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Good Article, I have found the hardest part of software to be the team work. It's hard to agreement on what's right, to write code that other people understand,

Good Article, I have found the hardest part of software to be the team work. It's hard to agreement on what's right, to write code that other people understand, to understand other peoples code, and generally just to get a good productive team working. In fact a lot of software design is just for making things easier for humans. Otherwise we could have files that are 14,000 lines long.... The hardest part of software is the people.

killertypo 13y ago
strong ideas that are held weakly! I try my hardest to cultivate a mindset that allows people to speak freely and express their ideas and also drop said ideas when a clearly better idea arises. Every idea brought to the table should have a counter argument, we should all carefully discuss the pros and cons of everyone's ideas, and we shouldn't hold so tightly onto a pipe dream because we really want to use xyz tech or because "we're used to doing it x way!" If something is clearly better, safer, smarter, or mitigates risks that another idea doesn't then you need to accept it. I do not care how comfortable you are with your idea. It is time to switch gears and make the sensible choice based on the facts, not your personal bias.
- tenpoundhammer 13y ago
  So true, then there is also the fact that some conversations aren't even worth having....
  - killertypo 13y ago
    change conversations to meetings and you've got yourself a huge win.
Mikeb85 13y ago
> Good Article, I have found the hardest part of software to be the team work. This... I'm trying to work with someone whose only programming experience is with IDEs on Windows that hand-hold every step of the way. Something as simple as creating a file, compiling it and running it in a terminal is something he's never done. I've spent more time trying to explain incredibly basic concepts than actually getting anything done.
- mattmanser 13y ago
  Taking a day to teach someone an entirely new (and arguably extremely backward) workflow is exasperating to you?
  - Mikeb85 13y ago
    It's not about the workflow - it's about the fact that things like compiling files, linking libraries, are kind of basic concepts. For his prior apps (flash) he created objects using only a graphical interface (never wrote a single class), and the 'program' was a single 9000 line file where everything (all vars, functions, etc...) was in the global namespace with absolutely no organization, encapsulation, etc... Anyhow, for someone who claims to have been programming for 10+ years, I'd expect some understanding of how the underlying technology works, how languages and compilers work, etc... I mean, I like convenience as much as anyone (my Vim setup behaves like an IDE with code completion, automatic compiling, etc...), but knowing the command line is a good thing when the app you want to build involves a Unix-y server...
    - wting 13y ago
      A civilian pilot with 10000 flight his logged is not the same as a fighter pilot with a 1000. Don't mistake quantity of experience with quality.
    - mattmanser 13y ago
      Look, "someone only using IDEs with windows" is nothing like what you just described. You gave us all the wrong facts in the initial comment. You've identified all the wrong facts as important. Your fellow is abnormal to the extreme. That he's never met anyone in 10 years to tell him drag & dropping is not programming is one thing. Making your description match a good proportion of C# developers or even Java developers just shows your irrational bias against types of programmer you obviously view as inferior. The problem is not that he's using an IDE, the problem is he's not a programmer. Bloody luddites clinging to their consoles.
      - 13y ago

killertypo 13y ago

strong ideas that are held weakly! I try my hardest to cultivate a mindset that allows people to speak freely and express their ideas and also drop said ideas when a clearly better idea arises. Every idea brought to the table should have a counter argument, we should all carefully discuss the pros and cons of everyone's ideas, and we shouldn't hold so tightly onto a pipe dream because we really want to use xyz tech or because "we're used to doing it x way!" If something is clearly better, safer, smarter, or mitigates risks that another idea doesn't then you need to accept it. I do not care how comfortable you are with your idea. It is time to switch gears and make the sensible choice based on the facts, not your personal bias.

tenpoundhammer 13y ago
So true, then there is also the fact that some conversations aren't even worth having....
- killertypo 13y ago
  change conversations to meetings and you've got yourself a huge win.

Mikeb85 13y ago

> Good Article, I have found the hardest part of software to be the team work. This... I'm trying to work with someone whose only programming experience is with IDEs on Windows that hand-hold every step of the way. Something as simple as creating a file, compiling it and running it in a terminal is something he's never done. I've spent more time trying to explain incredibly basic concepts than actually getting anything done.

mattmanser 13y ago
Taking a day to teach someone an entirely new (and arguably extremely backward) workflow is exasperating to you?
- Mikeb85 13y ago
  It's not about the workflow - it's about the fact that things like compiling files, linking libraries, are kind of basic concepts. For his prior apps (flash) he created objects using only a graphical interface (never wrote a single class), and the 'program' was a single 9000 line file where everything (all vars, functions, etc...) was in the global namespace with absolutely no organization, encapsulation, etc... Anyhow, for someone who claims to have been programming for 10+ years, I'd expect some understanding of how the underlying technology works, how languages and compilers work, etc... I mean, I like convenience as much as anyone (my Vim setup behaves like an IDE with code completion, automatic compiling, etc...), but knowing the command line is a good thing when the app you want to build involves a Unix-y server...
  - wting 13y ago
    A civilian pilot with 10000 flight his logged is not the same as a fighter pilot with a 1000. Don't mistake quantity of experience with quality.
  - mattmanser 13y ago
    Look, "someone only using IDEs with windows" is nothing like what you just described. You gave us all the wrong facts in the initial comment. You've identified all the wrong facts as important. Your fellow is abnormal to the extreme. That he's never met anyone in 10 years to tell him drag & dropping is not programming is one thing. Making your description match a good proportion of C# developers or even Java developers just shows your irrational bias against types of programmer you obviously view as inferior. The problem is not that he's using an IDE, the problem is he's not a programmer. Bloody luddites clinging to their consoles.
    - 13y ago