Developers of Neo Ports Panager
Terry M. Poulin
I started teaching myself C++ Programming around 2005 on a Windows XP computer. I had used PC's since my Brothers Tandy 1000 running MS-DOS when I was a child but I didn't really get into computers after 2000/2001 when we got our first Pentium PC running Windows 98.
I honestly have no idea why I took up programming, I guess it was to try and learn computers at a deeper level the regular users. A few months later a friend introduced me to a document written by Eric S. Raymond and the Unix and Internet Fundimentals HOWTO blasted my interest out of the water. Soon I was on the search for an Open Source UNIX like OS to experiment with and learn from. My course eventually led me to FreeBSD which now serves as my primay development platform.
I have studied many languages in various degrees of fluency: C++, Perl, Java, C, BourneShell, Python, Ruby, (X)HTML, and CSS. I am also teacing myself to read and write German. Plus I have plans to study Javascript, Ada, and Scheme in the future; I have alos dabbled in PHP and MySQL among other things. I however have never had any formal education in computers or programming, I am essentially self educated on all things computer related.
On software design
I think good software should have three qualities- Ease of Use
- Don't make things harder then they are
- No GOD complexes
- The software should never assume all of its users will be complete assholes. *cough* Windows XP *cough*.
- Assist the heavy user
- Personally I have more respect for programs that understand that
users will use the program a lot and help them out. Although
I think perl takes this idea to an extreme, Perl is also one of
those languages that just won't die. All to often you meet a
program that waters things down until it is not powerful enough to
be flexible!
The various Unix programs combined with pipes make for an impressively powerful toolset for those that use the shell often, allowing the programs to transcend their original purpose when you need a helping hand.
Then again there are also some programs that go totally mental and seem as if the designer can't imagine that we have any thing better to do then devote our lives to running their software 24/7. *cough realplayer on *cough* windows *cough*.
