程式騎兵

"YOU CAN CODE. THAT IS PRETTY DAMN COOL."    (原文連結)

I've been off-line a lot lately, doing physical therapy for my knee and traveling a bit. That means I have a lot of fun reading to catch up on! One page that made the rounds recently is Advice From An Old Programmer, from Zed Shaw's intro book, Learn Python The Hard Way. Shaw has always been a thoughtful developer and an entertaining writer with a unique take on programming. Now he has put his money where his mouth is with a book that aims to teach programming in a style he thinks most effective for learners.

I look forward to digging into the book soon, but for now his advice page has piqued a lot of interest. For example:

Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but you could make about the same money and be happier running a fast food joint. You're much better off using code as your secret weapon in another profession.

As a matter of personal opinion, I disagree with the first sentence, and could never make the switch discussed in the second. But I do think that the idea of programming as a secret weapon in other professions has a lot to offer people who would never want to be computer scientists or full-time software developers. It's a powerful tool that frees you from wishing you have a programmer around. It changes how you can think about problems in your discipline and lets you ask new questions.

Finally, Shaw tells his readers not too worry when non-programmers treat them badly because they are now nerds who can program. He gives good reasons why you shouldn't care about such taunts, and then sums it up in a Zed Shaw-like killer closing line:

You can code. They cannot. That is pretty damn cool.

Amen.

我最近大多時間不在線上，因為去作了膝蓋物理治療還小小的出外旅行了一下，這也代表有不少有趣的待讀資料要趕進度。 其中的一項是 Zed Shaw 寫的入門書 Learn Python the hard way. 當中的一篇 "Advice From An Old Programmer" (老程式設計師的忠告) Shaw 不僅是一位有思想的開發人員，他也是個在程式語言方面有獨特見解的有趣作家。現在他展現了實際行動在這本書裡，書裡提供一種他覺得最有效的學習方式給學習程式語言的人。

我迫不及待的想更深入此書了，但他的提示頁卻激起了我更多的興趣。就好像:

寫程式這職業就像是一般的工作，雖然這是個不錯的工作, 但開個速食連鎖店你也可以獲得相同收入而你也更加愉快，所以這時候你最好不要把會寫程式這件事當作自已的秘密武器了。

依我個人之見，上面這段話真的無法令人同意，所以我也不再接著討論下去這篇文章的內容。如果一個人從沒想過要成為電腦專家或是全職的軟體開發人員，我認為可以把會寫程式這個專長視為一項祕密武器。而這個強而有力的祕密武器可以把你從 "希望身邊有個程式設計師"  的困境當中解脫出來，也改變你在熟悉的領域去思考問題的方式，並讓你舉出些不同面向的新問題。

最後，Shaw 告訴他的讀者們別担心那些  "非程式設計師" 們的惡劣態度，因為他們正面對的可是會寫程式的人。在這篇文章中 Shaw 提供一些好理由讓程式設計師不去理會他人的嘲弄，最後他總結了一句 Zed Shaw 風格的殺手結論：

你會寫程式，而他們不會。最酷的就是這個了。

阿門