Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Coding in your spare time

Options
2»

Comments

  • Options
    #32
    run_Forrest_run
    Registered Users Posts: 6,393 ✭✭✭run_Forrest_run


    amen wrote: »
    I do some code at home, less now I have a family but if I'm coding at home its for a few reasons:

    1: To learn something new such as language, feature, framework etc
    2: Something to help with my other hobbies
    3: To better understand a technology
    4: To stay current


    To me its like CPD for any other profession.

    this is exactly the same for myself. Never mind those companies who expect you to be eating and sleeping coding, they are looking for code monkeys and I would always steer clear of them. Places like that thrive on keeping the pressure on the development layers while they spend time protecting their backs when things go wrong.

    When it comes to outside work hours coding etc I think it's more important that you are 'thinking' and not necessarily coding. A good developer does most of the work in their head, whether this be high level design work or just general thinking "what if..." or "how about.." scenarios.

    That is why if I spend time doing anything development related stuff outside of work hours it's usually reading, observing tech trends, identifying patterns and trying to spot improvements or missed tricks etc.

    I've been coding now for 15 years so the less time I spend hunched over a desk the better...oh and find a good physio ;)


  • Options
    #33
    Calina
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Calina


    I found that article interesting for a few reasons, specifically because a key component sometimes of the "you love" side of things is a lot of autonomy over what you are doing.

    I like solving problems, I like writing code. But some problems I hate, and may god forgive me but I hope I never again have to deal with Java in my life. It just isn't my cup of tea, language wise.

    The point I would raise is that the vast majority of people who program for a living have very little autonomy over what they are programming and I'm pretty sure that not one person in a billion, at the age of 16 says, you know I'd really like to maintain poorly designed, undocumented, mission critical server software for my life because. man, THAT'S WHAT I LOVE. The point is, someone still has to maintain the legacy code and that's not always the most endearing activity...

    Personally I wanted to program rocketships although that didn't go according to plan either.

    How many people just read code by the way? Not by way of a code review or a preliminary review before making some change but just straight read it to get a feel for what it does, how well it was written and how it solves its underlying problems? It's not something I've often had time for although I did a little more in recent months for various reasons.


  • Options
    #34
    run_Forrest_run
    Registered Users Posts: 6,393 ✭✭✭run_Forrest_run


    Calina wrote: »
    ..and may god forgive me but I hope I never again have to deal with Java in my life. It just isn't my cup of tea, language wise.

    at the risk of throwing this off topic...why??? I'd love to know. And what is your language of choice?


  • Options
    #35
    Calina
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Calina


    If you haven't read this: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.ie/2006/03/execution-in-kingdom-of-nouns.html

    My way of solving problems doesn't really align all that well with OOP as it is implemented in Java and my key complaint is that it's verbose and not always efficient. I recognise that it's one of the most common languages in use at the moment (albeit occasionally justified with "and it allows people to more effectively manage codebases involving work from mediocre programmers" which strikes me as lacking in aspiration"). But mostly, read Steve Yegge's post above.

    I like Python and Javascript although I've spent most of my time writing assembler. I use R for some stats stuff as well now too. Mainly, if I need to get something done, any of the three of those will cooperate. I have not found a problem I need to solve that would be more effectively done using Java.

    When it comes to programming in my own time, that's going to impact on my decision every time; something that I actually like using.


  • Options
    #36
    youcancallmeal
    Registered Users Posts: 7,985 ✭✭✭youcancallmeal


    Calina wrote: »
    If you haven't read this: http://steve-yegge.blogspot.ie/2006/03/execution-in-kingdom-of-nouns.html

    Uggh I got a few paragraphs in and found the way it is written tortuous to read. Any chance of a summary?


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #37
    Sparks
    Registered Users Posts: 40,055 ✭✭✭✭Sparks


    youcancallmeal wrote: »
    Uggh I got a few paragraphs in and found the way it is written tortuous to read. Any chance of a summary?
    *heh* I see what you did there :D


  • Options
    #38
    Calina
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Calina


    youcancallmeal wrote: »
    Uggh I got a few paragraphs in and found the way it is written tortuous to read. Any chance of a summary?

    Java is tortuous to read. :-)


  • Options
    #39
    mrkite77
    Registered Users Posts: 240 ✭✭mrkite77


    Calina wrote: »
    I like coding. Sometimes I do stuff in my spare time, sometimes I don't. But I like it because it's free, I can start stuff and not finish

    Are you me? I'm much the same.

    I've been programming professionally for a long time now. I work on my own projects sometimes, but I'll also go months at a time without doing any programming outside of work.

    One nice thing about programming outside of work is that code will stick around.

    The stuff I write for work is very ephemeral. It's not opensource and a lot of it is only for internal corporate use. That means that when the code is no longer in use, it often gets lost forever.

    The stuff I write for fun, on the other hand, can often be found on the internet.

    Here's an example:

    http://pastebin.com/kJm61Nrc

    That's my entry in a programming competition I did back in 1996. The program is pointless, it won't even run outside of dosbox these days, and it's of little interest to anyone but me, but I'm glad I found it on some old ftp site a couple of years ago.


Advertisement