Go ahead and invent some totally unique tool nobody's ever seen before. I'll wait. You, uh, you got one yet? No?
The point is to make your own version of a thing; it doesn't have to be one of those few I listed. To see that some other design or implementation doesn't satisfy you, and analyze why, and do it "right". You can only get that by writing something you can compare to something else.
If you do invent a thing for the first time—which you won't—it would be terrible. It'll take many iterations, your own or more likely someone else's. That's how Human tool-making works, from the first half-assed rubbing-sticks-together fire to nuclear weapons (the first Atomic Bomb was not the best…)
And to a certain extent, I don't consider people incapable/unwilling to do this "programmers". Merely typists.
The point is to make your own version of a thing; it doesn't have to be one of those few I listed. To see that some other design or implementation doesn't satisfy you, and analyze why, and do it "right". You can only get that by writing something you can compare to something else.
If you do invent a thing for the first time—which you won't—it would be terrible. It'll take many iterations, your own or more likely someone else's. That's how Human tool-making works, from the first half-assed rubbing-sticks-together fire to nuclear weapons (the first Atomic Bomb was not the best…)
And to a certain extent, I don't consider people incapable/unwilling to do this "programmers". Merely typists.