The smiling gardener, Mine Bouille Gros pois, and Microsoft gets fined!!!

Hi all

Well this is something that i want to share with you people, there is a guy i know, he should be in his late 60's and has worked in the Highlands Sugar Estate for a about 35 years and is now 'retired' though he does little side jobs like gardening and stuff.

This is someone who is happy doing his job... first he is always early to start working, ever smiling and second, he is always in a good mood even after hours of labouring in the scorching sun... we all aim at becoming successful in life, how many of you work for happiness- we work hard till we are 60 - retire and then die some years later. All we have done is surviving - not living.

We were having an interesting discussion today about Pension Funds and stuff. By the time I retire, i belive that i would be needing no less Rs 50,000 as monthly pension to be able to live decently- bearing in mind the decreasing purchasing power, inflation, and economic blablabla!!! Implying that i would have to invest a lot of money now in a pension fund. Then when i am 6o (if i reach that far) i will get a monthly pension. Hopefully, i will enjoy it for a while - but what if i die 59 or 61- would that be worth? Ok let's be unrealistic by being pessimistic!!! Or as someone said, prepare for the worst and hope for the best!!

I believe that we have to enjoy every single day and be happy in what we are doing - Always do stuff you enjoy. This is something i tell the students very often - they usually enrol on a course and then realise that it is not what they like , and they struggle for three years to get that degree and then they will spend their career doing something they derive no pleasure in doing. Most parents want their kids to go to Uni, get a degree and get a white collar job - but is that all??? What about the satisfaction-some jobs simply require customisation of software, others documentation , testing.... but do these really satisfy a young graduate? Well thats very subjective.

Is working in an office a great job- well not necessarily. You might always have people pressuring you, you get stressed.... you are unhappy... and you might die early, without getting that pension. ;-)

Did you study so much to be unhappy in your job? Well this is the sad reality for many! Tight deadlines, delayed releases, faulty software, programs returned coz they are faulty, and on top of that, the Team Lead/ Manager asking you to perform at 150 %. We know what its like, we've been there, and done that?

Compare that you you doing a job u like - passion will drive to to perform at 200%, and you will take everything as play, the deadline will be the end of play-time- Don't forget ; A man who does something he likes never works. Like me! :-)

Would you still be able to have a genuine smile on your face after 8 hours of coding if you do not like programming- i doubt. If you can actually do that, then would that smile be genuine or an attempt to look happy! (Being Happy and looking happy are two separate things)
Should that be a fake smile- who are you fooling! You can answer that!
Always do things you like, this applies to University as well.

Had a lovely time today and the day went by quickly! I had an interesting time with Management with IS guys during and after the lecture and i hope they understood what was explained. I also managed to solve that recurrence relation and i am quite happy about that... my brain is still functioning. I spent a lot of time debugging a ' linked list addlistorder function' in the lab when in fact the wrong function was being called... be careful people!!! I will start charging for helping you debug!!! Miss 'I dreamt about Programming' went to Grand-Bassin today, and I bet she asked Lord Shiva to help her out in Programming!!! Anyways a chacun ses trucs!

Some people - instead of saying 'give me a phone call to remind me' are saying 'give me a function call to remind me'- Programming is getting up their head - that a good sign - they will either get better at it or go nuts about it!!!

By the way had Mine Bouillie Gros pois today - here is a picture - isn't that appealing?

The mean was not enough to change my mood - I am still really annoyed with that Vista-XP networking thing - Windows Sucks!

Mais voila le recomfort: News of the day:

1. EU fines Microsoft record $1.4bn
2. EU Knocks Microsoft Out with a New € 900 Million Fine

People from Microsoft will not say 'They are fine, cos they have been fined!!!'

Bien bon pou zotte!! Zouer monopoly encore apres alle paye fine!! Help me out with XP-Vista networking, and i will give you 1€ - 'Every little helps!!!' you may say its not much: Bear in mind - I come from a developing world country though politicians call it otherwise - and we have no subsidies when we buy WINDOWS OS -costs of which are high!

Haha! Pay the bill Bill !!!

I am fine and Ms is fined!

Bien bon pou zot !

Networking between Windows XP and Vista!

Hi all, there hasn't been any interesting posting in the last two days.... and the reasons being 'Microsoft Windows is Crap!' I have been trying to connect my laptop to my desktop at home.
The Desktop is wired to a wireless modem-router, and the Laptop can connect to the Internet Through that router. I wanted to connect the Laptop and the Desktop for File and Printer Sharing.... Very simple! .... in theory!

In practice: I am still not able to do it. The reason : To be able to 'see' the PC running XP, we need to have what we call a Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder installed on it. After the installation, both machines can see each other but from one, we cannot access the other - which defeats the purpose of networking. Still desperate, and much more annoyed, I had a look on other forum and they pointed out that there may be another problem - Firewalls.

I temporarily turned both of them off but still no success. Another forum pointed out that XP runs something called NLTM and Vista uses NLTM v2...so we need to 'downgrade' that feature and then hopefully it should work.

The sad and frustrating thing (as is the case with loads of Microsoft Software) is that no where on the Microsoft Support network is the solution mentioned.

I am still struggling and if by tonight this still does not work.... then i would have taken enough crap from Microsoft.

Its a free world and i do not need Windows and Gates.

A funny posting i came across on a forum yesterday is as follows: What a sensible person calls a bug or a system limitation in Windows - Microsoft calls that same thing a 'new feature'.

Aaaaaargh!!!!!

The Walking urchin.................................



Anyways!!!

Had a lovely time today in the Programming Revision with Management with IS and i even learnt something new and i need to implement that. There is a key word in C++ called Friend.. wonder what it does!

Today, was Coldplaygurl's Birthday and we had an enjoyable chat, i even got sweets... Got home and i have just finished struggling with XP and vista to try to set up a wireless network between the two of them for file/printer sharing.
XP sees Vista but Vista is blind! Will need to sort that out tomorrow. As promised, i am posting the pictures of yesterday's afternoon at the seaside.

Pictures:

------------A horse at la ferme ---------------

-------Calamindass!! ! Simply Bindas!!!

---------An Urchin Shell -----------------

--An urchin in an Urchin --------------

--------Lighthouse at Albion (Pointe aux Caves)--------

-------------My Snorkelling Stuff and my coral!!!!---------------

Wicked Weekend!!!

Hello all, its been quite a long time since i last wrote somthing on that blog...
Yesterday was Saturday, but that is not a discovery... went to Uni to do some studd, catch up with Scheme... and finish labsheet 2. That printer gave me a hrd time as i constantly had to check if it ws printing correctly... the paper was getting jammed for some obscure reasons. Then I made an attempt to implement Newton Raphson in Scheme and it worked..... Je sais, je sais... who cares!

Then got back home rested a bit then it was time for Ghost Whisperer...not bad... in fact Jenniffer (is it 2 n's and 2 f's in Jenniffer... i do not care) Love Hewitt is too cute in it. Then went up and was kind of idle. Finished the races on Facebook's PetrolHead application and then ... since i kinda like C++ i wanted to try the Newton-Raphson method on C++.

Mais la le choc - et la honte - Gavin Sathan does not have a C++ compiler installed on his home PC and his copy of Visual Studio is in the office.... que faire... quand le demon de la programmation vous tente... a situation exceptionelle - mesure exceptionelle ( ou meme mesure desesperé )... i managed to find the old Turbo C++ Compiler fon the back of a dusty drawer and installed it... when it launched it...

That lovely blue screen appeared..... journey through time.. i am back in 2001. I started coding and managed to implement Newton-Raphson in about 20 minutes, the funny thing is that, i had to code a function to return the absolute double precision value since the one in math.h truncated values to integers or floats (if you are lucky!) and i was having problems with precision of non integral roots... with that done... i went to bed all satisfied!!!.

Woke up... it is Sunday...already!!! ....Pheew!!!.. I am looking forward to go to the seaside as i really fancied a good dive (for those who do not know, i love snorkelling)... As usual, the state of the corals at Flic-en-Flac is deteriorating and we are finding less and less fish and other marine animals in the lagoon...

I wish people could see the extend of pollution (shoes, plastic bags ,bottles,t-shirts, and other clothes which i dare not mention ;-) ) and eutrophication resulting from algal bloom. Only then would they hopefully undertand the extent of the damage

I wanted to catch a fish.. but that proved really hard as the sea was rough. Managed to get an urchin and a baby lobster (it was purple and relly tiny) though... what was funny was the fact that the urchin was in the shell of another urchin...I'll post the pictures and video of the urchin walking on the roof of the car tomorrow.. that was nice. No worries... i am not cruel, both the urchin and the tiny baby lobster were released unharmed exactly where they were caught..... I however... i do not know if they are still alive coz when i released the they were... but they could have been eaten up by other creatures...jokin... hope they are ok... for now... i dnt care if tomorrow they get run over by a car or anything.

After that, i went for the traditional De L'eau Coco and then headed to Albion Lighthouse. Once more i took some pix and i'll post them tomorrow.

Well I just upgraded my car to a Mitsubishi FTO in PetrolHead.. here i come!!

Anyways ... I have said enough for today...

Take it easy

Jeen ends up at Port-Louis!

The weather outside is too good!! its windy and dry.. jusk like autumn in England.... Those were the days! Had a wonderful day today! Met Jeen and she was late (by 30 mins)as she missed the exit to come to Reduit on the Motorway and had to go all the way to Port-Louis!

Then we had lunch and got back to the office where we had a good chat. i was also trying some C++ code while whe was talking ...which was (i admit) kind of rude... but she is a wicked mate and understands me quite well... The destructors of the linked list were givin me a hard time!!! but manged to work through it ok... then went for the Lab session and i personally enjoyed myself. Mr X was totally right when he said : "Choisis un metier que tu aimes, et tu ne travailleras pas!"... There is wisdom in that man.

Did not have much time to talk to the friends today!!! the time went by really quick. I am looking forward tomorrow for 2 main reasons:
1. Tokaiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! will be having her baby!!!
2. I have my scheme lecture as well as Programming Methodology.

At least i know that i will have some good news tomorrow, and wonder what's gonna happen in that lecture. All i know is that i am gonna have fun...as usual. Tomorrow, its 'Linked List Returns'!!!!.... the title is like that of a horror movie ....hahhahhhah!!!

Well many of you might have forgotten, but today is the 9th anniversary of the death of Joseph Reginald Topize... alias Kaya

His song 'Chant L'amour' means a lot to me! and i find it is very inspiring
I managed to get a small article about him, part of which is copied below. Click on on his picture to read the full article.
*************************************************

Le 16 février 1999, le mouvement républicain organise un grand concert gratuit en faveur de la dépénalisation du gandia, rue Edward-VII au Réduit, quartier proche de Rose-Hill. 5 groupes sont à l'affiche, dont l'inévitable KAYA.
Valayden ouvre les festivités par un discours en faveur de la dépénalisation des drogues douces, affirmant : "mo pou amène dépénalisation, sinon mo pas pou dans gouvernement", comme l'a rapporté la presse locale. Valayden demande ensuite à la foule de voter à main levée quatre résolutions réclamant cette dépénalisation et lance un appel au Premier ministre Navin Ramgoolam pour que les personnes incarcérées pour possession de "gandia" (environ 2000, soit 75% de la population carcérale, pour des condamnations allant de quelques mois à deux ans) soient amnistiées.

Totalement enjouée par ce meeting la foule se presse et atteind rapidement les 2000 participants. Survoltés, de nombreux jeunes parmi lesquels des rastas, allument impunément leurs joints, provoquant les agents de la Special supporting, qui munis de gourdins, n'interviendront pourtant pas.

Ce n'est que le surlendemain que l'état et les forces de polices décident d'interpeler 5 personnes identifiées comme ayant fumé ou incité à fumer du gandia pendant le concert. Parmi eux, KAYA, qui avoue avoir fumé ce soir là et se retrouve illico presto incarcéré à la prison d'Alcatraz, centre de détention traditionnellement destiné aux gros dealer et criminels.
Une somme considérable de 10 000 roupies (2500Fr) est alors demandée pour la remise en liberté de l'artiste. Sa femme, aidée par ses musiciens et certains membres du MR (pas Valayden), réussit à regrouper la somme et s'apprète à mettre fin à une histoire une fois de plus ridicule et discriminante.

Cependant, suite à diverses maladresses des avocats et surtout à un manque de soutien politique du MR pour le faire libérer rapidement, KAYA ne peut pas sortir ce samedi 20 février et doit attendre le lundi pour être remis en liberté.
Seulement KAYA ne sera plus jamais libre, sa femme ne le verra plus jamais vivant, il est retrouvé mort dans sa cellule, le matin du dimanche 21 février.
Rares sont ceux qui croient à la version officielle, selon laquelle Kaya, en crise de manque, se serait brisé le crâne en se jetant contre les murs de sa cellule. Une contre-expertise demandée par la femme de KAYA, menée par un médecin-légiste réunionnais, le Dr Ramstein, viendra d'ailleurs contredire cette thèse et montrer que la victime a été battue. Elle n'a pas été, pour reprendre le « Margouillat », victime d'un 'accident de mur'... la suite on la connait!

SOURCE: http://www.jahmusik.net/oldies/kaya.htm
************************************************

He was a great artist, it is just sad that a man who could 'Chante l'amour' ended up as collateral damage in a fight between politicians.

Interferences!!!

Hi all!
I have always been a fan of wireless perihpherals for my home and office pc, all of these operate pretty much on the same frequencies 2.4 Ghz... my wireless noise cancelling headphones, my wireless mouse n keyboard, my wireless network card and my Bluetooth adapter.... unfortunately some of these devices mutually interfere and cause a delayed response time. For instance, when the Bluetooth adapter is on, the wireless mouse and keyboard don't respond normally.... its something like hitting a key and the character appearing on the monitor after 2 seconds... Which is very annoying.

Wireless b and g network are even more funny.... they have that scaleback mechanism whereby your bandwidth decreases due to interference without you even being aware of it...crap isn't it... Mobile technologies and its limitations.... that could be the title of an assignment. lol. If you are interested in finding out why they interfere, click here!

I had a lab session today (today was the last lab session in CITS...i will shift in MCID as from next week....pheew what a relief!!)and we went through linked list (...once more), and we even hard coded the implementations for adding a node and displaying the list... i found it fun... except that the implementation was not working for some students and they were meant to send me the code after havin tested theirs. However I managed to come up with my own implementation and in case theirs does not work... They might have to use mine.

Then i was too knackered to tidy up my desk and left it as it is with Lecture notes for Scheme, Labsheets and the file i.e. in an organised mess 'in which i will find all my stuff quickly tomorrow morning'.....(see below!!!)...



First thing tomorrow - Desk Cleaning...lol!

When i left my office, i had my YOP Rumba in the cafetaria.... as usual, except that i met some students and we had a nice chat.

Then got back home and.......

See you tomorrow lads!!!

Asterix & Obelix aux Jeux Olympiques, Scheme.

Hi all,
I went to play pool today, and i must admit, i kinda lost the touch...need to get back into shape soon... gone are the days where i used to be a pool shark in the Atrium of Middlesex Uni along with the Booze Crew(see pictures below)

The Atrium where i spent the best moments of my Uni days in UK. The bar is in the background and the seats next to it were reserved for us...I will never forget our Friday Sessions, we ruled the Atrium and Dave was a Mate. We even had our say in what type of music would be played, and we even had Bhangra put on when we wanted to dance!!!

The mates, ooh my God i miss you all!!! Raj, Mo, Dina and half of Reeshi :-)

Well watched Asterix Today! Not bad at all for a french movie...;-) Then managed to finish some of the Scheme examples in the lecture notes....though the tail recursive version of Fibonacci gave me some hard time..... luckily 'The Schemer' was there and helped me out.

Looking forward to complete labsheet 3 tomorrow!!!

Some of the students are complaining about the labsheets being 'difficult' i hate that word when used in the programming context... in programming nothing is difficult... they are only challenging, and unless they adopt this frame of mind.. they won't ever enjoy it.

Best of luck you all, programming gets easy once you have an idea about the solution... coding helps you to implement, test and refine that idea. So start lighting the bulbs floating over your heads!!!

:-)
G@V!N

I am missing a wonderful night at 21-22 with Nitish and my SBM m@te$

I had to go on Yahoo Answers on how to get chewing gum off jeans... freeze the jeans (put it in the freezer) and peel off the hardened/solid chewing gum.... I'll kill that idiot who has put chewing gum on that seat in the bus... Those jean were at 40 pounds in Next.

Today's good news: Priya should be having her baby next Friday... which will make Mo a daddy..get ready with Nappies and feeding bottles Daddy Kool!! Try to keep that kid off the Atrium lads or else he/she will end up like one of us.... i.e. dysfunctional humans.

Went to uni today and had my lecture as on every Saturday morning. Today's topic was on classes. I managed to tricked the students into trying to access the attributes of an interface whereby everything (including the member functions) were private.

Then went to see the staff v/s student pool tournament..... there were some interesting frames though.

After that i went back to the office and then tried to find out how we could find the size of a dynamic array in C++, the first attempts are always tough, but i am sure that the last one will be fruitful!

Anyways... at least now, i got something to think about over the weekend apart from the second labsheet for scheme.

There is a sizeof(array) function and it works wickedly well for static arrays... but i am still facing some problems with dynamic arrays... need to think differently.

However i can't think too much right now, coz i am having a terrible headache... which is so bad that i was unable go to 21-22 with my friends..... :'-(

I tend to believe its because i am not using my specs in the office n in the labs... i am still not using them right now... bad habits die hard.... Next week's resolution- Wear my Specs in office n labs!!!

Yesterday's Joke of the day: To come to uni you need to be 'a brain' not that thing you use to sit on.(I am sure Avinash was referring to chairs....)

I saw the smurfette today and transformed into the pink panther:-
But who is the smurfette!!! You find out!

And she dreams about Programming!!!!

Well yesterday was pretty tiring and nothing much happened!!!

I realised one thing though:

There are two mindsets to adopt while programming:

1. Make the implementation of the solution so simple such that there are obviously no flaws
2. Make the implementation of the solution so complicated that the flaws are not obvious.

Some people are adopting the second mindset!!! How Sad ...... for me.....!!!

I cracked up when one of my students told me that she has been working so much on a labsheet that she has even dreamed of programming.... I dnt know how to interpret that. Well since she did not say that 'Programming gave her a nightmare..' I'll assume that you only dream about pleasant things. So I prefer to assume that she is enjoying programming!!!

Had only one lecture and that was tiring enough!!! And on top of that, met Tigrooooo!!! Hoo Hoo Hoo, who was in a bad shapes and it worries me coz the state she was in is really bad. I sincerely hope she get well soon and starts bouncing around.....
Please get better n come back, i have no one else to tease!!!:'-)

Take care of yourself Tigrooo! HOo HOo HOo!!!

Got home at about half past six and hey... I had my microwaved Nachos with Peri-Peri and Mozarella..... it did not taste as good without Jalepenos... But anyways!!! Was still better that nothing.

Then went for the usual MSN/Facebook Session....... nothing much apart from that!!!

I did try the returning array/strings thing and i came up with the following code and it worked fine on Visual C++

#include<iostream.h>
#include<string.h>
class tnt{
private:
int* a;
char Name[10];
public:
tnt();
int* getA();
void get_ary_A(int b[]);
void getName(char chr [10]);
char* getptrName();
};

tnt::tnt()
{
a=new int[5];
a[0]=56;
a[1]=2;
a[2]=8;
a[3]=9;
a[4]=14;

strcpy(Name,"Gavin");
}

int* tnt::getA()
{
return a;
}

void tnt::getName(char chr[])
{
strcpy(chr,Name);
}

char* tnt::getptrName()
{
return Name;/*return the string (pointer to char)*/
}

void tnt::get_ary_A(int b[])
{

for(int g=0;g<5;g++)
{
b[g] = a[g];
}
}

void main()
{
tnt channel;

int* A;
int B[5];

char gname[10], gname2[10];

channel.get_ary_A(B);
A=channel.getA();

channel.getName(gname);/*pass string to fn and it behaves as if its passed by ref*/
cout<<endl;
cout<<gname;
cout<<endl;

strcpy(gname2,channel.getptrName());/*returning the pointer to the array and copying result in a string*/
cout<<gname2;
cout<<endl;

cout<<"Using the pointer\n";
for(int i=0;i<5;i++)
{
cout<<A[i];
cout<<endl;
}

cout<<"Using an array passed by ref\n";
for(int j=0;j<5;j++)
{
cout<<B[j];
cout<<endl;
}

}//main


Have Fun!!

G@V!N

The Smurfette, Pain au Raisin, Rummy and Returning arrays from Fns.

The pairs of extra brackets in Scheme are actually not 'extra' they are needed as per syntactic rules... that's one troubling thing down the line.....

Had a programming revision class today, and at times I got gazes like those in the HiSense Advert on TV. Some were so annoyed that they started throwing the CPUs around..... We have 4 CPUs accidentally falling off their racks... 'Comme Quoi certain(es) expriment leur frustration dans les laboratoires'.. fortunately no one got hurt, but i think the target was.........me... Nah kidding!!!!

So if you work in the CITS lab someday, and your PC is not working... it could also be the case that some Management with IS student used it before you!!! :-)

My lunch break today consisted of 'Pain au Raisin & Fanta & Yop Rumba!!!', for dessert i had a game of Rummy in the Cafetaria. Lost the first game and won the second one in just 2 turns... too good... (Definitely not a balanced diet!!!)

Hey by the way i saw the 'Girl in the Orange top' today except that she was a Smurfette, and she had matching earings. She's blue.. di da di da di di dou.. di da di dam di di dou (....Eiffel 65 moment...)... anyways!!!

When I got back to my office the (supposedly) 'Méchante Miss' did not keep my share of mangoes.... sniff sniff snifff!!! :'-(

Now let's get interesting... i discovered quite a few thing today.... Visual C++ made it hard for me to return a string of text from a member function, but i used a pointer instead... thats the first part.

Anyways for those who cannot understand, we use the following to return a string of text

char * x::get_name()
{
return A;
//where A is a string of text
}

Then in main we can have strcpy( Z, c.get_name() )
//where c is an instance of the class x.

Now we'll assume that an attribute of a class is an integer array, how can we return this array to the main function?????

One option would be to return the pointer to that array but thats not really cool.

Could we not have someting like

int [] X::get_array_A()
{
return A;
//where A is an array
}
But then we would have to copy the whole array A to another array....

AAAHAAAA!!!! (That was a genuine Aahhaaaa moment!) What if we pass an array as parameter in the function as shown below

void X::get_array_A(int copy_of_A[])
{
for(i=0;i<...;i++)
{
copy_of_A[i]=A[i];
}
}


Since arrays behave as if they are passed by reference, when the values of copy_of_A change in the function get_array_A(), the new values will be reflected in main... sounds Brilliant and Crafty but i need to test it........

Come on you could have thought about that!!!!!

Will let u know tomorrow if it really works....

By the way plan 'Mine Bouillie Gros Pois' demain... cool!!!!

G@V!N

Scheme!!!!

Well, I tried a few problems using Scheme, most of them worked out wickedly well, except that i do not understand why we have to make use of a second pair or brackets using a let* as shown below

(define....
(let* ((V (* 3.14 r r h)))
.
.
.
)
)

I dnt see the need for the brackets in red, because (let* (V (* 3.14 r r h)) looks logically correct, unless there is some concept that I missed.

Anyways your help/comments are much welcome!!!

Looking forward to the next scheme lecture!

Anyways, I have been longing for homemade 'microwaved Nachos' lately, got my Doritos, Mozzarella Cheese, Salsa/Peri-Peri dips, but i cannot find Jalepenos!!!!!!! which is very very annoying. I tried Ebene Way, Shoprite, SuperU..... someone help me please.....

By the way we had a 'mangue + di sel-pima' programme today...... just before tea-time.... haha lucky us!!! And they say you are a 'Méchante Miss'... how dare they!!!! You know who u are!!!

Anyways see u tomorrow!!!

Btw, anyone knows what the following means:
'Lorem ipsum vim ut utroque mandamus intellegebat, ut eam omittam ancillae sadipscing, per et eius soluta veritus' ?

'Mine frire, Bouillon Meefoon & Chips '

For those of you who are used to reading through my facebook, well you were aware that last week there was that episode whereby the 'Girl in the Orange top' said 'Bonjour Monsieur!' to me but I could not figure out who the girl was, well i finally managed to remember.... i bet you lot are hoping that i will tell you. But as crafty as i am, i won't.

Today I did around two hours of revision, and there were about 60 students.... I hope they did not waste their time. Then met 2 of my ex-HRM students and went to Cafetaria till 13:26 when Anwar called. since we were meant to go for lunch. 'Plan ti supposer Mine bouillie cari Gros pois', but we ended up going to Quatre-Bornes, just to realise that lotus was closed- Chinese New year. So we ended up at Jango's 'Mine frire, Bouillon Meefoon & Chips '.

Then back to home and set the resolution to work on Scheme, but i left Dr. Scheme in the office.....Believe me! i really need Memogen!!!
Looking forward to the Sunday ahead.

Can we teach people Programming Methodology by 'teaching' them Programming?

I believe one cannot teach Program Methodology by teaching only Programming.

Programming methodology deals with the analysis, design and implementation of programs (John E. Howland, Trinity University, Texas).


Programming (often shortened to programming or coding) is the process of writing, testing, debugging/troubleshooting, and maintaining the source code of computer programs (Wikipedia),

Programming is the process of expressing an algo/flowchart/psedocode in a computer language.

By definition, these terms (Program Methodology & Programming. ) are different!

I believe that if we fail in imparting the analysis, design, and implementation skills, we cannot 'produce' decent programmers.

The key would be to help them acquire problem solving (analysis & design) skills which can then be expressed using any language (whether its a natural or Programming language).

Should the person not be able to express the solution in a natural language let's say 'English', it would be silly to teach him to program in any language.

However the main situation I am witnessing, is the fact that some people are failing to fully understand the problem leading to major difficulties when it comes to conceptualising a possible solution.

As a matter of fact it one cannot conceptualise, this implies that one cannot express the idea- this results in one's inability of program.C'est un problème de fond!!!

We are now in a paradoxical situation - can we teach people to think or is it something they have to learn by themselves?

IMHO should i try to 'teach someone to think'- this would be a failure, because i will only be able to teach that person to think like I do, what about his brain, to a certain extent I would be suppressing his creativity and decreasing the number of 'Aaaaha' or 'Eureka' moments . What fun would there be in that?



G@V!N

Avinash doing PL!

I had some problems with imperative languages and the integer rounding off, resulting in failure to generate Cipher text using RSA. Talked to Avinash abt it, he told me about Scheme.
Went to the first Scheme Lecture today... it was wickedly cool.. even started reading the prescribed textbook (...which is surprising...) and came across the wonderful words below;

It goes against the grain of modern education to teach children to program.
What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail and learning to be self-critical?
-- Alan Perlis, Epigrams in Programming.


Cracked up with Avi's joke which goes:
Computers are rational... unlike women!!!

Anyways Scheme... here I come!!!