a recent aim of mine has been to get more into learning programming/scripting. i’ve done some experimenting with basic javascript in high school, and some logowriter about two decades ago in grade 3 or something, but now is the time to get a head start on my long term goal. since i am aiming to do fucking amazingly well in my math classes this semester and apply to computer science for next year, now might be the time to get ahead. and my has allah blessed me(!!! praise be upon his name) because today in the trash at work (i work in a trashpile, by the way) i found this in the trash. yes, that’s right-Essential Visual C++ 4 from 1995.
i think this was a good sign because i just realized that i have inadvertantly started a collection of outdated computer books. some highlights include 1999’s MSMQ from scratch and some other book on Netscape 2.0 or something. i fully realize that they probably have next to no useful information in them, but are good to have for a sporadic browsing nonetheless.
so i registered for classes yesterday. what a blast. found out that i can only take three, not four this semester. oh well, i think math 202, 203, and physics 205 is just about enough fun for me.
also heard from a distant friend recently. that’s was good. weird how people tend to get back in touch during the summer, and disappear during the winters. i blame the communists.
i tried to make this a productive day. i got started on learning more C++, did a little bit of math, and worked on some php. i saw a tutorial on pagination a few days ago that looks like it could be exactly what i need. today, though, i focused on includes.
it seems to make sense the same way style sheets make sense. if you have your styles in one area, and the content in another, why not do the same thing with the separate parts of the content? as it is, i can change the “look” of the page by changing the styles in one file, but to add something to the menu, or change to footer or whatever i have to go in to every page and copy and paste the same html. pretty ridiculous. so today i did this.
i know it looks the same, but it’s supposed to. it’s supposed to look exactly the same. if you compare the source for these two pages, you’ll notice that the index page here (in the main section) is kinda scrambly and a big mess. if you look at the example page (whose title i’ve changed to P H P I N C L U D E to better differentiate the two) you’ll see that it’s only a few lines long*, and that if i want to make any changes to three of the sections of the page, i’ll only have to modify one file to see it reflected across the site (once all of the pages are changed over of course).
finally, i would like to state that i will get this pagination/entry browsing thing down. seriously.
*correction: i just realized that you won’t see the php in the source, just the html it’s including. don’t bother looking.
since it’s now officially past my birthday, i can set aside the guilt and post a list of things that i want. these may not be items that i wanted to receive as birthday gifts, but just things that i covet in general (in no particular order, either):
- a digital camera (specifically, this one)
- a bottle of Strong68 or Moulin Vert.
- opium
- a blender
- a skateboard (soon enough…)
- a new computer. preferably, this new computer.