So one of my resolutions this year was to attempt to learn four new programming languages by the 4th of July. I started this yesterday with visiting http://moonscript.org/ and http://www.lua.org/ . Yes those are two different websites for two different programming languages and yet at the same time, they pretty much work as one programming language. You can't run one without the other. If you are wondering how this is possible. you should consider the face that most websites now are run with 3-5 programming languages (HTML/HTML5, CSS/CSS3, SQL, Visual Basic, and JavaScript, most common are italicized).
I should take back a previous statement. I said in the previous paragraph that you can't run one without the other. But in all reality you don't need MoonScript to run Lua or vice versa. I've learned that you can Lua without any problems, but your code gets sloppy and long. With MoonScript, your code becomes condensed and simplified, much like what CSS/CSS3 does to HTML. Less code and better looking code.
I haven't written any good code yet outside Hello, World! and some simple I/O but when I get that done I will post it here!
Moving on to my next subject - Snow Days and Math!
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love math! And not just algebra and calculus. No, I'm a huge follower of Set Theory and Symbolic Logic. I took Math 176 (Computing Math) at the University of Idaho, and to be honest, I didn't appreciate it at the time. I've referred to that textbook (written by the professor of course) more times than any other textbook I kept from my college years.
But it was in this course that I learned Set Theory and Symbolic Logic. ST was great for me because it was the crash course into AND/OR logic and basically the foundation for what I program with. Anyone familiar with SQL can relate to this! For an outline of ST, look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory . The basic concepts of Union (OR) and Intersection (AND) have to this day influenced just about every decision I've made. And to anyone who wants to be a programmer some day, you will have a hard time relating with your coworkers if you can't understand ST since it is the intro to Symbolic Logic. For those of you who don't know what SL is, go here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_logic . Why do you need to SL? Two words - Alan Turing. The godfather of computing theories and the Turing machine.
So where am I taking this you might be wondering now? Well the greater Portland and Vancouver area had a weather advisory that it would be snowing yesterday and today. Now for anyone who doesn't know what snow in this area is like, consider this - schools get cancelled when 3/4 of a inch falls. People here just don't know how to drive in snow. Rain - no problem. Snow - big problem. So with the anticipation of snow falling, I decided to go back and review SL and ST in hopes that it would help me with my programming that I might get to do from home. So I read several chapters from my textbook, took some notes, did a few questions and made my todo list for today in hopes that I would be working from home. Wake up this morning, and it looks like someone put powdered sugar on the roads so in the office I go. Shucks! But in the first 45 minutes I worked this morning, I completed 2 projects working with SQL and will finish a third in the next hour, pending test results. Of course, I'v had two additional projects dumped on me since I got in, but go figure. Projects fall on me like snow falls on a ski resort....maybe I should move up to Mt. Hood and get a few snow days in....
