The Lunatic Wants a Bath

Today, Mr. Arkin talked to us about programming success. The three steps towards success are:

1. reading the program code with precision, unlike how you usually read text - skipping words, filling them in yourself, etc.
2. being able to know the outcome of the program by reading the code
3. visualizing the locations in memory in a program (the variables that create a named storage in RAM)

I think number 2 is definitely really helpful, because if you can trace any program's code, than you can quickly and easily figure out if there are any problems with it, and how to solve the problem.

Now if you're wondering what all that has to do with a lunatic and a bath... Mr. Arkin reminded us that programming and the programming language is very literal. We need to be able to give clear, literal instructions, as if to a non-programmer. He gave an example: Before we found out that there is water on the moon, a lunatic — from Luna (the moon) *coughpuncough* — comes to Earth and finds out that there is water on earth. He wants to take a bath. Now direct him from the dining room to the bathroom, and instruct him on how to take a bath.

I once did a similar activity: instruct someone on how to tie shoelaces. The key to success in both cases is being literal — if someone does not know something, they are unable to take any instructions figuratively and automatically understand. Now I'd really like to take the challenge and write up a set of instructions, but maybe later as I have other things to do tonight.

So all in all, today was a cool day, and a nice class. Tomorrow is Girls About Girls, a sleepover that is being held at my school for all the girls. It'll be a great chance to hang out with friends; that's mainly why I'm going actually. Also, tomorrow is FRIDAY! Wow, this week sure flew by fast...

When Mr. Arkin first mentioned lunatics, literally the first thing that popped into my d was Luna. You know... Luna Lovegood? Harry Potter? Hermione Granger? Draco Malfoy? Yup. If you haven't heard already, I am a HUGE HP fan, and I'm dying to see the new Deathly Hallows movie. Definitely can't wait!

DRAMIONE <3