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12/20/2002 Archived Entry: "One right after the other - simple recursion"

I want to be a better programmer. I am a hack, a perl coder, a 'web guy'. I can make your website connect with your database, but I cannot as yet make your desktop dance a waltz with it. I can usually figure out what another language is intending to do (forget Befunge, please), but there is no guarantee I'll be able to code in it.

I don't know Java, C, C++, C#, Cobol, Fortran, .NET, VB, or a host of other languages, and I think that anyone who says they know them all is either insane or lying or both. I don't fully understand the implementation of Object-Oriented code in any language, though I do understand why OO exists and what it means. I don't need you to explain to me about the colours and sizes of apples and oranges. I don't know, off the top of my head, what you need to do to create a perl socket, though I have done one before and it worked. I read the readily-available documentation and understand it for the immediate use I have for it. I am not a memorization machine and would rather know where to look up something than fill my brain with stuff that I'll use once and never need again.

I want to be a better programmer, to excel in this and to have people look at what I have done with understanding and respect. I want to program in a language that doesn't suck, isn't so limited that I can only use it in a specific small set of circumstances or on a specific OS. I want to know the structure of the language, though I may need to look up the vocabulary once in a while. I want to be able to answer a "is this possible?" question with a large degree of certainty. I need to be able to say "it's a constraint of the language" and be able to either think up a workaround or be able to say that it can't be done. I want to be able to work with the language instead of against it. I want to be able to work, using the language regularly, and it not be something I have to pull out once a month or so for some scripting. I want to keep it in my mind and be happy when I have the chance to do something I haven't before done.

I want to be a better programmer, such that I am truly a Programmer. I'd be very happy if someone would comment here and take the time to show me how this can be done, without Zen parables, without the colour of apples, without a vocab lesson, without the words "it'll take years".

Thank you for your efforts to make this happen.