Humor: The Evolution of a Programmer

[Bill Sconce]

Price, Erik writes:

>  
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Bill Sconce [mailto:sconce at in-spec-inc.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 10:20 AM
>> To: discuss at gnhlug.org
>> Subject: Re: Humor: The Evolution of a Programmer 
>> 
>  
> 
>> Extra credit, what will the following do (if you've just
>> stepped through the statements above)?  
>> 
>> >>> print somefile
> 
> I may be mistaken, but doesn't it print the address of the
> object "somefile"?
 

Well, er, yes.  And something else, which was the actual
point....  pretty much unrelated...  no big deal.

However, it may be worth mentioning that it's The Python Way
to, whenever possible, not guess, but to Just Try It.  Much
of the language's design is directed at making this not only
possible, but easy. 

It is OFTEN easier in Python to try it than to guess.
(Also, easier to try it than to RTFM...  :) 

At least that's how _I_ develop Python programs.  85% trying
things, 75% of which get thrown away, all of which takes
15% of the time "real coding" would have taken, and yielding
5% of the errors I'd get in other languages.  95% of the errors
get thrown away with the 75% of the things tried. 

(And, of course, 0% of the really tough errors, like memory
leaks or wild pointers, which you can't get even if you
Really Try.  :) 

No criticism intended;  partly tongue in cheek.  Partly not... 

Bill