|
Sander Rossel wrote: Part of the job, I guess.
Price to be paid for travelling to 50+ countries on 6 continents with all travel expenses paid 
Sander Rossel wrote: Mostly LOB applications.
I really don't need to test that a button click results in some entity being validated and saved to the database.
I manually tested it and it works.
There is some difference in purpose and scale. In my case, the same software was/is used for data acquisition and visualization by over 5000 customers who connected 200+ types of devices. Besides, operating costs for some of the customers were so big that a single day lost was more than the cost of our software. If it wouldn't have worked, they would have thrown it overboard and I wouldn't have had the chance of a comfy retirement. 
Mircea
|
|
|
|
|
Mircea Neacsu wrote: travelling to 50+ countries on 6 continents
I'd absolutely hate that part of the job 
I hate visiting customers, save for two are even closer than my own office (6 and 7 km vs. 14 km).
I don't like working from home all the time either though, need to get out and socialize once in a while 
Mircea Neacsu wrote: There is some difference in purpose and scale
That's my point exactly.
In your original post you said: "The oft repeated lament "I hate documenting/commenting" is driving me nuts: what good is your work if you cannot explain to someone how to use it or if you explain it badly? Saying that you don't want to cover with tests all significant cases is like someone performing a CAT scan and stopping in the middle: probably the other half is also OK."
However, at my scale, it adds more work and complexity than it takes away.
Just like almost everything, whether you need documentation and unit tests "depends" on your use case.
Not having proper build and release pipelines is leaving the job half-done though 
|
|
|
|
|
Sander Rossel wrote: 'd absolutely hate that part of the job
I hate visiting customers, save for two are even closer than my own office (6 and 7 km vs. 14 km).
To each his own: me, I love(d) travelling. Now my bucket list is empty. I still like vacationing but it's not the same as when you go for work and get a chance to know people and see their real life. I guess I'm more of a traveler than a tourist.
Sander Rossel wrote: Not having proper build and release pipelines is leaving the job half-done though
Amen!
Mircea
|
|
|
|
|
There's a marked difference between not enjoying something and not doing it. Mind the gap. 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
|
|
|
|
|
Documentation, as I am no good at writing clear instructions. Testing comes a close second, as I get bored after a few iterations.
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: Documentation, as I am no good at writing clear instructions
Now appart from Q/A where you simply reply with a link, I have a strong feeling, that you are writing very good instructions 
|
|
|
|
|
The quality of my answers does depend also on my mood.
|
|
|
|
|
Why it just happened yesterday...
I spent 5 hours trying to fix a 'bug' where setting a chart series point to IsEmpty was not reversible and led to completely bizarre results. (works the first time, not the second) Found that IsEmpty for that object was the same as Double.NaN. Try using that and .NET complains that it can't handle NaN!  (again, works the first time, not the second)
This morning, try it again and it works perfectly!  I love/hate it when problems just fix themselves! Hmmm...the only difference was VS2019 yesterday vs. VS2017 today???
Edit: It still doesn't work! I just didn't test correctly! More research indicates that it's a known issue albeit an apparently rare one. At least they provided a workaround...only it doesn't seem to work either. (clearing the points and adding dynamically) Back to the drawing board! 
Really though, my least favorite part has got to be communicating with colleagues. It's all too normal anymore for me to be stuck on a 1-2 hour phone call when I'd rather be fixing things! Also, there's communicating with family during working hours, which also happens way too often these days.
It's hard to be antisocial when every 10 minutes there's a phone call, text message, notification, email, etc. though I still try!
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
"Hope is contagious"
modified 27-Aug-23 17:08pm.
|
|
|
|
|
Anything with dependencies you can't resolve yourself. Trying to communicate with a peace of hardware and asking for documentation on how to connect to a standard protocol: "we will get that to you next week". WTF. That thing cost 1 million euro, and we have a good handful of those.
Besides that, CI/CD pipeline. Is as such simple enough, but always end up tedious and eating a bunch of time.
|
|
|
|
|
Sometimes I like that challenge. Other times it can be frustrating.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
|
|
|
|
|
It can be a challenge when you have access to something you can examine. In this specific case, all we have access to is a 404 response if we do not guess the URL and port.
Another problem with 1 million euro gizmos, they do not give us any to play with in a test environment.
|
|
|
|
|
If the "user" won't help with testing, I start losing enthusiasm fast. That said, I have lots of "eyes" into my software's internals.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
|
|
|
|
|
Yeah. I have two people I know are using my graphics library seriously, one guy who is using it has been an invaluable resource, not only uncovering bugs, but tracking down where they are in my code and even suggesting fixes. I offered a collaborative role on the project with him, that's how much he impressed me, but he's of course otherwise occupied. Still, I'm glad to have him using my stuff!
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
|
|
|
|
|
Quote: What's your least favorite part of coding?
Coding.
Yeah, I'm burnt out at the moment; have been for 6 months or so. Ugh. Extensive overuse of tight deadlines usually causes this for me.
|
|
|
|
|
I hear that. I got burnt out due to lack of challenge and lack of creativity, coupled with long hours. I can handle eating and breathing code but not always on another person's agenda, and not if it's the same stuff over and over again. How many different ways can you design an e-commerce app? It makes it somehow worse when other people are actually excited about it.
I left the field for years.
I got scouted off codeproject actually. That's what dragged me back in. I'm enjoying IoT and embedded because it reminds me of the same type of problems I faced coding in the 1980s and early '90s. The idea is to get little things to do big things, and solve problems on a limited medium. It brings the challenge and creativity back for me, like getting TrueType running on a system with 192kB of RAM or less.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
|
|
|
|
|
The bit where you write beautiful, elegant code that solves are well-defined, common problem in an easy way with seamless integration and your users take one look at it and point at the huge flaw you didn't see.
cheers
Chris Maunder
|
|
|
|
|
Blasphemy! Such users are non-existent. Russion bots! And they LIE!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Chris Maunder wrote: and your users take one look at it and point at the huge flaw you didn't see.
Or when a user that is working less than 2 weeks there blocks the execution in such a way that you need to step in with the laptop and manually reset something, after 4 years of non stop stable as a rock working record...  
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
Having to track down and fix a poorly reported bug in code written years ago by someone who's long since moved on and who coded using unusual patterns for no obvious benefit.
|
|
|
|
|
When it must work, is right, is simple but doesn't.
I have been struggling most of Sunday where 2 old iframes src=(path to mvc view) work fine but the new one, just like the others is producing a 404. I can go to the folder in dos and copy the view iis can't find to somewhere and that is ok, and it's in the same folder as the others. I have stared at the code and stared at the code.
These days put me in a foul mood.
|
|
|
|
|
Having to debug old code and work out what the hell was thinking the idiot that wrote that code just to find out after a while, that I was that idiot.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
Testing is the worst. Documentation is the worst too. After that, I go into a bit of a decline.
(With apologies to Douglas Adams)
Paul Sanders.
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter - Blaise Pascal.
Some of my best work is in the undo buffer.
|
|
|
|
|
Recoding because some product manager has changed his/her mind and shoehorned some feature modification into the spec, which trashes the design and requires a major rewrite. I hate doing things twice.
I'm sure I'm not alone in this.
|
|
|
|
|
Mine is not technical. Overall, I am pleased with the tools and helps I have in VS2022.
My least favorite part of coding is interference in my coding by non-technical project managers.
Such as (and I paraphrase for brevity):
“That will take too long to do it right.”
“Are we there yet?”
“I read somewhere you should be using language Y instead of language X. Go back and rewrite all the code in language X.”
“We don’t need exception handling and logging. Just do it without all that.”
“Why is it taking so long?”
“Let’s add more programmers so we get this done sooner.” (said about halfway or after the midpoint of the project)
“We need more meetings.”
And, of course, the reader could add more.
P.S. I have over 20 years as a project manager with the technical knowledge, skills, and abilities. This is about the non-technical project managers who don’t have the necessary knowledge and experience on how software engineering projects differ from other projects they learned about in their coursework. I thank God everyday for those non-technical project managers that understand they need to learn the difference and are teachable. They make fantastic project managers.
|
|
|
|
|
The basic lesson they should've been taught is that a little learning is a dangerous thing.
Or putting it another way, the more you learn the more you see how little you know....
I'm currently bingeing on the very perceptive BBC comedies "Twenty Twelve" and "W1A", where several of the characters illustrate the above very well. Chief airhead and "Head of Brand" Siobhan Sharpe portrays this kind of PIA hilariously.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
