Having the Ins and Outs but not Getting it

Sometimes I hate programming. It always seems like there’s an easier way to do things. I guess life is that way as well. There’s always got to be a shortcut or an avenue to make things quicker, right?!? Today I gave in and wrote a program: a program to help me program. The newest version of KingQuest is upgrading and referencing 35 different bibliographic types instead of the 6 we had before. Also, each of the types contains an average of 30 different fields where the old ones held around 12 each. So I wrote this program that let me put in a generated text sequence and it designed my code for me which I then pasted into the constructor. It’s pretty messed up how much of the project was that type of scripting.

I’ve now completed all of the input and deleting functions for the program, but haven’t yet designed the functionality to get information out of it. Why is that all I’m seeing in life? There are so many instances I’ve seen this week with people’s reactions to stuff I talk about where I leave saying “they know the details, they just don’t get it.” When I talk about programming, I tell them what it does and how it’ll be used and they know the details but don’t get why it’s such a useful tool or why a certain feature is in there. Oh well, it’s something I can’t escape.

Worse than seeing it in others, however, is seeing it in myself. There’s so much that I “know” but just don’t “get.” I know the mechanics of photography and the mechanics of Adobe Photoshop; that doesn’t make me a great photographer or a great designer though. I can fake my way through a lot, but I still see areas where I’m stuck asking: “shouldn’t there be more to this?” Oh well, time to ignore the rest of the world and try to finish this project! (I know, I’m obsessive — but it gets things done if I only do it occasionally).