[Edu-sig] Re: Programming for the fun of it

[Don Hansford]

On Tue, 12 Dec 2000 08:50:22 -0800
"Dethe Elza" <delza@antarcti.ca> wrote:

I sent a reply to another post on this thread before I read yours (leaping sans looking, as usual). I agree with almost all you say. One of the beauties of Open Source is that, due to peer pressure as well as the fact that many programs are written by professional programmers "for fun", the general quality and readability of the code is generally very high. This makes the re-usability of code quite easy, as well as the pulling out of "snippets" for teaching purposes a lot easier. You could, for example, pull pieces out of Grail to demonstrate to the students how to interact with html/sgml/xml outputs. Very handy in todays' "webified" world.

> Don Hansford wrote:
> 
> > > * Fix the software you use
> > Only if it's Open Source :-)
> > > * Understand computers and the digital world better
> > > * Extend the software you use
> > See above :-)
> 
> Now, I'm a big fan of open source, for a variety of reasons, but it
> hasn't
> taken over the world completely (not yet) and a lot of people still
> have to
> live and work with tools like MS Windows and other closed-source,
> proprietary programs.
> 
> Does this mean these poor souls are forever condemned to not
> understanding
> the software they use, being unable to fix or maintain it?  Not
> really.
> Note, I use "fix" pretty loosely, to mean "work around bugs" and/or
> "make
> the interface better," for instance.  Obviously, no one outside of
> MS (and
> sometimes it seems no one inside either) can truly fix their bugs,
> but
> anyone can fix their software.  The book "Python Programming on
> Win32" has
> great examples of using Python to wire together proprietary
> applications to
> create the tool you need.  Of course I hope by the time the second
> edition
> comes out, Python's graphic interface tools will have evolved to the
> point
> that the authors don't feel the need to use Visual Basic...
> 
> But I digress.  Open Source is not a strict requirement to benefit
> from
> learning programming to extend and enhance your computing
> environment.  It's
> perfectly feasible to use PythonWin and COM (and even VB <shudder
> />) to do
> your own version of "embrace and extend."
> 
> --Dethe
> 
> 
> 
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Regards Don Hansford
ECKYTECH COMPUTING/
SQIT Warwick
<SuSE Linux 6.4>

"We're tired, we're wired, and our breath smells bad --
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