Rain

It finally rained today. I wouldn’t call it a downpour, nor just a drizzle, or just a shower. It just rained. And it had to, for it hadn’t rained for a year. The weather had been absolutely pleasant throughout the week and the one before, with a consistent cover of grey, water-filled clouds above.

The wind had been blowing violently, but died down just today. As usual, it left behind a thick cover of dust on surfaces all over inside the house. I seriously find that annoying. Having dusted my study the other day, I just don’t like to see it dirt filled the next day. But it happens. That’s the only annoyance I find in the wind.

I went to the University yesterday, to get some work done at the Linux laboratory, and spent the entire seven hours from half past eight to half past three, in the lab freezing at about twenty degress, the air-conditioners there running at no more than sixteen degrees. I didn’t realise how beautiful the weather had been outside. Not that if I did I would’ve got outside and would’ve spent the day wandering and enjoying the weather instead of sitting in a freezing room, but still. Down in Karachi, such weather is a revelation.You’re more than just lucky if you get to enjoy it.

Compilers and Programming Instructors.

“Every project should be compiled either on Turbo C++ or Borland C++ compiler. If you’re working on any other compiler, shift over to TC or BC this instant“.

Twisting my face to form as much of an ugly grimace as I could, I winced at the bytes I read from an e-mail sent to me by my C++ course instructor five days before the project was due. I had worked half of the code on g++ in Linux. But despite my efforts to convince her, I gave in — or had to. I did finish the project on TC, but had had to write the code from the bottom-up, because TC didn’t permit use of STL with user-defined class support, of namespaces, and a couple of other features my code had come to heavily depend on. Worse yet, TC couldn’t handle a project strewn across multiple-source files. I had had to rewrite my code. And to that end, I had hated it to any possible degree.

As I resentfully switched from one platform to another, the sudden lack of interest in programming that project left its aftertaste into the final product. What I produced on TC at the end of the week was a 1500-lines of source code littered with bugs. Bugs both naive and subtle in nature. I just couldn’t force to bring myself to terms with the situation I had unprecedently been put into. Why would I have had? I was only doing it so impeccably on g++.

I’m sick and dirt-tired of programming instructors who force students into using one particular compiler. Sometimes, the compiler in question is embarassingly old, outdated and, at times, flat-out frowned upon by the professionals. And that very fact grinds horrificaly on the students. But I’d be damned if there were anything the dirt poor student can do about it. And such is the irony of life.

Many, here, think that defiance is more idiotic than the mere thought of mutiny against a cold-hearted bitch dictator. But, of course, what worth is what many think about the issue at hand or just about anything else. I wouldn’t even hear their opinions with 3-inch big ear plugs.

Sir, you don’t even deserve my spittle.