I’ve always found that the only way I learn a new programming language is by starting little projects and tweaking them to perfection. Small Visual Basic playthings gave me a window into the Windows API, PL/SQL applications helped me learn Oracle database design and implementation, and Manila plug-ins gave me a handle on UserTalk. I used to be able to devote good chunks of time to just starting in on a project and wading through until I triumphantly surfaced; it’s one of the things that I miss most in my currently-busy existence, and it’s probably the biggest reason that I still cling to the computer-related aspects of my life (like this site, and my other job) so dearly.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve really enjoyed living vicariously through a few people who seem to play with programming the same way. Andre has been toying with Windows programming; his apps remind me of my own single-function little doodads, aiming to take a problem and write a little app to solve it, learning all the necessary functions along the way. Dean has been writing PHP apps that enhance his website, giving him the ability to display his photos and find out who’s sending people his way. Brent has been programming up a storm for MacOS X, from RSS aggregators to application launchers, and from what I understand, his applications have reflected the maturation in his code-writing skills. All three people make me wish that I could just take a month off and start playing with programming again.

(It’s funny, but this is all probably the reason that I like using Movable Type so much. It started out as the a website publishing tool written by Ben and Mena for their own personal use, and after much interest from the community, was released for public consumption. It’s the ultimate example of a project written to solve a personal need, and just happens to now be in use by thousands of people.)