From: Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com>
To: Skip Collins <skip.collins@gmail.com>
Cc: emacs-org list <emacs-orgmode@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: [Orgmode] Automatic screenshot insertion
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:20:42 +0530 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <811ur63hzh.fsf@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CABUh-77rwOXOWJ31oD63+MXc2y654gcH12CmmAR0g=j7LV=j-w@mail.gmail.com> (Skip Collins's message of "Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:46:06 -0500")
Skip Collins <skip.collins@gmail.com> writes:
> 2012/1/10 François Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca>:
>> Some sad people think of me as a programmer. While deep down, I am
>> fundamentally an artist. Programming is mere mean of expression :-).
>
> You and Jambunathan K. should form a club.
Since I am being dragged in to the conversaion, I am digging out a
reddit post that resonated with me (in a totally different setting).
The clincher is actually the last paragraph and you need to read the
first few paragraphs to enjoy the last one.
There is also a story at the end of this post for everyone to ponder
about.
,---- From http://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/if08k/when_did_you_first_discover_the_illusory_nature/
| At some point in my teens I'd started doing C programming. If you
| don't know, computer code is usually formatted in a systematic way to
| make it easier to read. Most languages give you a lot of freedom in
| this, so every project has its own coding conventions.
|
| I was really into Linux and assumed Linus Torvalds was probably the
| most wonderful genius hacker of all time. He's got his own write-up
| about the Linux kernel coding style, which you can read here if you
| happen to be interested. Some quotes:
|
| First off, I'd suggest printing out a copy of the GNU coding
| standards, and NOT read it. Burn them, it's a great symbolic
| gesture.
|
| [...]
|
| Tabs are 8 characters, and thus indentations are also 8
| characters. There are heretic movements that try to make
| indentations 4 (or even 2! [this is the GNU standard]) characters
| deep, and that is akin to trying to define the value of PI to be
| 3.
|
| [...]
|
| You've probably been told by your long-time Unix user helper that
| "GNU emacs" automatically formats the C sources for you, and
| you've noticed that yes, it does do that, but the defaults it uses
| are less than desirable (in fact, they are worse than random
| typing - an infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would
| never make a good program).
|
| So I read this at an impressionable age and it all seemed very obvious
| and plainly true. Linux kernel source code, you could tell by just the
| aesthetic impression of the code style, was fast, clean, and smart. It
| looked good. On the other hand, the source code for GNU projects had a
| weird & ugly style.
|
| Here's some Linux-style code:
|
| static char *concat(char *s1, char *s2)
| {
| while (x == y) {
| something();
| somethingelse();
| }
| finalthing();
| }
|
| Here's the corresponding GNU-style code:
|
| static char *
| concat (char *s1, char *s2)
| {
| while (x == y)
| {
| something ();
| somethingelse ();
| }
| finalthing ();
| }
|
| But then I started using GNU Emacs and became fascinated by the
| founder of GNU, Richard Stallman, who wrote Emacs and popularized this
| coding convention. I gradually began to think Linus was kind of
| annoying and not as profoundly creative as rms (as Mr. Stallman is
| known).
|
| Then one day I noticed that Linux kernel code looked weird & ugly and
| GNU code looked fast, clean, and smart. This was now the obvious and
| plain truth. When I noticed myself feeling like this, it was obvious
| that something was seriously weird with the aesthetic sense.
|
| And that's when I realized that subconscious judgments filter
| experience in a very strange way. So I couldn't really trust myself
| anymore. It was like glimpsing some uncanny fluttering in the veils of
| my ego delusion... dun dun dun!
|
| How weird is this story?
`----
My own opinion on the matter is:
Great hackers have *a* style and stick religiously to it. But they
remain steady and productive (even) when working with a dump (pun
intended) from a different school.
,---- From http://users.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/concentrate.html
| After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful
| champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an
| archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency
| when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that
| arrow with his second shot. "There," he said to the old man, "see if
| you can match that!" Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but
| rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the
| mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion
| followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm
| spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log. Calmly stepping out onto the
| middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master
| picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean,
| direct hit. "Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped
| back onto the safe ground. Staring with terror into the seemingly
| bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself
| to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target. "You have much
| skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's
| predicament, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose
| the shot."
`----
Jambunathan K.
--
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2012-01-11 5:51 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2010-11-18 17:16 Automatic screenshot insertion Jonathan BISSON
2010-11-18 17:50 ` Sébastien Vauban
2010-11-28 19:35 ` David Maus
2011-03-29 14:43 ` [Orgmode] " Russell Adams
2011-06-06 18:59 ` David Maus
2012-01-05 4:54 ` François Pinard
2012-01-09 18:27 ` Eric S Fraga
2012-01-09 20:22 ` François Pinard
2012-01-10 8:57 ` Eric S Fraga
2012-01-10 14:53 ` François Pinard
2012-01-10 16:08 ` Eric S Fraga
2012-01-10 19:27 ` François Pinard
2012-01-10 19:46 ` Skip Collins
2012-01-11 5:50 ` Jambunathan K [this message]
2012-01-12 5:26 ` Skip Collins
2012-01-12 6:26 ` Thomas S. Dye
2012-01-14 21:35 ` François Pinard
2012-01-15 6:37 ` Marcelo de Moraes Serpa
2012-01-15 12:10 ` Russell Adams
2012-01-15 19:31 ` Marcelo de Moraes Serpa
2012-01-15 21:45 ` Russell Adams
2012-01-10 20:26 ` Eric S Fraga
2011-02-03 13:33 ` Bastien
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