Obviously: I’m a programmer; My primary programming language is C++; I like Object-Oriented stuff, like neat design patterns and small discrete modules and aggregate components and things. Obviously a post entitled “Method Programming” is going to be about programming class methods to maximum effect, right? Perhaps about reducing the size and increasing the number of methods, for clarity. Maybe I’ll go totally zany and start talking about how non-member, non-friend functions are the bees’ knees, or how protected member variables shouldn’t be allowed (both ideas I’ve picked up from articles by Herb Sutter and Scott Meyers, by the way, not my own crazy filth).
But no, that’s not it. Actually what I’m talking about is this…
That’s a screenshot of my working environment at Zoë Mode (the code itself is masked out using a simple regex). I do most of my work in Vim running under Cygwin across both my monitors. I’ve installed ratpoison so that I can utilise all the screen space available to me, as well as cut down on mouse usage.
All that is fascinating, I’m sure. But the interesting thing about this screenshot probably isn’t the software or the environment. It’s probably the fact that everything’s pink. Yes, my xterm is set to a pink background, vim uses that default background – I’ve even set Windows to use the “Rose” theme packaged with it, with some minor tweaks to make it a bit pinker. Why would I do this? Why would I subject myself to near-fatal levels of pinkery? The answer, my dear Watsina, is elementary. I’m simply getting into character.
Method acting is a well-known technique practiced by many actors including Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, and some others who weren’t in Mafia films. Wikipedia describes it as “an acting technique in which actors try to replicate real life emotional conditions under which the character operates, in an effort to create a life-like, realistic performance.”
The game I’m working on at the moment is aimed toward the young female market. You see where I’m going with this? That’s right, through making my computer almost entirely pink, I hope to arrive at a deeper understanding of what it means to be a young girl. It means pink, apparently.
Here’s hoping I don’t find myself working on GTA any time soon…