My Perl program came to life...and other strange stories

[nate]

On the Jax.PM jacksonville-pm-list;
nate <campin at bellsouth.net> wrote -


This post may not quite fit into the usage guidelines for the list, but
I doubt any of the 15 of you (or was it 15 including me? ;) will mind.

Today I got done with some not-so-useful Navy paperwork and (of course)
started tweaking a Perl script. I was trying to make it more efficient
and even add a feature or two without slowing it down, when I realized
that I was really proud of my little program.

I was getting it to act just the way that I wanted it to, and I realized
that (at least to me) it was alive. It was weird, having created
something that seemed alive. I don't want to compare it to feeling like
God, but maybe like a father. Ok, I am a father, and when my son was
born it was WAY messier, so maybe it's more like an artist and his/her
creation, perhaps a sculptor. 

I think I saw part of what makes people so dedicated to programming.

This seemed like a significant moment, and I suspect that most (or all)
of you have had a similar experience. I guess I just wanted to share it.

BTW, since I'm getting out of the Navy next week I had posted my resume
on some internet job boards over the weekend. On Monday the headhunters
were already calling me because I listed Perl on my resume. Granted I'm
from right outside Silicon Valley and that's where these jobs are, but
it looks like it's a very good time to know Perl. Now I'm frantically
trying to learn as much as I can so that I might actually be employable
for just my Perl skills. Wish me luck.

Nate


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