The Next Step

The two year experiment is over.

Did I learn C?

I think so. Maybe. It's complicated. In hindsight it was foolish to set out learning C. I should have started out simply learning to program with C as the medium for doing so. I spent way too much time getting involved in the particulars of C programming. I don't regret doing so, but I've found that programming is not a matter of language only.

Did I learn to program?

Yes, but I have a long way still to go. I'm at a point where the language isn't in my way anymore. Any language. For example, I'm currently struggling with finding a way to talk to my Arduino over the serial port using C. There's already a Python module for doing this that knocks out the hard part of that process in a few lines. I want to do it in C because I want to learn the internals, but it's not C that's giving me fits - it's the UNIX API for serial communication, termios. It's just a matter of reading the documentation and tutorials while bringing it all home with some test programs. Again, it's not the language I struggle with, it's reading other people's code and plowing through documentation. I have a feeling like that struggle is what programmers at any level do a lot of!

I have a dozen projects to tackle, two dozen if I count non-programming projects.

To that end I've started a new online journal at www.chrisheydrick.com so that I can have a place to document all of my hobbies. That's where I'll be from now on. I've been a Blogger user since before it was bought out by Google. I'm going to try Wordpress out for a while just for a change of pace. I might be back, who knows.