What makes a good developer?
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Well, what exactly do I do? Is it a science, a craft, art, voodoo?
On the day I do science, humor is important. Big step back to see what i missed. '43!!! Uhh, no, I mean 42!!!'
When it's art, courage is important. Not knowing how to do something but still willing to look silly, asking basic questions and making mistakes. And trying things nobody else has, or has been willing to try.
The hardest days are the 'work as a craft' days, sitting around the table with the journeyman and the masters, listening to what they think about what I've made. Humility. Tough one. Or giving a candid opinion of somebody else's work. Generosity.
And then there's when I tell my boss that I can shave 10 seconds off an 11 second query by tomorrow. Sure, I just add a primary key (that I originally forgot), but he doesn't need to know that. Or when the broken communication between your 2nd tier and your database fixes itself, that's voodoo. Have faith.
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at us, very deafly, a most stares
collosal hoax of clocks and calendars
eecummings
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at us, very deafly, a most stares
collosal hoax of clocks and calendars
eecummings -
quote:
Is it someone that understands logic or is it purly intelligence?I'm sure intelligence helps, but I think that a combination of logic, organization, resourcefulness, and experience are very important.
Perhaps most important of all is the never-ending desire to learn something new.
-- Tim
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Yep, back to the serious notes ...
Here's the complete reference if you want to know a 'real' programmer from 'the crowd'
:http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/hack/realmen.html
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Real programmers don't need abstract concepts to get their jobs done: they are perfectly happy with a keypunch, a FORTRAN IV compiler, and a beer.So we're back to the beer bit ROTFLOL...
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When it's art, courage is important. Not knowing how to do something but still willing to look silly, asking basic questions and making mistakes. And trying things nobody else has, or has been willing to try.Seriously, this is probably the best discription I have heard so far.
NPeeters: Yes, beer back again. 🙂
Spell check. This is a required too by all developers I know.
Without it, I am lost. Most of these posts I write in word or outlook to ensure the spelling is correct....
Cheers,
Crispin
Cheers,CrispinI can't die, there are too many people who still have to meet me!It's not a bug, SQL just misunderstood me!
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Hello Crispin,
one important thing I've forgot..
the ability to blame everything on the user. And this with conviction
Obviously this discussion is a mixture of humor and not so much humor. I'd like to add one link (maybe there are a few who doesn't know this already)
http://mindprod.com/unmain.html
And I'm looking for a second I saw a while ago. When I find it, I'll post it
Cheers,
Frank
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
I've found the links
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~susan/joke/quiche.htm
http://www.baetzler.de/humor/programmers_hunt_elephants.html
...and demonstrated a good developer's attitude. Not to give up too early. and the job can be very frustrating from time to time. Coming back to seriousity. What has been forgotten to be mentioned yet, is that you need to be backed up by an understanding family. At least from my experience I didn't have a 9-5 job. There were countless evenings and sometimes even weekends I spent at the office when we need to keep a deadline. There were also several occasions when I spent the evenings with the customers to get things going on his system. If your family has no understanding for this, one day you change your job or your family changes dad. Being a good programmer is like a road that never ends. Woh, that pretty philosophical for 8:45 in the morning (and only one cup of coffee with no beer)
Cheers,
Frank
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
Frank, you're killing me.
That first link has tears coming out of my eys. I keep imagining what I would do if I took over code like that. I would hunt him down and kill him!
Have not yet seen the next two links.
It's to early for so much humour.
Cheers,
Crispin
Cheers,CrispinI can't die, there are too many people who still have to meet me!It's not a bug, SQL just misunderstood me!
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Hello Crispin,
quote:
Have not yet seen the next two links.this one http://buttload.svana.org/ehunt.html was really what I was looking for!!! If you have a weak heart, be careful!
Have a good and successfull day!
Cheers,
Frank
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
If I get given my months notice, I am gonna convert all my code to the standards set out in the first document...
Cheers,
Crispin
Cheers,CrispinI can't die, there are too many people who still have to meet me!It's not a bug, SQL just misunderstood me!
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I once got into trouble during a code review by the client.
My error handler was called Hell.
In the code it read: On Error GoTo Hell
Client lacked the sense of humour....
Cheers,
Crispin
Cheers,CrispinI can't die, there are too many people who still have to meet me!It's not a bug, SQL just misunderstood me!
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LOL Crispin, this is way too good.
I'm adding this to our coding guidelines...
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Hello NPeeters,
quote:
I'm adding this to our coding guidelines...that's another serious question.
Do you have coding guidelines throughout your company?
Do you see the need for this?
How many developer are working for your company?
Cheers,
Frank
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
*Putting on the serious hat again*
Yes, we do have coding guidelines.
Yes, I do see the need.
We are only 10 in our company.
IMHO, coding guidelines are needed even if you are a one man company/team. Once you define a standard naming convention and stuff, it gets easier to find stuff in your own code.
Problems arise when you put away your code for a couple of months and have to do some new work on it. If you stick to your guidelines, it will be easier to get back into it.
What should be in coding guidelines?
1. Naming convention (for variables and stuff)
2. Comment block for functions and files
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quote:
What should be in coding guidelines?1. Naming convention (for variables and stuff)
2. Comment block for functions and files
Agreed on this. I wasn't sure about the definition of coding guidelines. I though of something like using this or that programming approach. Hm,... thinking about this, I have a question that I'll start a new topic on.
Cheers,
Frank
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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url] -
I agree with guide lines.
We have about 30 developers most work in all common languages.
I am busy putting a document together with the guidlines.
Most people actually have the same standards, just a few variations here and there.
The problem with techies is that we are hard headed people.
Unless you can show me exactly why your way is better than mine, I battle to change my ways.
Thanks to Frank, I have now a HUGE list of "not to do's" in Naming Convention.
DO NOT CALL YOUR VARIABLES SuperMan, MarryPoppins etc.
Extract from document:
quote:
Names From Mathematics: Choose variable names that masquerade as mathematical operators, e.g.:openParen = (slash + asterix) / equals;
Bedazzling Names: Choose variable names with irrelevant emotional connotation. e.g.:
marypoppins = (superman + starship) / god;
This confuses the reader because they have difficulty disassociating the emotional connotations of the words from the logic they're trying to think about.
I killed myself laughing when I read that!
Cheers,
Crispin
Cheers,CrispinI can't die, there are too many people who still have to meet me!It's not a bug, SQL just misunderstood me!
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