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I'm just not sure you can teach these things to a junior programmer, and actually expect to see results. A baby takes 9 months to develop, you can't expect to
by swalsh 12y ago
I'm just not sure you can teach these things to a junior programmer, and actually expect to see results. A baby takes 9 months to develop, you can't expect to see finger nails develop until they've developed fingers.
As a junior, you're probably spending most of your time (and a lot of it at that) just trying to make the dang code work. Making sure it's written in a way that other people can maintain it etc is secondary, because who cares if you can maintain it if it never even worked in the first place!
When working with a new junior, It's important to expose them to existing (good!) as well as bad code bases. At the same time, let them write new code on things that aren't super business critical. You have to accept that it's going to take them some time to learn, and you should just work with them until they don't have to think about breathing any more.
- gedrap 12y ago>>> I'm just not sure you can teach these things to a junior programmer, and actually expect to see results You can't expect to teach them and see results immediately. But teaching them (and supervising / reviewing code) would certainly help to make the learning period shorter.
- alistairSH 12y agoYes, new programmers spend a lot of time just getting things to work. But, from years of managing summer interns, the biggest surprise to new programmers is the amount of non-code stuff that needs to be done alongside actual coding. Doc, comments, peer reviews (and the associated rework). The sooner they learn this is part of the job, the sooner they'll fit into the team's workflow and contribute at a high level.
- swalsh 12y agoFair enough, that's very true.