The Bowline Bend Analogy

Following the web tutorial for the Wayang Progress Bar posted last year, I received some feedback from a reader. And because I take all feedback seriously (OK fine, I take some feedback seriously) I've decided to dedicate a blog post to this.

The reader stated that she did not bother with the tutorial because the end result wasn't something she would use anyway - if a page takes more than 10 seconds to load, she'd consider it a failure. That point of view is valid; however, she may be approaching this from the wrong angle.

To explain my statement, I'm going to use what I call the Bowline Bend Analogy.

The What?

Back in 1999, I was a crew member on board a warship in the Republic of Singapore Navy. The Executive Officer (XO) decided to test one of the Junior Officers (JO).

XO: What's the Bowline used for?
JO: To make a non-slip loop, Sir.
XO: Can the Bowline be used to join two lines?
JO: Er...
XO: Corporal, can the Bowline be used to join two lines?
Me: Yes Sir.

This is a Bowline

Later, the Junior Officer pressed me for details for the question he was tested with earlier.

JO: How can the Bowline be used to join two lines? It's not a joining knot, it's a loop knot!
Me: You just tie two Bowlines and interlock them, Sir.
JO: What the hell?! That's a trick question!
Me: Well, yes and no. Yes in the sense that it tests your knowledge of the Bowline and all other loop knots, and no in the sense that there actually is such a knot...
JO: Yes, fine, whatever.

This is a Bowline Bend

Two interlocking Bowlines, otherwise known as the Bowline Bend, was actually a valid way to join two lines. It leveraged on the excellent breaking strength of the Bowline to create a knot with similar breaking strength. Its use has been somewhat deprecated as there have been found equally sound ways of joining lines without using that much rope. But, in order to understand the use of the Bowline Bend, first, one has to have a pretty good grasp of the Bowline! In other words, you can't tie a Bowline Bend without first knowing how to tie a Bowline. And while the Bowline Bend isn't that useful, the Bowline certainly is.

The Junior Officer wasn't being tested on his ability to tie a Bowline. Any crewman, right down to the lowliest Private, can tie a crummy Bowline. He was being tested on his understanding of how the Bowline worked. He didn't need to learn how to tie a Bowline Bend. He only needed to know that such a thing was possible.

And back to the Wayang Progress Bar...

That's where the web tutorial comes in.

You may not think you need a Wayang Progress Bar. In fact, you may never need a Wayang Progress Bar. But the whole point wasn't about the Wayang Progress Bar. The Wayang Progress Bar leveraged on several smaller building blocks that were combined in a certain way for the final product, much the same way that two Bowlines were combined to give you the Bowline Bend!

Therefore, the whole point here was to learn all the little snippets (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) that made up the final product. In future, these building blocks can be used to make something else altogether. And that, again, was the real point of the exercise.

Keep your feedback coming. I will knot turn you away!
T___T