Well think about that concept for a second. What was the purpose? Did it teach kids how to paint? Or did it just make them feel good about themselves. Here they were, artists, creating this work of art that was going to make mom and dad so proud. It would be the talk of everyone that visited. "oooh look at that, did you do that? Wow that sure is nice!" ( if somebody talked like that to me nowadays I would be inclined to punch them in the throat ) But the point is they felt good because it was so easy to do and it far surpassed their usual coloring book art.

  But now what if we apply this concept to programming. All over the web there are 'open-source' applications. People code a program, and distribute the source code for all to see and 'learn' from and improve upon. In fact you'll see some source for a 'mug bot' here at xi0n. But what does this do for people? It's almost like a paint by number in the way that it lays it all out for a person. Showing them a final product, so they can replicate it. But do they learn? Not as much as they could. Why? Because it is almost overwhelming trying to trace each routine, and figure out what each function is and what it does. Granted it may be heavily commented so that its all explained, but its just not a practical way of learning. And so they end up just copying it line for line.

Take mogbutt for instance, some of you may have seen what appears to be the exact same mug bot with a different name and maybe a little different GUI, but were there any real changes? Any creative 'improvements'?...(Well I cant help but think that annoying porno ad mug that pops in and out may have been derived from mogbutt but I don't want to entertain that thought so lets move on.)  Basically that scenario would relate to a 'lets show mommy' project.

  What then is the best way to teach someone? pfff...how should I know?  I'm not writing this to teach...this is just me complaining. Cuz its fun...

  What I 'know' ( if anyone really 'knows' anything ), is based on whatever mistakes I've made or witnessed really. But what I've found is that instead of following the crowd trying to get them to show you what they did so that you can do it too, you can get farther by starting out with simple things. Not even full programs really, just learning the controls better and learning what they are capable of. Because this is like acquiring more colors on your painting palette. The more colors you have the more possibilities you have as far as what to paint. ( ...yes yes I know that real art doesn't rely on colors as much as the technique but if your dwelling on that then your taking this metaphor way too literally )

  If you just want to show off your work, then by all means grab a 'code by number' and copy away. Its not really a very good way of making a name but hey...whatever flies your kite I guess.

  So many people go out and create a little paint program, or a wav or mp3 player. Is there a shortage of these that I wasn't aware of?  Winamp is freeware even...so there goes the 'costs too much' theory. This would be an example of trying to impress by doing something thought to be hard and yet you can find open source to it almost anywhere.

  However if you want to actually 'know' something and want to enjoy coding rather then the name you might be able to make for yourself, take the time to learn it. Show patience and even more importantly exercise some creativity. The canvas is blank and theres no limits...

  Sure you can still improve upon other programs. But the advancement of technology is thinking outside of the box.  Why does everyone want to be the same? Why do we keep trying to 'fit in' by doing the same things? Gaining acceptance is a load of crap. Each one of us is different...get used to it.

  So basically to sum it all up...don't jump into things in fear that that you will get left behind if you don't. Stop worrying about the other people. Just take the time to 'gather up your colors', and paint your own picture. If its a 'painting' that your happy with then no doubt its something that others will appreciate as well. Maybe it's a program you always thought would be handy. Often times there's others who wanted the same thing but have no means of making such a program.

  Programs can be extremely simple, but oh so useful.  Perhaps a program that renames all the MP3's in a certain folder to use a certain filename format...some people put the artist in parenthesis and then the song after that some don't, why cant they all be the same so my list looks better etc... A project like that could help you better learn string manipulation, and API programming. It wouldn't take long and yet would probably be quite useful on the MP3 circuit.

  Just stop making programs that are readily available to everyone!  If I see one more painting of some evening sunset farm scene with a bunch of pheasants or ducks flying over it I swear I'm gonna flip out and start....er...nevermind.

Have a nice day...

- suprize

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