How much time dose a novice need to learn programing

10 Years perhaps........

An interesting article by Perter Norvig(http://www.norvig.com/):
http://www.norvig.com/21-days.html
which makes this claim.

I tend to rather agree.
The amount of issues a programmer need to think when writing code is quite large.
Offhand i can think of the following:
1. The problem he is attempting must be CORRECTLY solved.
2. The code should be readable and should be understood by other people.
3. The code shpuld be easily debuggable
4. The performance should be nice.
5. If the application has UI , then it should be intutive.
6. Code should be Portable( if that is a goal ).
7. Easily maintanable( like adding new enhancements )

and probably many more...

Most of the above issues require programmer to make trade offs ( for e.g. Algorithm might be tough to understand , but perform much better than a simpler algorithm)
and I think it might require a programmer about 10 years to learn to correctly make these trade offs.

Being a book junkie

I am a book-aholic.
I need a daily dose of some good reading.

This july i brought books over 1000 INR; something that is very difficult to justify.

My friends have recommended that i take membership to BCL and i am looking for people to share the membership fee.

Another problem i face is that people borrow books but dont return them.

Here is the current list:

1 book: Sanjay ( He to his credit has returned some of the books :) )
2 Books: Parikshit
2 Books: Loki for reading on his trip to Bangalore
1 Book : Ajay ( He has got "A curious incident of dog at night time" , a very darky funny book)
1 book : Vishwanath (Another of my favourite book "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel)
1 book : Animesh ( Ummm.. His girlfriend wanted something to read and there was really no choice !!!! )

If people know you are a book-aholic then , to show their consideration , they also gift you books.
The most recent one that i got was on my birthday.
Titled "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus". I usually hate such kind of books but this seems to be different and is making some sense. I will get back with a review after i finish it.

Regarding unfinished books, i have recently run a huge backlog.
There are
1. The Zahir
2. Gibbon's the Fall and Decline of the Roman empire.
3. Godel, Escher,Bach

This is first time , that i am facing a book backlog but i hope to finish them all very soon.
Wish me luck on this odyssey

"Sehar"

I watched this movie in a new mall (Shipra ).

It is a pretty decent movie.

The reason that i liked it more than others is that it is set in my homwtown of Lucknow.

It even has a clip of my university (Lucknow University).

The story is tight and ending is dramatic.

The action is realiastic.

Enjoy,