Questions about The Creative Programmer

[Burk Hufnagel]

Welcome to the Ranch, Wouter!  

I'm curious, is this your first book? I know it's published by Manning but when I googled your name I got a link to Simon & Schuster and they listed you as a author and showed "The Creative Programmer", which has me wondering if S&S owns Manning - do you know?

Also wondering if you find bread baking as potentially creative as programming? I suspect there are limitations on what you can do and still have it recognizable as bread, but I think that may be similar to being restricted by the syntax of a language... does that seem reasonable?

Looking forward to reading the book and learning,
Burk

[Campbell Ritchie]

You have at least three questions there; you should therefore create three posts; that increases your chances of winning

[wouter groeneveld]

Hi Burk,

Burk Hufnagel wrote:Welcome to the Ranch, Wouter!  

I'm curious, is this your first book? I know it's published by Manning but when I googled your name I got a link to Simon & Schuster and they listed you as a author and showed "The Creative Programmer", which has me wondering if S&S owns Manning - do you know?

Never heard of S&S so no idea :-) It's my second book, the first one was a Dutch one on the science of sourdough bread, haha!

Also wondering if you find bread baking as potentially creative as programming? I suspect there are limitations on what you can do and still have it recognizable as bread, but I think that may be similar to being restricted by the syntax of a language... does that seem reasonable?

That's a good question! I think that depends on what you're trying to achieve with bread baking. Most professional bakers are aiming for consistency and volume to sell as much as possible and keep the bread taste the same as not to chase away customers, while some try to reinvent bread by experimenting. The former could perhaps be seen as maintenance coding and the latter as a greenfield software project? I think both approaches have opportunities to be creative, but at different levels, and with different constraints. Does that make sense?

Cheers!

[Campbell Ritchie]

wouter groeneveld wrote:. . . Never heard of S&S . . .

Simon and Schuster.

My bread is almost ready to go in the oven; it is rising quickly because of the warm weather and because I used yeast from a new can. I usually bake plain wholemeal because it is what I eat most of and don't have the time to experiment. Well, maybe just occasionally.

[wouter groeneveld]

Campbell Ritchie wrote:

wouter groeneveld wrote:. . . Never heard of S&S . . .

My bread is almost ready to go in the oven; it is rising quickly because of the warm weather and because I used yeast from a new can. I usually bake plain wholemeal because it is what I eat most of and don't have the time to experiment. Well, maybe just occasionally.

I'm getting hungry, post a pic when it's done!
If you only use a tiny pinch of yeast (dried?) you can let it rise overnight to increase the flavors!

[Campbell Ritchie]

I shall have to try the trick with very little yeast (thank you ), but it will be about three weeks before I can, since I shall be away for most of next week and the week after.