Category

Programming

• 07.16.08
  American Made
  Ruby, Conversation (0)

  I'm working on a new project now that I have some free time. I'm experimenting with a Ruby on Rails blogging web application similar to Wordpress. It's called typo. So far I'm pleased. I'm using typo on a new project called American Made. The domain name is actually america.nmade.info because "americanmade.info" (without the dot after america) was already taken. The goal of the website is to give recommendations of products made in the United States of America (so says the subtitle). The unique feature of this website is that all featured products are put into a "State" category to identify which ...
  
  
• 09.27.07
  Give away your programming books
  Programming, IT Administration (1)

  Most of us have a beginner's programming book that we no longer use. We may also have a book on a programming language (or framework) that we were once interested in, but not any longer. What to do with these? Give them away! Bookmooch.com is a great social marketplace that operates on something very close to the idea of a "gift economy". The site is a social web application that allows people to give away unwanted books and receive books that they do want. I love it! I've (currently) given away 37 books and received 41. Many of them have been programming ...
  
  
• 03.07.07
  Speaking Ruby with a Lisp
  Programming, Ruby, Lisp (0)

  While I have decided to use SICP as a textbook to learn to program, I am in no way planning to use the Lisp dialect Scheme for my everyday programming. I will use SICP as a learning tool to stretch my mind and then apply what I learn using the Ruby language. Ruby is very Lisp-like. Matz, the creator of Ruby, intentionally borrowed many ideas from Lisp when creating Ruby. As I go through SICP, I'll be "translating" many of the problems into Ruby. Here's an example of how much Ruby can resemble Lisp. Disclaimer: I'm just beginning to learn to program ...
  
  
• 03.03.07
  Which Programming Language ?
  Programming (0)

  I have had the desire to be a programmer of computers since I was in high school, but I've always been stumped by this question: Which programming language should I learn? I tried learning MS Visual Basic back in high school. I didn't get very far because I didn't have a very good idea about what programming was and I knew no one who was a programmer. In high school I did teach myself HTML. In college I expanded my HTML skills to XHTML and CSS through the help of Zeldman's A List Apart. I also had a friend who was ...
  
  
• 03.02.07
  Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years
  Programming (0)

  About a year ago I came across an essay that inspired me. It was entitled Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years. What stuck with me was the idea that it takes a while to get good at something. Moreover, I shouldn't be discouraged if I don't learn how to program in "21 days". Tonight I returned to that essay to read it over again and I noticed something that I hadn't before. In the Appendix, the first book the author recommends is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. The same book that I found as a result of the tip from ...
  
  
• 02.24.07
  MIT Programming Course
  Programming (1)

  My wife's father pointed me toward MIT course materials that are available free online. I found a gem in Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. It is a beginner's course in computer programming for MIT students. The text uses a dialect of LISP called Scheme, which I've heard of before but hadn't used. I'm just a beginning programmer, having spent much more time reading about programming than actually programming. This book is blowing my mind. It is helping me understand mathmatical ideas as I never have before and teaching me programming concepts in easy to understand steps. It took me a while ...
  
  

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