Still More Thinking
On two recent flights Pete and I spent our air travel time working on Perl programming. It made the time go by very fast. Pete is an accomplished user of Perl and I would like to be.
I've spent a considerable amount of personal study time devoted to my Llama book. I've learned many good theories and even had a chance to design a few programs in an attempt to complete the chapter ending exercises.
On the trip out to last month's Quilt meeting Pete did most of the work. I would give him one of the tougher problems from a chapter and he would solve it. It was interesting and I learned a lot. But it turned out differently than I'd expected. Instead of explaining the Perl features, I asked Pete to talk me through is problem solving thought process.
On the return flight Pete took a few hours to quiz me. He'd ask if I understood a certain principle. If I did, then I would quickly jot down the Perl code. If I didn't understand, then our discussion took on a searching quality.
I realized after this experience that what I was after was a way of thinking. Just knowing the basic tools isn't enough. It's taking the building blocks of Perl and knowing how to use them. And I can't help but consider the importance of knowing how to think my way through a programming problem.
I know a few basic Perl tools. I will learn more in the next weeks and months. And my experiences will help me form a way of thinking about programming. And through the discipline of thought I hope to master a new skill.........
2:32:18 PM 
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