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When I was 17 (about ~10 years ago) I was hospitalized for a whole month. All I had was my linux laptop without any games (well, I did have Battle for Wesnoth w
by Morgawr 10y ago
When I was 17 (about ~10 years ago) I was hospitalized for a whole month. All I had was my linux laptop without any games (well, I did have Battle for Wesnoth which was great) and no internet connection in the hospital.
I was so bored of being bed-ridden at the hospital that I eventually started browsing the source code of a C++ game engine (Irrlicht engine) and use that as documentation for a small game project. During that experience I learned to read the local documentation, read the source code and actually figure out how stuff was implemented in the engine, which quirks it had and even modify and recompile it.
Simply because I was bored and I had no way to get the answers I needed off the internet.
It was a very enlightening experience, I think every developer should get to a point, at least once in their life, where they're just sitting in front of the computer with no external distractions and no internet connection, just explore what you have and make the best out of it.
- lugus35 10y ago> "I think every developer should get to a point, at least once in their life, where they're just sitting in front of the computer with no external distractions" Well, that's why I use Emacs in full screen mode, without menu bar or tool bar, with a very minimal .emacs configuration and only reference documentation inside Emacs in info format.
- cmplxconjugate 10y agoYea but I guess the point is 'self control' - I use emacs full screen too, that doesn't mean I don't just switch to a workspace for a browser when I need it.
- jrcii 10y agoA variation on what you're describing was actually my very first experience with computers. The programs that came with my Apple IIc when I was about 8 years old weren't very interesting to me so I started poking around and playing with BASIC code. It's kind of funny to think that at the time the sole purpose of my computer was to help me write and run programs I wrote myself.
- gaius 10y agoI agree, but it used to be everyone's experience, rather than something unusual.
- d0lph 10y agoWow, I did not realize Battle for Wesnoth was that old. Released 2005, would have been about a year old by time you played.