Every now and then somebody on the net asks me to write something. Write as in software... I guess it's time to end this endless misunderstanding.

Fun fact: Yes, I can write code. This is probably where is the root of this all, yes I can code. I can write fairly well in C++, PHP, Bash, Windows Shell (although I'm not proud of it), some C++/Qt and some Python. I can also understand and analyze code in many other languages with a similar syntax to those above. That would include Java, Ruby, Pascal, JavaScript, BASIC and loads more.

The problem with this is none of my projects is larger than a couple of kB (in source form). Most of these are random generators of some sort, scripted launchers for applications, or different hacks re-using other command line tools to great extent (eg. an interface for creating a "callback" VNC connection to support remote users, or a bot that sends items from an rss feed to an xmpp chatroom, an audio cue sheet generator for a podcast I like, a monitoring tool for servers sending sms messages if anyone was offline, and some others). Just your everyday small tools that make life easier for me (except the generators, I write those cause I love to see something being created by itself from nothing). For the most part my projects consist of wget, curl, sed, grep, ping, md5sum, echo and many other tools written by many great people.

I also take part in some FLOSS projects started by other people, but usually as a tester or translator. I can also give tips on design, usability or just point out which parts of code are already available elsewhere and you don't need to re-implement something manually.

So what is missing from this picture? I lack the talent needed to be a coder. Period. There was a time when I wanted to become a programmer... I stayed up late at night trying to code some stuff, read books, documentation, etc... But that was many years ago, before my studies threw me away from that and a depression and heavy drinking ravaged my mind and soul...

Since then I have successfully convinced myself that I will never be able to write larger applications. So please do not ask me to write anything larger than a script or a hack, because it saddens me greatly that I won't be able to fulfill that request.