It's shorthand. You have to understand the equation and what
   it's doing in order to interpret it's meaning. 0ewfj that's why
   I HATE math and love programming. Programming you have to SPELL
   EVERYTHING OUT SPECIFICALLY. Math just uses a shitload of
   shortcuts and removes variables it doesn't need anymore.
   Therefore, everybody thinks E=Mc2 is the formula but it's not
   the formula because Math wants everything elegant. Screw
   elegant. I'll take Spaghetti code anyday and have all variables
   and constants declared and available within the code. == I swear
   some of this shit in math is just Job Security for
   mathematicians. == Never mastered Python, just basic hacking
   when I want it to do something different. I can usually hack
   through most code of any language if I want to change something
   and I'm lazy, so I rarely write anything from scratch anymore.
   Most code is readable like English. Terse functional programming
   can be a little tricky to read unless I analogize it to Excel
   formulas, then I'm ok. But the rest, it's just follow along. ==
   hahah that's for sure. I need to stick something in those
   functions and follow it along. Functions referring to functions
   that refer to functions after a while makes one's head spin. I
   stick a red ball in it and watch it move. "Ok, let's make x
   "ShitBrick". Then I follow the ShitBrick around and see what it
   does. == It's strange that I 99% understand you. Never took much
   in the way of programming classes. I never spoke the language.
   But I guess when you're exposed to consistent terminology, after
   a while it's mostly legible tongue emoticon == These days? I
   just use whatever I need to get something done. If I do anything
   close to programming now, I'll do it in a series of spreadsheets
   to get the answers I need, maybe some VBA if I must. When I do
   write code, I'm explicit with everything. I cut my teeth on
   1980s BASIC so everything is spelled out, but very flexible on a
   whim, and it's the exact kind of code that elegant programming
   wants to get rid of. I mean, I've done other super simple stuff
   like PHP at length but I don't do much real programming now.
   Even when I did, it was a supplement - like Scripting moreso
   than a start-to-finish code-only production. = There's nothing
   special about vba. You can learn it as you go along. I did. I
   got this temp job. "Do you know Excel?" I said Yes. I never
   heard of it before but I knew I could learn anything if I want
   to. It was copying and pasting. Got boring. Started recording
   macros. Jumped into the code. Figured out how to make it do what
   I wanted. Next thing I know, I've taken over this whole big
   experimental project and it was successful. [I was working for
   Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals]. Anyway, I got bored with it.
   Wanted to leave. Cut my hours down to 4hrs a day 'cause I'd not
   only automated everything tey asked me to do, but had it to much
   more. So they got nervous. Hired me at $64,000/yr as a "Systems
   Analyst II". Did it for a few years. Made some very complicated
   stuff using Excel and VBA. Loved it. That was long ago tho'
   smile emoticon But I've done HTML, CSS, a little bit of perl...
   PHP - whatever's handy. I remember messing around with some
   Python code about a year ago to make a thing happen. Seems like
   a good thing to work within. Little bit of Ruby... little bit of
   Lua. hacked a TINY bit of Java but just iddn't care much for it.
   So it's whatever I need at the time. == Well, I never got into
   "best language" wars. I know a bit of each of them. Once a month
   I download a compiler for a language I don't know and I try to
   challenge myself to make it do something. My favorite a few
   months back was Erlang. That was a pretty powerful language.
   Also mastered the basis of using and navigating emacs - classic
   programmers interface from days of yore. It's kind of a hobby. I
   don't need to be fluent in any language but I like having a
   passing familiarity with it so I can read it. == Oh! A year ago
   it was Brainfuck. Not only brainfuck but a few variations of it,
   including two dimensional brainfuck variations and a 3D one. I
   don't know why I do it really. Oh and LISP... I got lisp to do
   something. ==   Oh that's just the operator. The wikipedia page
   explains how it works. Most computer languages have been turing
   complete for a very long time, even the ancient ones. Turing
   completeness isn't really that difficult to achieve. Some things
   aren't turing complete but close. You have "finite automata"
   like regex and things like that that can do a lot but not
   complete. == There's worse out there. BF started a bit of a
   revolution in unnecessarily terse, unreadable code, probably a
   backlash to the push for elegance and readability and such ...
   or just brain games. smile emoticon One of my favorite languages
   to write in (well, I cheated by creating the code in Excel
   because it's easier to do structured modifications with text and
   numbers in it)... was the language used do make Zork style
   games. I did this last year over a long weekend. It's incomplete
   as a game (no fun) but it's a complete shell of a system. == The
   hardest part was visually comparing the greyhound bus routes and
   figuring out what was north, south, etc by eye. I wanted to make
   the biggest map for any game, even if there was nothing but
   navigation. I was satisfied. You can get to anywhere from
   anywhere in the real US and Canada but navigating is designed to
   be difficult on purpose. == You get plopped randomly somewhere
   in the US and canada. You have to type in a direction. north,
   south, southwest, sws (southwestsouth) stuff like that. That's
   about it. You take what you see as possible direction to go in,
   and you do the opposite to get there. == I was going to add
   people. enemies. things to do. hunger. quests and shit but the
   map took all my human energy focus and resolve... nearly crashed
   my computer trying to compile the thing. WAAAAAY too big. == I
   never finished making all the connections though. There's at
   least one WAY to get from one place to another I *think* but
   there were just too many connections between nodes for the
   compiler to go any higher. I have a habit of maxing out systems
   and breaking them. Then I know my limits smile emoticon == Yeah
   - some ppl call it "nodes and edges". I usually just call it
   "rooms and hallways" - same thing. ==