Structure is nothing if it is all you got. Skeletons spook people if they try to walk around on their own. I really wonder why XML does not.

Erik Naggum

Categorized in : People Trying Skeletons

We have no mom-and-pop oil rigs in Norway. by Erik Naggum

We have no mom-and-pop oil rigs in Norway.

norway oil mom

People search for the meaning of life, but this is the easy question: we are born into a world that presents us with many millenia of collected knowledge and information, and all our predecessors ask of us is that we not waste our brief life ignoring the past only to rediscover or reinvent its lessons badly.

meaning-of-life people past

The very word "exist" derives from "to step forth, to stand out". by Erik Naggum

The very word "exist" derives from "to step forth, to stand out".

standing-out steps

If you want to know why Lisp doesn't win around you, find a mirro... by Erik Naggum

If you want to know why Lisp doesn't win around you, find a mirror.

mirrors winning want

In C++, reinvention is its own reward. by Erik Naggum

In C++, reinvention is its own reward.

reinvention rewards

C++ is a language strongly optimized for liars and people who go... by Erik Naggum

C++ is a language strongly optimized for liars and people who go by guesswork and ignorance.

ignorance liars people

The currency in the developer community is enthusiasm. by Erik Naggum

The currency in the developer community is enthusiasm.

currency community enthusiasm

A system needs to be alive and workable even when other people than the first enthusiasts start using it. Reinvention and revolution are enthusiast stuff. Invention and evolution are engineering.

engineering people needs

You become a serious programmer by going through a stage where you are fully aware of the degree to which you know the specification, meaning both the explicit and the tacit specification of your language and of your problem. "Hey, it works most of the time" is the very antithesis of a serious programmer, and certain languages can only support code like that.

hey degrees support

Counting lines is probably a good idea if you want to print it out and are short on paper, but I fail to see the purpose otherwise.

purpose paper ideas

The Internet will not become a money machine until the banking industry figures out how to transfer money for free so you can charge USD 0.005 (half a cent) for some simple service like, say, reading a newspaper article you have searched for. With today's payment system, the cost of the transfer of the funds completely dwarf the cost of the service paid for. ... This situation, however, is what acutely prevents the Internet from taking off as a network for paid services.

dwarves reading simple

When all actions are used for feedback, the consequence of making mistakes will be a corrective and appropriate response, because everything everybody does matters. ... The more selective you are in the feedback you accept, the more insane your reasoning will become as you will necessarily reject corrective feedback that would have led to better reasoning.

insane doe mistake

Just getting something to work usually means writing reams of code fast, like a Stephen King novel, but making it maintainable and high-quality code that really expresses the ideas well, is like writing poetry. Art is taking away.

kings writing art

Very clever implementation techniques are required to implement this insanity correctly and usefully, not to mention that code written with this feature used and abused east and west is exceptionally exciting to debug.

used-and-abused clever insanity

Those who write software only for pay should go hurt some other f... by Erik Naggum

Those who write software only for pay should go hurt some other field.

hurt writing pay

I have long since given up dealing with people who hold idiotic opinions as if they had arrived at them through thinking about them.

long people thinking

Gotos aren't damnable to begin with. If you aren't smart enough to distinguish what's bad about some gotos from all gotos, goto hell.

hell smart enough

Life is too long to know C++ well. by Erik Naggum

Life is too long to know C++ well.

wells life-is long

The aspects you are willing to ignore are more important than the... by Erik Naggum

The aspects you are willing to ignore are more important than the aspects you are willing to accept.

aspect accepting important

I have argued that a religion or a philosophy cannot speak about facts of the world - if it does, it is now or will eventually be wrong - but it can and should speak about the relevance and ranking of facts and observations.

doe philosophy world