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Today's Best-of-the-Sidebar was originally posted by "Yahweh" ...
Being a programmer and the only computer literate person in my family, I get tech support calls from my family all the time. I got a phone call from a brother-in-law today:
Him: Hey, you're good with computers right?
Me: Yes.
Him: And you know how to program computers?
Me: Yes, that's my job actually.
Him: Could you explain programming please?
Me: I'm sorry, what do you mean?
Him: I want to make a game like Halo, but I don't know how to start. Could you explain what I need to do?
Me: You should probably go to the library and get a book.
Him: Can you just tell me what I need to do?
Me: Wait a minute. Are you asking me to explain how to program computers?
Him: Yeah.
Me: Over the phone?
Him: Yeah.
My brother in law apparently made several unsuccessful attempt to "learn programming" by opening up exes in Notepad. He created a text file with the words "Morph the screen into something cool" and couldn't figure out how to run it, even had the balls to ask me "how do I install my program? Do I just put a shortcut on the desktop".
My dad, a programmer, lent him an unfortunately titled book called "Teach Yourself Java in 24 hours". He immediately flipped to the back of the book and reading sections on server and Swing development, and was very excited to see that he could write his own server after just one day.
In the end, I was unable to teach my brother in law how to make his own Halo over the phone, and he decided that I wasn't a very good programmer.
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In fact I have the opposite problem: I have to justify what I do with computers as a programmer.
What I mean is this: 1) No programming-illiterate people understands the difference from using a program and making one. This kind of people usually think that Word has been created by God. 2) As a computer expert, you should usually know how to repair a TV-set or a HiFi. |
Re: Could You Explain Programming Please
2008-01-04 09:02
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by
Theo
(unregistered)
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That's a nice variation on the kind of calls I constantly get from my family: "You're a computer programmer, right? Could you fix my printer?" ...
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I have a similar experience:
him: Do you have some book on programming? me: I do. Take this Delphi book. It is fairly simple and should be easy to start with. him: Ok, thanks. And what language do I do the programming in? (Note: we are not native English speakers) me: Umm, Delphi. It actually is a mutation of Pascal. him: Oh no, I don't mean program, I mean language, do I need to program in English or can it be Czech? me: I am not sure what you mean. Some Pascal keywords resemble English, yes. But you can use whatever language you want for naming variables for example. him: Keywords? Variables? ... me: (Explaining what programming actually is) him: Oh, I thought I would write something like: "Create football stadium and football players. Start the game when user presses spacebar. Make players have red shirts and white socks." |
Re: Could You Explain Programming Please
2008-01-04 09:47
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by
Konamiman
(unregistered)
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Well, nothing stops you from creating a program like this:
void main() { CreateFootballStadiumAndFootballPlayers(); StartTheGameWhenUserPressesSpacebar(); MakePlayersHaveRedShirtsAndWhiteSocks(); } Oh yes, you will have to define these three methods an put some code on them, but that's a minor issue. X-D |
Re: Could You Explain Programming Please
2008-01-04 09:59
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by
Mythokia
(unregistered)
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Usually when someone starts the conversation with "are you good with computers?", I expect it to go downhill.
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Re: Could You Explain Programming Please
2008-01-04 10:32
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by
Jay
(unregistered)
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Well I see the problem! He SHOULD have written "Morph the screen into something cool;" - you need a semi-colon at the end of the command. :-) |
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