The medium is the code

So these last few days, I have been diving deeper into code of all kinds: javascript, actionscript, css; and as I work, really work with the finer aspects of it all, as I understand the idiosyncracies & beauties of each, (yeah, clean, clear code is as beautiful as a well-crafted essay; reminds me of my son who is forever talking about the 'elegance' in math equations) I am transported back to the time when I created in paint. The oil paints, the oil,& turpentine, & one's ideas & sketches had to be molded & coaxed into a unified piece. It's the same with code: the essence of it still remains the same: become one with the medium in order to work well with it. And of course it's gratifying that one's efforts in the code medium can be easily made accessible to millions of users. And the way the web & RIAs are going, it is exhilarating to conjure up new possibilities for new experiences, new behaviours, & not least, rich graphics. I was pleasantly surprised to see the very attractive Konfabulator website. In terms of visual look, it is luscious; so are some of the widgets. The weather widget especially comes to mind, with the super icons for rain & clouds & sunshine..

Living here in the US the past couple of years has impressed upon me the wisdom of looking up the weather report for the day: I can't tell you how many times I have gotten drenched, or stepped out in a light shirt to realize that it's freezing. ( Never, ever did I check the weather back home in India, & I'm sure weather news & widgets are not as big a deal in Asia as they are in the West, probably because the weather there is not quite as temperamental as here). So I check out the weather widget, a very very attractive visual overview of the next few days ( though the default it turns up is for Palo Alto!!), showing thick gray clouds one day, fat droplets of rain for the next, & the sun peeking out shyly from behind the clouds the next. In school ( 4th grade or standard as we used to call it), we were given a homework assignment to fill in a paper calendar with a visual for the weather then; I used to get immense pleasure coloring these in with my boxful of pencil crayons. These widgets remind me of then.