@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

dabeaz

@dabeaz@mastodon.social

Free-range computer scientist living in Evanston, Illinois. Former academic. I teach computer science courses, but you'll probably find me yapping on about bikes, dogs, and other random stuff here. I wrote the Python Cookbook, 3rd Ed (O'Reilly) and Python Distilled (Addison-Wesley). Teaching CSCI 1730, Design and Implementation of Programming Languages at Brown.edu in Fall 2023!

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brohrer, to random
@brohrer@recsys.social avatar

The worst thing about writing your own tools is sending frustrated bug reports to your own inbox.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@brohrer That sounds like something that could be a handy tool.

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Clearly I should stop digging.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@vy No, but I just looked it up and it seems interesting.

robpike, to random
@robpike@hachyderm.io avatar

Also, today's good code is likely tomorrow's bad code.

https://mastodon.social/@dabeaz/112507379669620422

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@robpike But maybe, just maybe, the bad code your wrote today is part of learning tomorrow's good code.

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

If you're not writing bad code, you're not learning anything.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@vy The people writing that code think that it's good.

dabeaz, (edited )
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Did I say that you should do be doing this with "production" at work? I did not. I said learning. As in learning something new. Which by definition means you're probably not that good at it yet (because if you were, what's the point?). If you're writing bad code at work, then that's just bad. Maybe you should spend more time learning....

Edit: ... and hopefully have your employer pay for it.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@gvwilson Do we expect doctors to be learning a new surgical procedure while they are doing the same surgical procedure on someone? We do not.

Yes, musicians rehearse. And it might sound bad at first. Because they're learning.

Not sure where you're getting this "unpaid" part of it. I'm talking about learning. When you're learning something, you're going to be bad at it at first. That's all I'm talking about.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@glitzersachen @gvwilson What I'm saying is that learning probably should be separate from "production" whatever that might mean in the context of work. You're not going to go tinker with production on some kind of experimental learning project (nor would most employers want you to).

On the other hand, there's basic competence called being "good enough" to do your job. That's fine. But if you're telling me that being bad at that is somehow "learning", then I'm going to disagree.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@bignose My comment on "spending more time learning" did not specify where. If you're employer won't support it, then yeah, that's a bad employer.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@onelson Nah, you're just good enough. Which is good.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@PeterLudemann Reflection upon past mistakes is almost certainly part of learning. But, it assumes mistakes. If you never make mistakes at all, maybe that's admirable, but it doesn't sound like much growth going on either.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@vy Well, at least it's formatted correctly.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@bignose I think part of the problem is that I'm not thinking about work at all. And especially not what I would call job-related "training."

What I am thinking about is the fact that my time on this fine planet is measured in decades and that over that time, I might not want to do the same thing over and over again. I might want to improve my skills by challenging myself with things I'm curious about, but not so good at (yet). That's on me.

brianokken, to random
@brianokken@fosstodon.org avatar

We spread garden compost last year, and now these little guys are growing all over the garden. So cute. Anyone know what variety they are?

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@brianokken This seems like it could be a job for AI (sic).

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@brianokken @mistersql In the interest of full disclosure, my comment was partly inspired by some thing I recently saw about AI misidentifying deadly mushrooms as edible.

AlSweigart, (edited ) to random
@AlSweigart@mastodon.social avatar

Hey Pythonistas, take a look at this documentation for the split() method:

split(self, /, sep=None, maxsplit=-1)

Without looking it up, do you know what the / means?

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@AlSweigart I'd sometimes get asked about it when seeing help messages for built-in functions such as abs(). For example:

abs(x, /)
Return the absolute value of the argument.

Saying that it's there to keep the ) from falling over does not qualify as a helpful answer.

jasongorman, to random
@jasongorman@mastodon.cloud avatar

If you had 10 minutes to explain to a group of programmers who are new to software development how to do it better, what would you tell/show them?

What's the least a dev can know that would make the biggest difference?

What are the ABCs of software development?

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@jasongorman If you're not having at least a little bit of fun, you're doing it wrong.

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

The end of an era tomorrow. Every year, the kids' K-8 school has had every grade from 1st grade up run a 5K at the end of the year. I'm no runner, but so far as I can tell, I might be the only parent to have run/walked it every year for 10 years in a row. Youngest kid graduates out next week so that's it!

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Clearly the best way to handle my last school 5K walk was to walk to the 5K walk. So, a nice send-off to the last 10 years by actually walking an 11K. ;-).

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

As far as I can tell, the primary use of RAII is to sound smart.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@vy @PeterLudemann Aren't you worried about what others might think?

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@vy @PeterLudemann But aren't you worried about preserving semicommutative transitivity?

dabeaz, to random
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

Trying to convince the kid to do summer community band with me. Aside from the big hurdle of "playing with a bunch of olds", I contend that community band is the way to get good.

We'll probably play 20+ songs. Real arrangements. Stuff they'd play in the top HS band. You'd probably only get 1-2 rehearsals per song--tons of sight reading. People are there to play and have fun. So, it's totally chill, not competitive. Get to be out in the community. And it's free. Unlike band camp.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

So, I managed to get the kid to go to community band rehearsal last night. Afterwards, looking exhausted, he says "we rarely make it through a single song during rehearsal at school." Last night: 11 songs. Playing concert Monday.

Better buckle your seat-belt my friend because I looked at the calendar and we're playing 30 different songs in 5 concerts over the next two months.

Pro tip for kids who want a workout: Community band, not pricey band camp.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@jmsdnns Community band is often a bit raw and unpolished, but people are there to play and not waste time. How do you get good at something? Do it. I think we played more songs last night than he played in the entirety of the school year.

dabeaz,
@dabeaz@mastodon.social avatar

@jmsdnns Both of us on trombone. Although he's playing bass trombone.

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