Wtd
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Who is WTD?
wtd is a resident guru who claims that his alias stands for "Welcome To Darwin", though we all know it really means "What The Duck".
Wtd is a programmer, currently residing in Vancouver, who has a passion for helping people understand programming since he's been through every frustration related to learning this stuff already, for he is self-taught. He is conversant in C, Objective-C, C++, Java, Scala, Eiffel, Perl, Python, Ruby, O'Caml, Haskell, Pike, HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP, and many other languages. Wtd is more than capable of answering most questions related to Windows, Mac (OS 8, 9, X), Linux, and FreeBSD systems.
Wtd can frequently be found in the IRC channel helping people out or breaking their minds with new programming concepts.
WTD's accent
WTD has an Upstate/Western/Central New York accent, with some British qualities to it. [1]
Quotes
- "Don't reinvent the wheel if there's an existing library function to do it for you"[2]
- "I wouldn't recommend using Java as a way to start programming."[3]
- "It's better to be wrong, and know why, than to be right by chance."[4]
- "Don't learn what to do from those who have succeeded. As likely as not it has been a matter of luck. Learn what NOT to do from those who have failed. It's far more likely their circumstances arose from some logical progression of events."[5]
- "Converting a fanatic is not the same as opening a mind.
You got your friend to switch from Windows to Linux, or from using Java to using Ruby. Congratulations, but if he or she brings slavish, unquestioning, fanatical devotion to that new technology, then you have not done anyone a favor."[6]
- "Learn the most popular language and you'll be a little fish lost in a sea of sharks. Do something different and you can stand out and do something meaningful." [7]
- "The single greatest practical benefit of object orientation as currently practiced has not been to break bad habits born of procedural programming but rather to create in most languages an implicit "self" or "this" parameter such that the ability of programmers to have parameter lists with inconsistent ordering is dramatically reduced."
Notable writings
In progress:
