programmer - Navneet Kumar on Diigo

18 Dec 09

I firmly believe that the absolute best way to learn a system is to break it. Over and over. Start by breaking off a small piece
Once you've broken enough stuff, a new codebase stops being scary, and starts being.. sorta fun. Those broken windows will seem a lot less like intimidating roadblocks, and more like candidates for fixing-- or at least boarding over. And while you're at it, why not remodel the place, too?
1 more annotations...
- When it comes to software, controlled destruction breeds confidence.

25 Nov 09

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

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Programming Programmer Learning Career

Coding Horror: Sharpening the Saw

improving

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Joel Programmer Learning CodingHorror Career

I am too busy sawing to take time to sharpen my saw."
strike a mindful balance between practicing your craft and thinking about how
you practice your craft.
2 more annotations...
- Of course, too much saw sharpening, or random, aimless saw sharpening, can
  become another
  form of procrastination. But a developer who seems completely disinterested
  in it at all is a huge red flag
- People are often successful not despite their dysfunctions but because of them.
  Obsessions are one of the greatest telltale signs of success. Understand
  a person's obsessions and you will understand her natural motivation. The thing
  for which she would walk to the end of the earth.

Coding Horror: Should Competent Programmers be "Mathematically Inclined"?

www.codinghorror.com/...001249.html - Preview

Programmer Developer Mathematics

They teach math all wrong in school. Way, WAY wrong. If you teach yourself math
the right way, you'll learn faster, remember it longer, and it'll be much more
valuable to you as a programmer
Nobody knows all of math, not even the best mathematicians. The field is
constantly expanding, as people invent new formalisms to solve their own
problems. And with any given math problem, just like in programming, there's
more than one way to do it. You can pick the one you like best
4 more annotations...
- If math is your preferred way to sharpen your
  saw, then have at it -- but it's hardly the only way.
- younger coders haven't had the pleasure of writing assembler or managing without
  library functions. I've always found strong math skills to be one of the most
  useful skills for coding, and when one has Google and a massive library of
  functions, one
  doesn't have to be good
  at math to get things working, until it either breaks, has edge cases, or brings
  out OS or library bugs.
- What code have you personally written where a detailed knowledge of math made
  your work easier? I can think of some broad categories. Writing a 3D game.
  Or a physics simulation. Or low-level image filters. Or compression algorithms.
  The list goes on and on. But if you're in those situations, you'll know it.
- I think most programmers are smart enough to learn whatever math they need just in time to
  attack the problem at hand.

27 Jul 09

Software Training Sucks: Why We Need to Roll it Back 1,000 Years | Software by Rob

software training through ApprenticeShip

www.softwarebyrob.com/...re-training-sucks-roll-it-back - Preview

Programmer Developer Software-Development Training Programming

learning new skills makes people more satisfied with their jobs.
well-executed training attracts developers, retains developers, and makes them happy
16 more annotations...
- knowledge of theory and experience.
- Someone who knows a lot of theory and has a little experience tends to sound
  more knowledgeable than they are.
- Their mind is mature in the ways of software, but their code is juvenile by
  comparison. It tends to be over-designed, overly complex, brittle, and lacking
  in practical areas such as error handling.
- Experience is about making mistakes
- When you study theory there are no mistakes: code is bug-free, APIs are
  perfect, and operating systems never, ever crash
- For a programmer, the more mistakes you make the better you are at writing code
- Someone with a lot of experience and a little theory tends to write code that
  runs well but is difficult to maintain and extend
- a solution lacking in design tends to want in these two areas. The larger the
  system, the worse the problem becomes
- Apprenticeship is about learning while
  doing
- mentored young men and women with the promise that they might one day take over
  the business, while in exchange the tradesman lowered their labor costs by
  having low-cost apprentices on staff.
- Most of it was not something they could learn from in school; they needed years
  of first-hand experience in order to master the trade
- most people are flattered if you ask them to be a mentor
- journeyman typically talks the apprentice through a task, demonstrates the task,
  has the apprentice perform the task, then gives feedback. Listen, watch, do,
  review
- holds a white-board discussion with the apprentice (listen). Next, the mentor
  might write sample code demonstrating a particularly difficult or confusing
  concept (watch). At this point the mentor sends the mentee off to gain their own
  experience writing code (do).
- Most software training gives you the listen and watch, but the “do and review”
  is what inspires growth and advances skills
- apprenticeship is the best way to bring new developers on board, make them feel
  at home, improve their skills, and keep them happy and growing

Why Johnny can't program

www.bricklin.com/wontprogram.htm - Preview

Programmer Programming Coding

Unless you are totally immersed in that particular programming system
(understanding the varieties and subtleties of its statements and functions) it
is very hard for most people to do this.
For example, lawyers and tax accountants routinely work with such complexity in
their contracts and planning. Doctors work with an untold number of variables.
Someone planning a big party has to work out the food, matching paper goods,
favors, invitation list, entertainment, etc. Yet, all of these people rarely
program computers in addition. It's just that people who aren't professional or
hobbyist programmers usually don't want to get so immersed in something that is
infrequently done and not part of the rest of their lives
1 more annotations...
- "typed-statement" systems is that even though each statement has an effect, you
  only see the final result

Coding Horror: When Understanding means Rewriting

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CodingHorror Programmer Programming

New code becomes old code almost instantly
5x more time spent modifying code than writing new code
11 more annotations...
- Only the coding in the first iteration qualifies as all new code. After the
  first iteration coding quickly shifts to be more and more modifying rather than
  new coding.
- our stabilization (aka bug fixing) milestones are as long as our new feature
  milestones
- Modifying code consumes much more of a professional developer's time than
  writing new code
- 3x more time spend understanding code than modifying code
- you must understand the behavior of the code so that you can guarantee that the
  refactoring didn't change anything unintended
- Understanding code is by far the activity at which professional developers
  spend most of their time.
- I think the way most developers "understand" code is to rewrite it
- very few developers are smart enough to understand code without rewriting
  it.
- Nobody wants developers to reinvent the wheel (again), but reading about how a
  wheel works is a poor substitute for the experience of driving around on a few
  wheels of your own creation
- If someone were to read the source code, do you think they could learn how to
  play [Monopoly]?"
- I was still re-learning what the code did. Sometimes by reading carefuly the
  code, and sometimes by observing the functionality. But I think I would have to
  agree with Joel, I've never "rewritten" a mature program, something with lots of
  bug fixes from lots of people. You have to really understand the code and what
  the strange bug fixes are in order to think about how you can rework the code to
  include those fixes logically, rather than attatched on the end. And if you
  can't work that out, then I guess it's probably best to leave it.

21 Jul 09

Coding Horror: Is Writing More Important Than Programming?

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Programming Programmer Career CodingHorror

The difference between a tolerable programmer and a great programmer is not how
many programming languages they know, and it's not whether they prefer Python or
Java. It's whether they can communicate their ideas. By persuading other
people, they get leverage. By writing clear comments and technical specs, they
let other programmers understand their code, which means other programmers can
use and work with their code instead of rewriting it.
There's a lot of wonderful, useful code buried on sourceforge somewhere that
nobody uses because it was created by programmers who don't write very well (or
don't write at all), and so nobody knows what they've done and their brilliant
code languishes.
2 more annotations...
- Writing code that the compiler understands is easy. Writing code that other
  people understand is far more difficult
- Programming, like all writing, is just another form of communication

Coding Horror: Skill Disparities in Programming

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Programmer Developer CodingHorror Software-Development Product-Management

Coding Horror: In Programming, One Is The Loneliest Number

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Programming Programmer Social Physology Blog CodingHorror

Is software development an activity preferred by anti-social, misanthropic
individuals who'd rather deal with computers than other people?
Like many programmers, I was drawn to computers as a child because I was an
introvert. The world of computers-- that calm, rational oasis of ones and
zeros-- seemed so much more inviting than the irrational, unexplainable world of
people and social interactions with no clear right and wrong. Computers weren't
better than people
2 more annotations...
- I can barely program these days without an active
  internet connection; I feel crippled when I'm not networked into the vast
  hive mind of programming knowledge on the internet.
- What good are nifty coding tricks if you can't show them off to anyone? How can
  you possibly learn the craft without being exposed to other programmers with
  different ideas, different approaches, and different skillsets?

Coding Horror: Does Writing Code Matter?

www.codinghorror.com/...000710.html - Preview

CodingHorror Programming Programmer Career

developers getting caught up in the code. Spending countless hours making a
function perfect or building features which show off the latest technology
the best code in the world is meaningless if nobody knows about your
product
4 more annotations...
- the importance of the code we do write is absolutely dwarfed by everything
  else that goes on around it.
- if for whatever reason your code doesn't even ship.. then have you
  really accomplished anything by writing that code?
- Writing reams of code just digs you deeper into an already deeply specialized
  skill. What I am proposing is that we spend less time coding and more
  time developing skills in other areas that complement our coding skills.
- spend some time talking to people instead of the compiler

Coding Horror: This is your Anti-Productivity Pod

"I get my best work done in the early morning, before anybody else arrives."
"In one late evening, I can do two or three days' worth of work."
"The office is a zoo all day, but by about 6 p.m., things have quieted down and you can really accomplish something."

www.codinghorror.com/...000154.html - Preview

CodingHorror Programming Programmer OfficeSpace PeopleWare Product-Management

You Never Get Anything Done Around Here Between 9 and 5
How to explain then the fact that software people as well as workers in other
thought-intensive positions are putting in so many extra hours?
2 more annotations...
- To be productive, people may come in early or stay late or even try to escape
  entirely, by staying home for a day to get a critical piece of work done
- Staying late or arriving early or staying home to work in peace is a damning
  indictment of the office environment.

Coding Horror: The Programmer's Bill of Rights

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CodingHorror Programming Programmer

Outfit your developers with fast PCs that have lots of memory. Time spent
staring at a progress bar is wasted time.

You are NOT inadequate.

You do NOT have to refactor all your code.
You do NOT have to keep up with the latest news from microsoft, and know everythnig there is to know about longhorn, whidbey, avalon, XAML, indigo and star wars III.
You do not have to have perfectly de-coupled tiers in your technology independent SOA software.
You do not have to comply to every standard, achieve the perfect balance between maintainability and performance. Usability and familiarity.
You don't have to do "first things first every day"
You DO NOT have to memorize and understand every patten the gang of four have catalogued.
You do NOT have to read every technical blog, print out every technical article and learn every technical thing there is to learn.
You are beautiful just the way you are.
You are brilliant, interesting, wise and fun to be around.
You rock.

secretgeek.net/inadequate.asp - Preview

Programmer Programming Motivation

Coding Horror: The Two Types of Programmers

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CodingHorror Programming Programmer

"just for fun"; they actively participate in open source projects; they're
always aware of the latest, coolest new trends in programming and tools.

GoIT-Postal - Programming Nowadays: Different types of programmers - about IT, programming languages and some things you better ought not to do

Types of programmer

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Programmer Programming Article

a programmer is a "lazy code writer", he re-thinks the problems and tries to
put them into as less lines of code as possible. This leads to problem,s because
he then often develops complex solutions for simple problems
speaks more than one programming language fluently and he understands the
concepts behind them
1 more annotations...
- Often he is used as an architect, but he likes to code some snippets on his own,
  too. The systems he is working on are an open book for him.

Coding Horror: How To Become a Better Programmer by Not Programming

www.codinghorror.com/...000543.html - Preview

CodingHorror Programming Programmer Career

I think after the first three or four years, it's pretty cast in concrete
whether you're a good programmer or not. After a few more years, you may
know more about managing large projects and personalities, but after three or
four years, it's clear what you're going to be.
have a natural knack for the stuff from the very beginning.
11 more annotations...
- that my best work has always involved subjects that interested me, or -- even
  better -- subjects about which I've become interested, and even passionate about
- And if I can't get excited about whatever that something else is, I really have
  trouble doing a good work as a designer. To me, the conclusion is inexcapable:
  the more things you're interested in, the better your work will be.
- Passion for coding is a wonderful thing. But it's all too easy to mindlessly,
  reflexively entrench yourself deeper and deeper into a skill that you've already
  proven yourself more than capable at many times over
- To truly become a better programmer, you have to to cultivate passion for
  everything else that goes on around the programming.
- The greatest missing skill is somebody who's both good at understanding the
  engineering and who has good relationships with the hard-core engineers, and
  bridges that to working with the customers and the marketing and things like
  that
- engineering management career track
- You won't-- you cannot-- become a better programmer through sheer force
  of programming alone
- Learn about your users. Learn about the industry. Learn about your business.
- .a good programmer knows how to translate an idea into effective code and having
  a good design phase will save you a lot of time and allow you to concentrate on
  other aspects of the project.
- A significant amount of any programmer's time is well spent measuring
  him/herself and his/her productivity, and looking for ways to optimize that. The
  payback of exploring different architectures, computing paradigms, languages,
  and algorithms is enormous.
- Specialization is for insects

Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Beyond Elvis, Einstein and Mort: New Programming Stereotypes for Web 2.0

Types of Programmer

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Programming Programmer Article

iBanjo » Blog Archive » Version Control and the… Long Gradated Scale

80 % 20 % programmer type

blog.red-bean.com/sussman - Preview

Programming Programmer Blog

“if this person were independently wealthy and didn’t need a job at all, would
they still be writing software for fun?” In other words, does the person have an
inherent passion for programming as an art?
majority of people who write software for a living do not have a deep
passion for the craft of programming, and don’t do it for fun. They consume and
use tools written by other people, and the tools need to be really user-friendly
before they get adopted

iBanjo » Blog Archive » Version Control and “the 80%”

blog.red-bean.com/sussman - Preview

Programming Software-Development Programmer Versioning

They get all excited about the latest Linux distro or AJAX toolkit or
distributed SCM system, spend all weekend on it, blog about it… and then are
confounded about why they can’t get their office to start using it.
git, mercurial, bazaar-ng, darcs, monotone

Navneet Kumar's Library tagged programmer → View Popular

Coding Horror: Don't Be Afraid to Break Stuff

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

Coding Horror: Sharpening the Saw

Coding Horror: Should Competent Programmers be "Mathematically Inclined"?

Software Training Sucks: Why We Need to Roll it Back 1,000 Years | Software by Rob

Why Johnny can't program

Coding Horror: When Understanding means Rewriting

Coding Horror: Is Writing More Important Than Programming?

Coding Horror: Skill Disparities in Programming

Coding Horror: In Programming, One Is The Loneliest Number

Coding Horror: Does Writing Code Matter?

Coding Horror: This is your Anti-Productivity Pod

Coding Horror: The Programmer's Bill of Rights

You are NOT inadequate.

Coding Horror: The Two Types of Programmers

GoIT-Postal - Programming Nowadays: Different types of programmers - about IT, programming languages and some things you better ought not to do

Coding Horror: How To Become a Better Programmer by Not Programming

Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Beyond Elvis, Einstein and Mort: New Programming Stereotypes for Web 2.0

iBanjo » Blog Archive » Version Control and the… Long Gradated Scale

iBanjo » Blog Archive » Version Control and “the 80%”

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