BusBuilding

Referring to a ‘basic’ conversion…

Some coaches look like a throwback to early RV times before the ’smash to the bones’ demolition then rebuild with twinky lights with cat house mirrors became popular.

With the structure intact there is no need to have “structural” foam insulation blown in, and she should be still structurally sound enough to not need the white tar roofing goo.

No covered windows equals lots of light & air,
rather than Sewer Tube living.

The FMCA had a series of articles in the 80’s that cover this style basic camper conversion, still avilable for free to members.

Sometimes the KISS principle can work really well,

IF you don’t need a 60ft articulated doubble decker with 8 slideouts, rooftop patio/helipad, that is.

KISS, works for ME!

– FAST FRED

Man, I so want to swap words around and put in other words in place of ‘Unix’ and software-related terms in these quotes, but it would be a travesty. It’s just too beautiful, elegant and plain smart for me to butcher it. Just use your imagination and swap out that endeavor which has your passion.

Attitude Matters

When you see the right thing, do it — this may look like more work in the short term, but it’s the path of least effort in the long run. If you don’t know what the right thing is, do the minimum necessary to get the job done, at least until you figure out what the right thing is.

To do the Unix philosophy right, you have to be loyal to excellence. You have to believe that software design is a craft worth all the intelligence, creativity, and passion you can muster. Otherwise you won’t look past the easy, stereotyped ways of approaching design and implementation; you’ll rush into coding when you should be thinking. You’ll carelessly complicate when you should be relentlessly simplifying and then you’ll wonder why your code bloats and debugging is so hard.

To do the Unix philosophy right, you have to value your own time enough never to waste it. If someone has already solved a problem once, don’t let pride or politics suck you into solving it a second time rather than re-using. And never work harder than you have to; work smarter instead, and save the extra effort for when you need it. Lean on your tools and automate everything you can.

Software design and implementation should be a joyous art, a kind of high-level play. If this attitude seems preposterous or vaguely embarrassing to you, stop and think; ask yourself what you’ve forgotten. Why do you design software instead of doing something else to make money or pass the time? You must have thought software was worthy of your passion once….

To do the Unix philosophy right, you need to have (or recover) that attitude. You need to care. You need to play. You need to be willing to explore.

From The Art of Unix Programming
by Eric Steven Raymond.

All the philosophy really boils down to one iron law, the hallowed “KISS principle” of master engineers everywhere:

From The Art of Unix Programming
by Eric Steven Raymond.

From the ridiculous, in the previous post, to the sublime, in this…

There are two ways of constructing a software design. One is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies; the other is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.

     – C. A. R. Hoare, The Emperor’s Old Clothes,
        CACM, February 1981

From The Art of Unix Programming /Chapter 4/Modularity/
by Eric Steven Raymond.

While I’m not by any stretch a real Unix Programmer, the philosophy and ‘Zen’ of the practice is one to which I subscribe down to my bones. I was planning to incorporate some humorously modified excerpts from this book into a general ‘Bus Conversion Design’ philosophy, but the words are so well-written that I’ve decided to quote them as-is and let the readers transpose the wisdom herein into their projects.

Expect to see more of these in coming posts.

Eric’s wife wonders if any of us has had a problem with our bus obsessions affecting our marriage…

She’s asking the wrong crowd.

“Well Lady, at least he ain’t down at Joe’s Bar and Grill. Why not wander out to the project and give him a hand, or a cup of coffee and some moral support. Offer to rub his sore feet.”

“She says she won’t drive it. I have a plan for that too.”

[BNO Forum]

As usual, Mr. Kelly has another great find…

Free Online Graph Paper / Grid Paper PDFs

The Graph Paper PDF Generator at incompetech.com does plain paper, lined paper, multi width, hexagonal, even semi-bisected trapezoid! All completely customizable. And free!

–Mark Coffey

[Cool Tools]