Plus ça change...

- 4 minutes read - 729 words 
                    WELCOME TO INTRODUCTORY C++

                 Your Instructor is John R Durrett

                  Section #2 03350 1:00pm

  Who Is Steven G. Harms...

  ...Academically?
          I am a sophomore double major in philosophy and M.I.S.
  ...As a programmer?...
          I programmed with Pascal in high school.
          While in high school, I set up my own web page in HTML.
          I have had a bit of experience with UNIX shell programming.

  Expectations And Plans
          I think that this class will be fun and informative.
          I know C++ is popular and has real world functions.
          I would like to learn Java and how to apply it beyond
          just cool Web pages.
          I would like to be very rich either as a writer, lawyer,
          politician, or in IT.
          If I had my druthers, I'd be a writer/poet/philosopher and
          travel all over.

   FYI
          I have obsessions for Bach, Beethoven, Pagannini, and Wagner.
          I've seen `Pulp Fiction', `Clockwork Orange'
          `Reservoir Dogs' and `Apocalypse Now' more than 25 times each.
          I also like reading, biking, and seeing live music.

I then thought, what would I say if I could add a comment back to these lines, many years later, for that it be…

WELCOME TO INTRODUCTORY C++

               Your Instructor is John R Durrett

                Section #2 03350 1:00pm







Who Is Steven G. Harms...

Someone who knows to put a space after a full-stop.

...Academically?
        I am a sophomore double major in philosophy and M.I.S.







...As a programmer?...
        I programmed with Pascal in high school.
        While in high school, I set up my own web page in HTML.
        I have had a bit of experience with UNIX shell programming.

In the intervening years I’ve expanded my experience with C++ and am entirely comfortable in the Unix shell. I’ve programmed extensively in the and BASH shell. I have also become quite proficient in Perl, tending to use it instead of most shell-scripting languages. I’ve designed a number of CGI scripts in Perl ( and, by my blog, PHP ). I have some Java experience and have set up my own web sites using XHTML and CSS standard.

Expectations And Plans
        I think that this class will be fun and informative.
        I know C++ is popular and has real world functions.
        I would like to learn Java and how to apply it beyond
        just cool Web pages.
        I would like to be very rich either as a writer, lawyer,
        politician, or in IT.
        If I had my druthers, I'd be a writer/poet/philosopher and
        travel all over.

This class would wind out to barely scratch the surface of intelligent programming habits. C++ is popular, but has largely been replaced by Java. Java has many other applications beyond simply ‘writing cool web pages’ but I find it such a bore of a language and it’s, usually, far overpowered for the solutions I need to implement quickly, cheaply, and ( generally ) solo.

I’d still like to become fabulously wealthy, but I’d never stop working, I’d just stop worrying about the bills.

I’ve become a writer, in that Harry Chapin sort of way of acting-happy in a happy-home and / or flying-high-in-a-Taxi sense. I have this web site that I pour a lot of energy into. I write enough, I suppose to be happy intrinsically. I’d like to write a book, oddly, non-fiction, I think I can do it. We’ll see.

I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to be a lawyer. In Leiden, on Rijnsburgerweg, in the Nieuweroord building, at a party, in a kitchen, a young law student named Antonio told me about the actual work of the law and law school and I decided that I, in no way, would like to be a lawyer.

And if the feeling of being a lawyer could be amplified any, it’d be my attitude to politics. If one could still truly become a maverick politician ( shame John McCain ), I might think about it, but it’s clearly not something I have an aspiration towards, it’s something that I might choose to do for the good of the polis.

I’d still love to travel all over, that hasn’t changed. Lauren was talking about Scandinavia and I was talking East-Central Europe. Either way, I’m ready.

 FYI
        I have obsessions for Bach, Beethoven, Pagannini, and Wagner.
        I've seen `Pulp Fiction', `Clockwork Orange'
        `Reservoir Dogs' and `Apocalypse Now' more than 25 times each.
        I also like reading, biking, and seeing live music.