Take a seat! (click for big)
As promised last time, my simple tour of POV-Ray continues with some examples a bit more interesting than an abacus stone or a box with holes in it. Time to move beyond a bunch of teal-colored spheres! (How about a bunch of hunter-green cones?)
I think it’s nice to have a place to sit while I lecture, so I’m going to use my digital woodworking set to provide a bar stool (and maybe a beer). The beauty of the virtual world is that , well, free stools (and maybe beers) for everybody.
Because I don’t just make a stool. I make a thing that makes stools.
It’s shaping up to be a killer week. I thought my first task in the new job would involve designing a system, but it turns out much of the business process analysis hasn’t been done yet. Given a target date of December, I have my work cut out for me.
Welcome to Wednesday Wow, an irregular series appearing from time to time when I want to write about something that made me say, “Wow!” Or which made me say, “Weird!” Or, “Wonderful!” Or possibly even, “Wild!!”
But not about Women, Wenches or Wahines; they’re too special to be limited to a day, even though they often make me say, “Wow! Wonderful!”
If nothing else (and I think there is plenty of else), I can look back on all those years of writing code and pick out the main themes and principles, the things that seemed to matter most.
Here’s a simple tip! I can’t begin to count how many potential code bugs this has eliminated. It takes some getting used to but once you make it automatic it’s a real help in keeping code and your thinking correct.
Clarity is the #1 priority when writing code. Clarity trumps everything else; it’s even more important than the code being correct! One of the biggest wins a serious programmer can offer is writing clear, readable code.
It’s been said that programming is an exercise in managing complexity, and while that’s true, it’s only part of the picture. (Still, it’s a pretty big part!) More to the point, managing complexity applies to much more than software design. A defining characteristic of modern life is its complexity, so learning to manage it might be a Pretty Good Idea!
Logos con carne 