

Show me that graphic you told me about -- that graphic on your weblog.

I took her to the page. I scrolled down a line or two. And then I stopped.

Show me the graphic, she said.

I pointed to the screen.

Her smile disappeared. A half-frown/half-scowl crept over her face. She wasn't quite sure how to put it.

No, she said. That's not a graphic.

I pointed to the screen, as if to say it was.

Nooo, she insisted. That's not a graphic. That's ... that's ... coding.

Evidently the green text on a black background didn't really impress her. You know what they say about beauty.

9:29:07 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Green on Black

I sometimes prefer to use simple tools, tools that let me feel what I am creating as I create them. Sometimes this slows me down a bit, but I like to think that the understanding that comes from these hands-on tools benefits me more in the long run.

So today, I'm sitting at my desk using one of these simple tools. I'm sitting there using the command line and vi in a terminal window -- solid, proven tools often unused by many of my friends who often opt for integrated WYSIWYGs with their mouse-clickable widgets and their ability to hide all the irritating detail.

Anyway, I'm sitting there editing a makefile to fix a library problem I'm having. A friend watches me from behind. And as I type, he comments on the terminal window colors: green text on a black background. (These are comfort colors for me -- reminders of true terminals of a day gone by.)

TEST_OBJS = 
  bio_ser_TEST.o 
  bio_allocfree_TEST.o 
  bio_start_vxworks_TEST.o 
  bio_start_pthreads_TEST.o 
  bio_posix_rw_procs_TEST.o 
  bio_pbq_rw_procs_TEST.o 
  bio_TEST.o
all: libs tests
libs: libbio.a
libbio.a: ${MODULE_OBJS}
        ar -rcu $@ $^
        ranlib $@
libbiotests.a: ${TEST_OBJS}
        ar -rcu $@ $^
        ranlib $@
tests: bio_TEST_main
        ./bio_TEST_main
bio_TEST_main: bio_TEST_main.o libbiotests.a libbio.a
        ${CC} ${CFLAGS} -o $@ $^ ${LIBRARIES}
bio_ser_TEST_main: bio_ser_TEST_main.o libbiotests.a libbio.a
        ${CC} ${CFLAGS} -o $@ $^ ${LIBRARIES}
.c.o:
        ${CC} ${CFLAGS} -c $<
clean:
        $(RM) *.o  bio_TEST_main *.a

Your terminal colors remind me of programming in the 1990s, he said.

I chuckled, happy that he had noticed in the first place. But I didn't have the heart (the courage?) to tell him that my motivation came from memories of the decade before.

8:02:20 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []