2019-08-23 - NCurses and internet overload
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This evening i have looked around a bit for the possibilities of
using ncurses to program a little game. Seems that could be a fun
activity to do. I think it might be interesting to dabble a bit on
creating a simple text-mode rpg-like game.
Although, maybe it is good to play some cli games first to get a
bit of a feeling for them. Hmmm, it has been a while since i played
any MUD or a roguelike... Hmm... Gonna do that now i think :D
So much for writing a phlog... You know... this is the thing with
the www, there's so much to find, that you get an overload of
ideas, and i end up doing nothing but browsing. Bah.. goodbye
creativity.
Being able to search answers instantly to any question is a bit too
much for me really. And it kills creativity and inventiveness. I
think there is something really nice about not knowing stuff.
I remember wanting to know something specific about programming
when i was a kid, and i would have to wait until i was able to get
to the library (like once a week). The local library would then
have a very limited collection of books related to programming, so
if you were lucky you could find something remotely related to the
topic you were interested in.
So you would end up trying to solve any programming puzzles slowly,
by trial and error. Or by talking to some friends about it, or by
reading some manual for the n-th time. And eventually after lots
of trying, thinking and reading you'd find a way to do the thing
you wanted.
Perhaps not in the most elegant or the most perfect way, but that
was not important. You solved something on your own, and that was
nice.
Nowadays you just type your question in google and you find ten
people on stackoverflow already solved your problem in a much
better way than you could have ever imagined yourself... Oh and on
top of that, there's also five libraries already available who do
this exact thing you're trying to build.
So you end up using other peoples ideas, instead of being creative
yourself. And that's a pity... Well, it's perhaps not a pity if
you program as a job and need to create programs quickly. But it is
a pity if you're a (really) casual programmer, who just likes to
learn little things in a slow pace, and create simple creative
programs.
You know, i want to program as if i'm 11-years old again. Just
program for the sake of programming itself. Having a sense of
wonder how and why things work. Not thinking about efficiency, or
optimizing or code-correctness or models. And while not being
hindered by knowing anything, enjoying myself with finding out
silly ways to solve little things, in order to draw some circles on
the screen, or move a little ascii guy around. And imagine... just
imagine about all the things you could do. Just on my own, instead
of looking them up on the web.
