Real Programmers
I think I really like programming. This may sound obvious as my major is computer engineering, but it really hit me last week that I enjoy doing this stuff. The incident that brought this realization upon me was a lab for my C/C++ class. The object was to use a buffer overflow bug to manipulate a program that the professor had written into doing various things it wasn't made to do. It wasn't really that hard as everything was contrived to make it doable for the average student, but there was this extra credit involved that was only given if you could make your solution work in a more real world like situation. I was (and still am) very busy, but I felt compelled to finish it all. So with 5 minutes to spare before the deadline I turned in the completed assignment, extra credit and all. After reviewing the scores, it turned out that only 8 people out of 88 had finished everything, me included. This got me to thinking, maybe only a tenth of all the people in the class are truly interested in programming for the love of it and not for some ulterior motive. I know that extra credit completion doesn't necessarily signify a love of subject material, but it just felt like I had finally passed on to the ranks of a real programmer instead of just your average programmer who does nothing more but what he is told or required. I'm probably late coming into the fold, but for what it's worth, here I am.
