Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

[Mark Smith]

Maybe one of the most interesting things about Rev/MC is the way that  
it  can be seen as both a useful application in its own right , and a  
development environment.

I jumped on Hypercard as soon as I got my first Mac (1990, a Mac  
Classic), and a great deal of what I did with it (and still do with  
Rev) was what other people might have done with spreadsheets and  
single-user databases etc.

For instance, I've always rolled my own accounts stacks that work the  
way that I think of my business (such as it is), no double-entry  
stuff which I still don't understand, just money in, money out, print  
an invoice, keep track of what I spend etc. and at any time I can get  
a picture of where I stand in a form that makes sense to me. (As a  
self-employed musician, I pay an accountant to do the real accounts  
and tax returns etc).

It seems to me that anyone who can get reasonably complicated  
spreadsheets together is capable of using Rev to do useful work.

Along the way, I've developed a great enthusiasm for computer  
programming, and have learnt quite a lot of stuff about a wide  
variety of subjects through finding little programming projects.  
Currently investigating gambling strategies (as a self-employed  
musician, it'd be nice to find something steady <g>)

But I certainly can't deny  that it's taken me 10+ years to get to  
the point where I'm making relatively complicated apps that actually  
work. And even then, they're not close to being shippable, sellable  
commercial software, but then that's never been my aim.

Mark





On 25 Nov 2005, at 22:13, Todd Higgins wrote:

> During this turkey inspired holiday I have decided to reinvest  
> myself and my money in Revolution.  I updated to 2.61 of the IDE  
> and picked up  some Valentina licenses to boot! (Though I'm a  
> little bummed that it's not Valentina 2.0 - the documentation and  
> examples are much easier to grok)
>
> As I was surfing the web for programming inspiration I found an  
> article that has helped me put my learning curve in perspective,  
> and I thought I would share it with the list.
>
> http://www.norvig.com/21-days.html
>
> With no formal programming experience and no Hypercard background  
> its been slow going for me. As a technologist I am very comfortable  
> using computers, I can make servers bend to my will for most  
> functions, but when it comes to creating something from nothing I  
> am stifled.  I feel like I cannot get off the ground floor with  
> anything - Applescript, PERL, bash, Revolution,  and I think the  
> reason is because I'm rushing it.
>
> Real expertise takes time, even if your chosen programming  
> environment promises to save 90% of it : )
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Todd
>
> --
> Todd Higgins
> higginsta at mac.com
>
>
>
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