Most of us are in the same place we learn a language for a project - do the project and move on - then 18 months++ later some one asks you to do something with that language!!! What I would like to know is if there is a publication/website/white paper that has generic projects that can be used to 'keep your hand in' or refresher training. This would be nice and usefull in testing the grey matter when the call comes in about that language/system you did xxx months/years ago.

If anybody can help it would be greatly appreciated

 

Doesn't this sound a lot like any of a hundred open source projects?

MB

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Michael R. Batchelor

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If you are referring to the common general purpose programming languages such as C, C++, Java, Python, etc., then there are plenty of real free/open source projects you could offer to help with. Or, you can just hack away on your own
private copy at home. Just look through SourceForge or the contents of any Linux distribution for something that interests you.

If you genuinely want to write programs and learn new things, you ought to be using Linux. You can get dozens of every possible kind of development
software or library or anything else you can imagine. A typical distribution has thousands of packages (programs). If you see something that interests you, you can look at the source code so you can see how it works and make any changes you want. If you want databases, web servers, parser generators, content management systems, etc. to tie into your project, they're all there, they're all free, and they're all the genuine full featured item (not limited demos or crippleware). It's like giving a kid a Meccano set, except all the Meccano bits and pieces are the real thing.

For someone starting out, I would suggest either Ubuntu or Mandriva. If you don't have high speed internet, then you want a version which comes on
multiple CDs or on DVD. If you have more questions, let us know.

 

Hi,

The point is, as an integrator your job is to solve problems, learning one solution and applying it to every problem is a recipe for stagnation.

Marc Sinclair