In the last post, we had begun streamlining novice Ned’s problem. Our current solution has some problems. The most annoying is the need to type a password for each server that we are going to write to. High-level Description We are using scp to do the copy, so the login is controlled by the SSH… Read More »
In the last post, we spent a small amount of time understanding a problem faced by our hypothetical novice programmer, Ned. As a reminder, let’s revisit Novice Ned’s breakdown of the problem. Launch FTP Connect to the host Log in with the foobar user and password Change to the appropriate remote directory Put each of… Read More »
In an earlier entry, I covered the first thing a programming novice needs to know: how to break down a problem. A short while later, I was talking with a guy at our local Perl user group and he presented me with an actual novice problem he was fighting. After some thought, I realized that… Read More »
The first skill a new programmer must learn is not what most people expect. It is not learning a programming language. It has nothing to do with algorithms or data structures. The first thing a new programmer must learn is how to identify a small piece of a problem. Solving the Big Problems Most problems… Read More »