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What makes a good developer?

  • June 13, 2003 at 4:45 am

    #461245

    Cool game.

    Now I have something to take me to 3pm when it's "coffee" time .

    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!

  • June 13, 2003 at 4:53 am

    #461250

    I agree with point 6. Event if you seem like an asshole, you have to come to a point where you say no.

    Scope creep sets in and you look like the idiot at the end of the day.

    Your example of messages not to put in has got many people in trouble. Myself included.

    I used to fill text fields with swear words to to see how the formatting looks etc.

    Unknown to me, the client was told the site is "ready".

    Had a bit of explaining to do.

    Your whoohoo message: We bought a dll from a company. This was part of a service which clients connected to. It worked once then stopped. When we went to have a look at the server, there was a message box. "Willie is hier 1" (Willie is here 1) Clicked ok. "Willie is hier 2" The IDIOT had shipped his dll with a message inside a _LARGE_ loop.

    I left the mouse resting on the Esc key and went for a smoke.....

    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!

  • June 13, 2003 at 4:53 am

    #461249

    Good question!

    Well IMHO a good developer is a good visualizer and tansformer i.e. visualizes the problem its pros and cons its limitation and then transform it to any language he knows or always can learn a new language.

    regards.

  • June 13, 2003 at 4:56 am

    #461252

    Oops, remembered the one I forgot.

    A good developer will keep a snippet file (DB or whatever) of usefull, reusable code to speed himself along.

  • June 13, 2003 at 4:58 am

    #461253

    Hi Antares686,

    quote:

    4) If you deal with customers directly a good developer must be able to talk their language and present concepts in a way they will understand.

    the customer is king. Even if he doesn't know what he wants (and sometimes isn't able to express how he's doing his work). Think what you want, but don't tell. A good poker face suddenly becomes valuable!

    quote:

    7) And finally a good developer must be able to take the slumps and still keep a calm front going especially with the customer and never use negative statements (can't, won't, no, etc) but instead build the relationship by using sidestepping words for stuff you have not accomplished (will be looked into, researching possibilites, work on alternate solutions where limitations arise). This creates a positive reenforcement that your customers needs are important to you.

    actually you can learn VERY much on words and their usuage when you deal with marketing or sales guys. After each meeting I must attend I think how less german words I know. That's what we call here Bullsh*t bingo

    Cheers,

    Frank

    --
    Frank Kalis
    Microsoft SQL Server MVP
    Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
    My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url]

  • June 13, 2003 at 5:00 am

    #461254

    Hello Site Owners,

    quote:

    I agree with point 6. Event if you seem like an asshole, you have to come to a point where you say no.

    can someone of you please take care of the bad words filtering. I feel offended

    Cheers,

    Frank

    --
    Frank Kalis
    Microsoft SQL Server MVP
    Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
    My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url]

  • June 13, 2003 at 5:05 am

    #461255

    quote:

    Event if you seem like an asshole, you have to come to a point where you say no.

    Scope creep sets in and you look like the idiot at the end of the day.

    Actually I think you missed the lines meaning. If I want to say no, I say "We are looking into alternate solutions which will be applied in a future release when ready.". I still said no but they don't hear it that way, they think it is a future enhancement. No scope creep and customer thinks they have won. In fact they generally have to remember to include on the ehancements for the next version and it is a whole new project. You can say no without using the word itself.

    Edited by - antares686 on 06/13/2003 05:09:51 AM

  • June 13, 2003 at 5:18 am

    #461258

    quote:

    Actually I think you missed the lines meaning. If I want to say no, I say "We are looking into alternate solutions which will be applied in a future release when ready.". I still said no but they don't hear it that way, they think it is a future enhancement. No scope creep and customer thinks they have won. In fact they generally have to remember to include on the ehancements for the next version and it is a whole new project. You can say no without using the word itself.

    Looks like you're back from some rhetoric, presentation technique seminar...

    But it's amazing how much influence words have. While still meaning the same, you can say something like "This is sh*t what you have done" or you can say "This can be further improved"

    Cheers,

    Frank

    --
    Frank Kalis
    Microsoft SQL Server MVP
    Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
    My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url]

  • June 13, 2003 at 5:28 am

    #461260

    quote:

    Looks like you're back from some rhetoric, presentation technique seminar...

    Not me...Actually I recently was listening to the other developers and realized they came close to losing a project with their wording. And on the next day I had to present an Out-Of-Box app I was not familiar with entirely and found the customer actually gave more when I stated future enhancement possiblity and let me research that requirement and possible alternate solutions if not an Out-Of-Box ability.It means a lot that they are heard even if it is not an immediate possibility in many, many, many cases (not all).

  • June 13, 2003 at 5:37 am

    #461261

    quote:

    Not me...Actually I recently was listening to the other developers and realized they came close to losing a project with their wording. And on the next day I had to present an Out-Of-Box app I was not familiar with entirely and found the customer actually gave more when I stated future enhancement possiblity and let me research that requirement and possible alternate solutions if not an Out-Of-Box ability.It means a lot that they are heard even if it is not an immediate possibility in many, many, many cases (not all).

    That's it. Nobody is interested in talking about problem and things like this, instead they want to hear how you solve them. Or in your case, what the future will bring.

    But in some cases this is a razor's edge.

    You easily get that euphoric that you tell the customer what he wants to hear, eg. app can make coffee, solve world problem..and suddenly you're a salesman!

    Cheers,

    Frank

    --
    Frank Kalis
    Microsoft SQL Server MVP
    Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
    My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url]

  • June 13, 2003 at 5:40 am

    #461263

    quote:

    You easily get that euphoric that you tell the customer what he wants to hear, eg. app can make coffee, solve world problem..and suddenly you're a salesman!

    Or as they are commonly called System Analyst. You have to be carefull if you don't want to go there.

  • June 13, 2003 at 5:45 am

    #461266

    hm,... what also hasn't been adressed yet, is what type is the typical programmer?

    I mean, from watching movies?!? one can get the impression that the typical programmer is isolated surrounded by his monitors, not older than 25, has friends, if at all, only within chatrooms, when programming c,c++ or assembler is fat and ugly (thanks for jurassic park I for this) and makes his tax return in hexadecimal...

    Doesn't sound like reality, or?

    Cheers,

    Frank

    --
    Frank Kalis
    Microsoft SQL Server MVP
    Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
    My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url]

  • June 13, 2003 at 6:10 am

    #461270

    Frank,

    try google - when was the last time any movie was a reflection on reality ... 🙂

    some body had posted earlier that you could probably find the meaning of life on google..i think he's got it all wrong - the meaning of life is google 🙂

  • June 13, 2003 at 6:32 am

    #461274

    Hi GRN,

    quote:

    try google - when was the last time any movie was a reflection on reality ... :-

    after posting it came to my mind that seeing last time reality in movies is only a few days ago.

    Have you seen Matrix Reloaded?

    Have you watched how Trinity performs the hack?

    nothing visual, nothing mysterious like hacking scenes I've seen before.

    no, all she does is use the shell and the nmap utility ( http://www.nmap.org ).

    Anyway, if Google is the meaning of life what about this http://www.alltooflat.com/geeky/elgoog/ ??

    Cheers,

    Frank

    Edited by - a5xo3z1 on 06/13/2003 06:32:38 AM

    --
    Frank Kalis
    Microsoft SQL Server MVP
    Webmaster: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs
    My blog: http://www.insidesql.org/blogs/frankkalis/[/url]

  • June 13, 2003 at 7:07 am

    #461279

    Here is the ultimate time filler game!

    http://www.superliminal.com/cube/cube.htm

    Download the NT version. The file name might be truncated...

    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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