janewilliams20 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
janewilliams20) wrote2008-03-05 01:18 pm
janewilliams20) wrote2008-03-05 01:18 pm
VB is fun, commuting is not, plus books
I'm on a training course most of this week, in Holborn. Visual Basic .Net - should bring my web skills up to date, we hope. .Net is the new way ahead....
It's a weird mixture of nostalgia and the latest thing. Basic - I last used that on a BBC B, or was it my Amstrad 464? Over 20 years ago, anyway. And some bits of the language are still the same. For/next loops? One line per statement, with continuation markers? There was even a goto label mentioned, though quickly dismissed as bad practice.
Almost everyone else here has done some sort of VB before: I'm the only one whose experience is "saw some once". I suspect in fact this is an advantage, I'm not being confused by earlier versions.
Object orientation is fun - I'd touched on it with Javascript and the web page object model, but what I'm really drawing on here is the time I spent with VRML. That did inheritance, public and private variables, exposed parameters, all sorts. I'm using the same basic concepts here, and they're not new to me.
This is in-depth fun that I haven't had for ages. An hour or so studying call by reference/call by value, stacks, pointers..... mmmmm! You know that computer science degree I thought I'd never use anything from again? Yes. All good revision. Now we're on to nested exception handling. Yes, this proves it. I'm loving it. I'm a geek.
The 7:55 Biggleswade to Kings Cross (no stops) is good. The 20 min walk to the course is good. But last night I got back to the station to find that the power lines were down just south of Biggleswade and no trains were going north for at least an hour. Buses, yes.... I'd been hoping to get back in time to hit the house, bounce, and take my new sword backswording. I was already pushing it - now, not a hope. So I looked at the queues, left the station, and followed my early childhood training. If stuck in town with nothing to do, go to the library.
The British Library, a few hundred yards past St Pancras, is a fascinating and dangerous place: and Tuesday is late night opening. I didn't fancy the special exhibitions or lectures, but found a wonderful virtual book to play with: you touch the pages to turn them, you can zoom, you get commentary on whatever you're looking at.... and all this on C13 and C15 illuminated manuscripts. You are not allowed to squeal excitedly in the British Library.... The shop is the dangerous bit. I'd promised myself some Betjeman since we went through St Pancras on the way to Switzerland. Choice of four collections. A glossed version of Beowulf: yes, in theory one can have "too many" versions of Beowulf, but it's not much of a theory. The cash desk had some tiny books that concentrate on one small area: the one that acquired me was the Magna Carta. Reproduction, translation, and commentary. All fascinating stuff, maybe it'll get its own post some time. I read it in the library cafe - prices as bad as a service station, but nicer surroundings. You're encouraged to sit there and read for hours, no need to stretch the coffee (or Diet Coke).
And home, gently, on a very slow train, reading Betjeman.
Tonight I get to meet Rob and Nick in a pub and catch up on gossip. And I'm learning about inheritance, overriding properties, and shadowing. Life is good.
It's a weird mixture of nostalgia and the latest thing. Basic - I last used that on a BBC B, or was it my Amstrad 464? Over 20 years ago, anyway. And some bits of the language are still the same. For/next loops? One line per statement, with continuation markers? There was even a goto label mentioned, though quickly dismissed as bad practice.
Almost everyone else here has done some sort of VB before: I'm the only one whose experience is "saw some once". I suspect in fact this is an advantage, I'm not being confused by earlier versions.
Object orientation is fun - I'd touched on it with Javascript and the web page object model, but what I'm really drawing on here is the time I spent with VRML. That did inheritance, public and private variables, exposed parameters, all sorts. I'm using the same basic concepts here, and they're not new to me.
This is in-depth fun that I haven't had for ages. An hour or so studying call by reference/call by value, stacks, pointers..... mmmmm! You know that computer science degree I thought I'd never use anything from again? Yes. All good revision. Now we're on to nested exception handling. Yes, this proves it. I'm loving it. I'm a geek.
The 7:55 Biggleswade to Kings Cross (no stops) is good. The 20 min walk to the course is good. But last night I got back to the station to find that the power lines were down just south of Biggleswade and no trains were going north for at least an hour. Buses, yes.... I'd been hoping to get back in time to hit the house, bounce, and take my new sword backswording. I was already pushing it - now, not a hope. So I looked at the queues, left the station, and followed my early childhood training. If stuck in town with nothing to do, go to the library.
The British Library, a few hundred yards past St Pancras, is a fascinating and dangerous place: and Tuesday is late night opening. I didn't fancy the special exhibitions or lectures, but found a wonderful virtual book to play with: you touch the pages to turn them, you can zoom, you get commentary on whatever you're looking at.... and all this on C13 and C15 illuminated manuscripts. You are not allowed to squeal excitedly in the British Library.... The shop is the dangerous bit. I'd promised myself some Betjeman since we went through St Pancras on the way to Switzerland. Choice of four collections. A glossed version of Beowulf: yes, in theory one can have "too many" versions of Beowulf, but it's not much of a theory. The cash desk had some tiny books that concentrate on one small area: the one that acquired me was the Magna Carta. Reproduction, translation, and commentary. All fascinating stuff, maybe it'll get its own post some time. I read it in the library cafe - prices as bad as a service station, but nicer surroundings. You're encouraged to sit there and read for hours, no need to stretch the coffee (or Diet Coke).
And home, gently, on a very slow train, reading Betjeman.
Tonight I get to meet Rob and Nick in a pub and catch up on gossip. And I'm learning about inheritance, overriding properties, and shadowing. Life is good.