On Jan 3, 2007, at 10:09 AM, Devin M. wrote:
Tim X wrote:
In a similar vain - I’m after on-line resources, both general and
Ruby
specific.
Check out the c2 wiki: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki
It’s completely disorganized, but is filled with discussions on all
sorts of topics – patterns, best practices for exception raising/
handling, To Be or Not To Be Agile, etc.
Wow… disorganized may be an understatement. What do you do find
the content that’s really worthwhile? Just watch the recent changes?
-Mat
Personally I learnt a lot from Raymond’s Book:
“The Art of UNIX programming”
Quote:
“This is a book about Unix programming, but in it we’re going to toss
around the words ‘culture’, ‘art’, and ‘philosophy’ a lot. If you are
not a programmer, or you are a programmer who has had little contact
with the Unix world, this may seem strange. But Unix has a culture; it
has a distinctive art of programming; and it carries with it a powerful
design philosophy. Understanding these traditions will help you build
better software, even if you’re developing for a non-Unix platform.”
Free copy on line at: http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/
-.rb
On 3-Jan-07, at 11:39 AM, Mat S. wrote:
all sorts of topics – patterns, best practices for exception
raising/handling, To Be or Not To Be Agile, etc.
Wow… disorganized may be an understatement. What do you do find
the content that’s really worthwhile? Just watch the recent changes?
You need entry points. This page: <http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?
CategoryCategory>, the links on http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TopTen, or
even http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?RandomPages (which I think is generated
by a script run every few days). Once you get a bit more familiar
with the site, search might help http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FindPage.
The recent changes page will help with the currently active pages,
but there’s tons of stuff here that doesn’t get updated often but is
still really interesting.
It is fun just poking around. Kind of like wikipedia. Maybe you’ll
want to set time limits 
Cheers,
Bob
-Mat
Bob H. – blogs at <http://www.recursive.ca/
hutch/>
Recursive Design Inc. – http://www.recursive.ca/
Raconteur – http://www.raconteur.info/
xampl for Ruby – http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/
Devin M. [email protected] writes:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki
Looks like some interesting reading and a good way to fill in some time
when
you need a break from coding!
thanks,
Tim
On 3-Jan-07, at 6:38 PM, Bob H. wrote:
You need entry points. This page: <http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?
CategoryCategory>, the links on
And I left off the link: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?StartingPoints
I’m currently coursing my fourth year (of five) in Computer Science.
I can make a lot of (cool) things but my code isn’t the most
politically correct 
This is why I asked the original question. I’m just about finished an IT
degree, hovering around a distinction average and still feel I know very
little programming wise!
Well, realistically, I’ve been working as a programmer for about a
decade and I feel pretty much the same way. “Life is short, the art is
long.”
I think Ed’s recommendations about “soft skills” are pretty good,
certainly vital to getting real use out of your education, but if
you’re feeling your training is too academic, I think Dave T.’
comment that you learn the most about programming by programming
is especially relevant. Pick up some freelance work and cut your teeth
on some especially practical project, some diametric opposite to your
academic work, just as a learning exercise. Realistically, you need
both “street smart” programming and an understanding of computer
science (whatever that term really means).