GSoC Day 49

Back from a Break

• So I’m back from a break of blogging.
• I did a bit of Elm (it was at work so I didn’t take any photos). Yes, they let me do Elm and Haskell at work :D
• I did a bit of Rust clap work

• This was actually fun! I made some command-line flags and options.

I also have text on the slider!

• Hells yeah! Who woulda thunk it?

• Sorry the resolution is not the best! It’s a photo of a photo because I couldn’t time the snapshot right if I selected part of the image; only if I timed it to take a general snapshot. Total n00b here :D

So my next focus

• Is to add the draggable function so it drags and also a snap function (so it snaps to points along the slider).

Some updates

• I’m probably not going to be posting Rust stuff, because I’m taking a break from doing that, and doing more GSoC stuff, with permission from my mentors. They were really understanding about it. Right now, I just need to focus on GSoC, as that is more demanding right now.
• My GSoC mentors also committed to doing more pair-programming with me, which I think is really awesome. So that will be during the week (Mon through Friday typically). I’m really thankful for that.
• Some famous PL people said they’d help me and want to see me succeed! PL people are pretty cool They’re like family! :D

Thoughts

• I’ve had a lot of struggle over the past few days on my ability and generally feeling like I didn’t belong in the Haskell community. I’ve been in a lot of communities, and it took me a while to find the right people aka my current mentors, who are really awesome. But Haskell-land can be a pretty isolating place. The good parts are good, but man, are some parts rough. I’m hopeful that it gets better, though. I’m really thankful for the organization for taking a chance on me this summer. And I’m thankful for the good people in the community.
• I’d like to say that if you think “what is she on?”, that it’s a totally different perspective as a female. Your experience in Haskell-land, unfortunately, is often completely different. And even so, you’d be one of the few, because well, there just aren’t that many of us. I mentioned this before, but one of my fellow female Haskellinos said that I must really love this to have stuck out so many incidents that I won’t go into. Maybe that’s true. I can’t say right now, as I’m still learning. This is just one example, but I’ve been shut out of opportunities completely because I was not part of a particular clique. It was disheartening, but I vowed not to let that stop me. I’m determined to learn (and get good at) Haskell. A group or person should not be a barrier between my ability to learn Haskell. And if so, it means I just have to make my own opportunities.
• So I still have that Haskell fire in me. Maybe it will wear off (I hope not!) and I’ll grow tired, and move on. But I hope not. Communities shouldn’t be like that. They shouldn’t burn people out; they should uplift them and push them to do their best work. It shouldn’t be so much of a fight just because you don’t fit in with the rest.
• I think there’s a lot we can do to make it better. I’m really hopeful, and I like Haskell, so I’m going to stay positive and stick it out.

And that’s about it.