use Perl

Enough of that. I'm killing a few moments while CPAN installs Text::Template (which, amazingly, I did not install to my laptop at any point in the past year!)

When I installed all the software I thought I would need on my laptop (such as the ubiquitous image editing software that costs a small fortune, is probably mostly used illegally, and rhymes with Badobe Kyotoshop), I went hunting down modules just like everything else. I apparently just forgot a few of the ones I wasn't using quite so much, but when I found myself needing a templating solution for who-knows-what, I immediately thought, "Text::Template will do this rapidly. Use it. Be finished as soon as possible."

And it wasn't there.

And now it is...so I must go. :)

My PHP class starts later today, so I took some time this morning to install PHP and PHP-related Eclipse plugins. While I was nosing around the PHP installation, I noticed that I have Python installed (which I'd forgotten about a while back). So I decided to look for some Python plugins while I'm tossing a bunch of stuff into Eclipse.

I know, I know -- PHP? Well, yeah. I've only ever had one physically painful language experience, and it was VB, and it's years behind me. Java's been wonderful to me so far, as scary as that sounds, and I'm looking forward to trying something bizarre and interesting. :)

My current plan for MaLToL centers around a DB; the other components are intended to be a Java API, a Perl API, a Mason-based web gui, a Perl/Tk gui, and a Java gui.

Things are progressing reasonably. The API is OO, and currently has a single handler object keeps a list of the task objects (which are their own separate module that's not subclassed to the handler module). I'm prototyping the db in OOO's Base, because...well, because I'm lazy and I know Access. I'm taking a Java course and plan to start writing the basic parts of the Java API soon.

The only thing I haven't gotten any specific plans about yet is the web interface. I'm hoping to use Mason, but there's just nothing in my mind for what it should look like yet. Maybe I should kick some swatches around and see what I dream up.

I've had some actual development going on of late.

Since I've been spending a truckload of time at school (or waiting for the car to be repaired, damnable machine), I've had plenty of time to haul out my laptop and pound away at various things. One of those things is my Java class, and the other is MaLToL.

Discussions with the professor currently acting as my advisor have led to interesting results -- one of which is that I am now officially in the Baccalaureate program. Yes. I'm going for the full four years! I'm actually really excited about this, even though it means I'll be doing a lot of non-Perl things for a while for school. I'm hoping to do plenty of them on my own time or within some form of employment.

Progress is slow but steady. Trying to keep myself to writing tests first, and trying to keep myself writing only one or two at a time. (Of course, I don't really have any experience with extreme programming in a "formalized" environment -- whatever that is defined as -- so if I seem to have any misconceptions or a lack of understanding, feel free to clear it up for me. :) )

I haven't been doing a lot of work with MaLToL for a few reasons -- not the least of which has been a NYE party, about three different Giftmases to attend, and being vaguely dissatisfied with relationship issues. Nope. Probably the biggest factor of them all has been my job at L. L. Bean, because the four weeks of December were absolutely insane. Not only wall-to-wall calls, but constant wall-to-wall calls, and the facility was open until 3 some nights (or so I'm told). I managed to pick up a little extra time here and there, and my grades for the semester were A-, B+, and C -- all in all, the best semester I've ever had while holding down a nearly full-time job. Amazing, IMHO.

The issues are...well, they're resolving themselves over time. The Giftmases are all over (ooh, and I got retractable headphones and Serenity, oooh oooh oooh!) and the NYE party is as over as they get (which means we still have some cheese spreads and Hard Mike bottles in the fridge, but that's pretty much all), and of course December's over and gone -- so development has started again on MaLToL.

I think I made a mistake in some inheritance choices, but I've fixed that. The next mistake I hope I fixed (in the sense that I am not entirely sure it was a mistake yet) is that I was trying to create a method for an object that turned it into a different object; I'm thinking the smart move would be to create a method for a class that takes an object as an argument, then copies that object to the new object in the correct new class, then destroys the old object altogether. (Or, possibly, leaves the old object in existence. I'm debating about this, but haven't decided yet how it should be handled.)

I wrote in a comment elsewhere that I am resolving to have less monkey mind this year. Part of that is ignoring the nagging doubts that I keep having about discussing this in this journal or with other people. I can't get better at this in a complete vacuum, and I'm really, really bad at acting as though I've got multiple personality disorder. :\

I have more interesting classes written and some ideas kicking around for what to do with the resulting framework.

In discussing it with my mentor at school and a few other folks, I've heard suggestions that the framework and the application I'm building from it might actually serve as the useful core of my portfolio -- or, gasp, possibly a useful item for other people.

Whether that last magical possibility can come true remains to be seen. The work I'm doing on MaLToL right now is so scattershot (because my work schedule is currently 40+ hours a week and my presentations are happening this week) that I don't feel comfortable evaluating it in such a fashion. Next week will be more relaxed -- or at least involve less driving. :\

Still, it's good to know that I still understand Perl. I'd been worried, with the long time I'd had away from code, that I had somehow forgotten. It's like Splinter Cell -- I haven't played it in years, and the contrast between it and another game (say, Fable) is jarring -- but the old motion was so smooth and practiced that I fall into the groove readily.

Indeed, the groove of Perl is possessed of great funk. :D

I'm doing something wrong, so I can't install Data::UUID properly, but I'll have it licked soon. Meanwhile, I'm going to start writing the public methods for creating and accessing.

After years of this, he could walk across the accumulated pebbles.

Tonight...the first object constructor method for the project.

One pebble.

I can't seem to write test-first in the very beginning, so what I've done in the past is write a very, very small amount of code -- like, a single object specification with a single method -- and then write the tests I would have written for that, and then write some more, and then write code to make those tests pass, etc.

Fingers crossed.

I wasn't earning anything through Perl and I was having trouble learning anything about it. Which, considering my social issues, my anxiety problem, and my ADD, wasn't terribly surprising.

As far as the ADD goes...well, I'm coming to the end of my second-to-last semester at school. In May, I will finally graduate with my AD.

I'm not terribly well-credentialed in terms of past work or anything -- at least, nothing that I can honestly figure out a way to put my hands on -- and therefore have decided I'm going to build myself a Mason experiment, from scratch, with a few specific goals:

1. Use good coding practices during the entire project -- CVS, test-first, etc.
2. Use good design -- clean, straightforward, feature-balanced.
3. Interesting gewgaws.

You might ask me -- why Mason?

Well, first -- it's installed at PM. Second, it will stifle this incessant voice in my head that keeps hounding me that I bought a book on something, I better damned well use that something.

Third, of course...it does show up every now and then in job specifications... :\

I'm only vaguely worried about job possibilities -- May's a long way off, and I'm going to start as soon as finals are over.

*breathes out deeply*

It's good to be back here.