5 ms·

I always envy people who work on this level instead of cobbling systems together that integrate several systems all with their own set of flaws and you can be h

I always envy people who work on this level instead of cobbling systems together that integrate several systems all with their own set of flaws and you can be happy if you can make them work together somehow. The algorithm stuff seems pretty simple in comparison. A very local problem that can be profiled well and you can understand most of the factors at play.

TeMPOraL 7y ago
The "cobbling systems together" stuff is code bureaucracy rather than programming. You're no longer dealing with constraints of physics, mathematics and sound system design - you're building a bit-pushing layer in between Kafkaesque monstrosities that were never truly intended to work together. Sadly, most programming jobs seem to primarily involve code bureaucracy rather than the "algorithmic" level.
- capableweb 7y ago
  I've always seen the "cobbling systems together" stuff as actually software engineering, as that's what you need to have a final production system running. What you describe as "programming" I would say is computer science. And for me, the work that solves real-world problems tends to be software engineering (using my own definition), rather than computer science (again, using my own definition), which seems to be more about optimizations.
deleted 7y ago
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varjag 7y ago
Applying algorithms in non classroom assignment style is rarely trivial. Takes some insight into nature of the problem to spot the opportunity and good familiarity with applicable solution in the first place.
GordonS 7y ago
I got the chance at work recently to work solo on a small, greenfield project, where I was fully in control of all the pieces and the problem space was small. I could do it any which way I wanted. Gods, it was wonderful! As I've moved up the ladder and worked on complex enterprise systems, with umpteen integrations, overly-strict SAST systems, enforced 90% test coverage and the like, I seldom feel the "joy of code". It was good to feel it again!
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  For a while I worked in video decoding/encoding. That was true engineering. I loved reading up about cache and assembly and then applying this knowledge to our code. It was ok to work on one function for weeks just to get 20% speed up. Now I do enterprise and it’s just horrible. Between dealing with stakeholders and 3rd party systems that barely work there is no room for systematic engineering.
  - burntoutfire 7y ago
    May I ask why did you move from codecs into enterprise software?
    - Ididntdothis 7y ago
      I was never an expert in video and during 2008 my company went down. The only position I found after a while was doing C#/.NET. Outside Silicon Valley there are not too many hardcore dev roles anyway and in addition I feel a lot of that work is done in Asia now.

TeMPOraL 7y ago

The "cobbling systems together" stuff is code bureaucracy rather than programming. You're no longer dealing with constraints of physics, mathematics and sound system design - you're building a bit-pushing layer in between Kafkaesque monstrosities that were never truly intended to work together. Sadly, most programming jobs seem to primarily involve code bureaucracy rather than the "algorithmic" level.

capableweb 7y ago
I've always seen the "cobbling systems together" stuff as actually software engineering, as that's what you need to have a final production system running. What you describe as "programming" I would say is computer science. And for me, the work that solves real-world problems tends to be software engineering (using my own definition), rather than computer science (again, using my own definition), which seems to be more about optimizations.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

varjag 7y ago

Applying algorithms in non classroom assignment style is rarely trivial. Takes some insight into nature of the problem to spot the opportunity and good familiarity with applicable solution in the first place.

GordonS 7y ago

I got the chance at work recently to work solo on a small, greenfield project, where I was fully in control of all the pieces and the problem space was small. I could do it any which way I wanted. Gods, it was wonderful! As I've moved up the ladder and worked on complex enterprise systems, with umpteen integrations, overly-strict SAST systems, enforced 90% test coverage and the like, I seldom feel the "joy of code". It was good to feel it again!

Ididntdothis 7y ago
For a while I worked in video decoding/encoding. That was true engineering. I loved reading up about cache and assembly and then applying this knowledge to our code. It was ok to work on one function for weeks just to get 20% speed up. Now I do enterprise and it’s just horrible. Between dealing with stakeholders and 3rd party systems that barely work there is no room for systematic engineering.
- burntoutfire 7y ago
  May I ask why did you move from codecs into enterprise software?
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    I was never an expert in video and during 2008 my company went down. The only position I found after a while was doing C#/.NET. Outside Silicon Valley there are not too many hardcore dev roles anyway and in addition I feel a lot of that work is done in Asia now.