Ohhhh!!!! DENIED!!!

Donald Knuth (or the Don* of this blog's title), says flat-out in the introduction to "The Art of Computer Programming" that you should have already written and tested 4 programs before you start the book. So, I guess I'll have to do just that.

If I have to pick a language to program in (and yes, I know that the Don* refers to a made-up code in his book, but I've got to pick up something real to do the 4 prescribed "write-n-test" tasks with), then it's got to be Java. I know of it. I worked with it often when I worked with a website design company. I have an Android smartphone, and I'd like to develop apps for that platfrom sometime down the road. So, Java it is.

I've been dicking around with Greenfoot (which is recommended by Sun Microsystems as the jumping off point for people with no experience in learning programming to mess around with to _start_ learning about programming), but here's the thing . . . I'm not into whole "wombat" thing. I think I prefer the "hello world" route.

Anyway, Sun also says that Greenfoot is a good beginning for people _who don't have an interest in programming_. Well, now, that's not me. And I'm not gonna watch those damned wombats running circuits again. So, let's jump right into BlueJ, shall we?

Don* Grade Geek? What the hell does that mean?

Well, it's better than Knuth Grade Geek, isn't it?

I want to be a major geek. Like if-I-choose-the-dark-side-you-better-call-Luke geek. I'm more or less a mechanic in my daylight life, but at night I eat and breathe "geek." I love video games, I read comic books, and when I can't relax I open up a book on the history of the steam engine, or just as likely I'll be watching Diggnation.

So, I fit something like the standard m.o.. But I've been messing around with programming on-and-off (mostly off) since high school, and now I'm 26 and I'm still reading technology blogs and thinking how cool guys like Kevin Rose and Matt Dorey are, when I don't really grasp a thing about programming.

So, I aspire to be a Don* Grade Geek.

"Don*" means "Donald Knuth," as in the guy who wrote "The Art of Computer Programming." That's the 4 volume(and running) book of which Bill Gates said "You should definitely send me a résumé if you can read the whole thing."

The plan is to get through the whole book, with a little help from my friends, of course. And yours, perhaps. So, let's get started.