Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Tony Wright]

In the early days of ReSharper there seemed to be a lot of benefit out of
using it, but the pain was increased instability when it was added to
Visual Studio - it used to crash Visual Studio frequently. Nowadays, it
does seem to be more stable, but with much less benefit. Many of the more
commonly used shortcuts actually have equivalents in plain old Visual
Studio itself. It is for that reason I actually don't bother. I will go
with whatever I am given.

I do get the feeling that there is such a thing as a Resharper snob,
however. That is, people who will judge your level of technical competence
by whether you use Resharper or not. Not really fair IMO but hey, people in
this industry do have to find their egos somehow (and man, have I seen a
few ginormous egos in this industry. This is not aimed at you Preet, just a
general development comment.) So they can be a crap developer whether they
use it or not, but simply the association Resharper has with technical
ability and quality is transferred to the developer, possibly without
providing any concrete benefit, and improving others view of the developer
without merit..



On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 7:37 PM, Stephen Price 
wrote:

> Not really much to add, but I do acknowledge you for taking an interest in
> your teams skill development. Its a rare trait.
> Sure you have a self interest in productivity, nothing wrong with that.
>
> Unfortunately theres a saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can't
> make it drink.  Keep encouraging and you will get there eventually. There
> might be blocks like "just a job" developers or in the deep end junior devs
> etc.
> I have found code reviews are great for passing knowledge. Explaining what
> your code does is never a waste of time (i always spot things i can fix up
> or improve while explaining something)
> Invite them to user group meetings.
>
> End of the day you might just have a junior developer who is going to take
> years to get to where you imagine she should be. Remember thats your
> expectation not hers.
>
> So much for not much to add. Lol
> Good luck
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 11:48 AM +0800, "Preet Sangha" <
> preetsan...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.
>
> I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came from
> a Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) for a few
> years now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much
> experience of many of the productivity features available in modern tools
> like visual studio, or the OS or office for instance.
>
>
> By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense (well
> some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring for
> instance. I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution
> (PF5 etc), or to use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper
> are a pipe dream it seems. I felt as though I was doing magic incantations
> when I started writing some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is
> sort of 'most manual way possible" it sometimes seems.
>
> Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that her
> productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this factor.
> I know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating other use
> my style however I do feel that a modern developer should be aware of the
> capabilities of their development environments.  If her productivity was OK
> I wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.
>
> What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training that
> would help her productivity and thus personal development. I've tried
> putting together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's
> always there) playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the training,
> and then stopped to get some work done". I've been more than happy for her
> to actually do the courses lowering the workload for this reason.
>
> I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be hamstrung.
> Can anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how perhaps I
> could approach this in a more positive way please?
>
> Preet.
>

Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Stephen Price]

Not really much to add, but I do acknowledge you for taking an interest in your 
teams skill development. Its a rare trait.
Sure you have a self interest in productivity, nothing wrong with that.

Unfortunately theres a saying, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make 
it drink.  Keep encouraging and you will get there eventually. There might be 
blocks like "just a job" developers or in the deep end junior devs etc.
I have found code reviews are great for passing knowledge. Explaining what your 
code does is never a waste of time (i always spot things i can fix up or 
improve while explaining something)
Invite them to user group meetings.

End of the day you might just have a junior developer who is going to take 
years to get to where you imagine she should be. Remember thats your 
expectation not hers.

So much for not much to add. Lol
Good luck



On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 11:48 AM +0800, "Preet Sangha" 
> wrote:

Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.

I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came from a 
Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) for a few years 
now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much experience of many 
of the productivity features available in modern tools like visual studio, or 
the OS or office for instance.


By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense (well 
some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring for instance. 
I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution (PF5 etc), or to 
use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper are a pipe dream it 
seems. I felt as though I was doing magic incantations when I started writing 
some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is sort of 'most manual way 
possible" it sometimes seems.

Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that her 
productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this factor. I 
know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating other use my 
style however I do feel that a modern developer should be aware of the 
capabilities of their development environments.  If her productivity was OK I 
wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.

What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training that would 
help her productivity and thus personal development. I've tried putting 
together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's always there) 
playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the training, and then stopped 
to get some work done". I've been more than happy for her to actually do the 
courses lowering the workload for this reason.

I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be hamstrung. Can 
anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how perhaps I could 
approach this in a more positive way please?

Preet.

Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Tom Rutter]

I must be the only one that uses the toolbars still. Never used resharper
either. I may be missing out

On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha  wrote:

> Thankyou.  I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt for the time being.
> But I'll take your advice for my self too. Funny I can't recall the last
> time I used a toolbar in vs but for some reason I've never switched them
> off.
>
> On 19/07/2016 7:10 pm, "Wallace Turner"  > wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> >>Yeah I reckon I must be bombarding her - I'll ease up a bit.
>>
>> I don't know all the details but someone (especially as a programmer)
>> should know their own shortcomings (eg, oh i can't believe i was doing it
>> that way!) and be doing everything possible to get up to speed otherwise I
>> would question the quality of the person as a programmer.
>>
>> As for addressing the problem I find learning all the resharper shortcuts
>> vital - not learning them by heart perhaps but going thru them one at a
>> time, looking at how you would normally select/highlight/refactor something
>> and see how much quicker it is with R#
>>
>>
>> https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/docs/ReSharper_DefaultKeymap_VSscheme.pdf
>>
>> Also get rid of ALL the menu bars in visual studio
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 12:55 PM, Tom Rutter > > wrote:
>>
>>> Yeap I like this idea. Just watching videos with lots of shortcuts gets
>>> old real quick. Good luck and let us know how it goes, I'm curious how it
>>> works out.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha >> > wrote:
>>>
 This is what I've been trying to do this past week. Yeah I reckon I
 must be bombarding her - I'll ease up a bit.

 Thanks


 On 19 July 2016 at 16:16, DotNet Dude  wrote:

> I'd prioritise the most productive tools/keystrokes in terms of
> productivity and have her do some pair programming. You or someone else 
> who
> sits with her can occasionally ask her to use some shortcuts. Just don't
> bombard her with shortcuts as she won't absorb them. One or two per pair
> session should help a lot.
>
> On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha  wrote:
>
>> Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.
>>
>> I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came
>> from a Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) 
>> for
>> a few years now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much
>> experience of many of the productivity features available in modern tools
>> like visual studio, or the OS or office for instance.
>>
>>
>> By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense
>> (well some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring 
>> for
>> instance. I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution
>> (PF5 etc), or to use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper
>> are a pipe dream it seems. I felt as though I was doing magic 
>> incantations
>> when I started writing some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is
>> sort of 'most manual way possible" it sometimes seems.
>>
>> Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that
>> her productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this
>> factor. I know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating
>> other use my style however I do feel that a modern developer should be
>> aware of the capabilities of their development environments.  If her
>> productivity was OK I wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.
>>
>> What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training
>> that would help her productivity and thus personal development. I've 
>> tried
>> putting together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's
>> always there) playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the 
>> training,
>> and then stopped to get some work done". I've been more than happy for 
>> her
>> to actually do the courses lowering the workload for this reason.
>>
>> I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be
>> hamstrung. Can anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how
>> perhaps I could approach this in a more positive way please?
>>
>> Preet.
>>
>

>>

Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Wallace Turner]

>>Yeah I reckon I must be bombarding her - I'll ease up a bit.

I don't know all the details but someone (especially as a programmer)
should know their own shortcomings (eg, oh i can't believe i was doing it
that way!) and be doing everything possible to get up to speed otherwise I
would question the quality of the person as a programmer.

As for addressing the problem I find learning all the resharper shortcuts
vital - not learning them by heart perhaps but going thru them one at a
time, looking at how you would normally select/highlight/refactor something
and see how much quicker it is with R#

https://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/docs/ReSharper_DefaultKeymap_VSscheme.pdf

Also get rid of ALL the menu bars in visual studio


On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 12:55 PM, Tom Rutter  wrote:

> Yeap I like this idea. Just watching videos with lots of shortcuts gets
> old real quick. Good luck and let us know how it goes, I'm curious how it
> works out.
>
>
> On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha  wrote:
>
>> This is what I've been trying to do this past week. Yeah I reckon I must
>> be bombarding her - I'll ease up a bit.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
>> On 19 July 2016 at 16:16, DotNet Dude  wrote:
>>
>>> I'd prioritise the most productive tools/keystrokes in terms of
>>> productivity and have her do some pair programming. You or someone else who
>>> sits with her can occasionally ask her to use some shortcuts. Just don't
>>> bombard her with shortcuts as she won't absorb them. One or two per pair
>>> session should help a lot.
>>>
>>> On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha  wrote:
>>>
 Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.

 I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came
 from a Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) for
 a few years now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much
 experience of many of the productivity features available in modern tools
 like visual studio, or the OS or office for instance.


 By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense
 (well some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring for
 instance. I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution
 (PF5 etc), or to use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper
 are a pipe dream it seems. I felt as though I was doing magic incantations
 when I started writing some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is
 sort of 'most manual way possible" it sometimes seems.

 Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that
 her productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this
 factor. I know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating
 other use my style however I do feel that a modern developer should be
 aware of the capabilities of their development environments.  If her
 productivity was OK I wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.

 What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training that
 would help her productivity and thus personal development. I've tried
 putting together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's
 always there) playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the training,
 and then stopped to get some work done". I've been more than happy for her
 to actually do the courses lowering the workload for this reason.

 I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be
 hamstrung. Can anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how
 perhaps I could approach this in a more positive way please?

 Preet.

>>>
>>

Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Tom Rutter]

Yeap I like this idea. Just watching videos with lots of shortcuts gets old
real quick. Good luck and let us know how it goes, I'm curious how it works
out.

On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha  wrote:

> This is what I've been trying to do this past week. Yeah I reckon I must
> be bombarding her - I'll ease up a bit.
>
> Thanks
>
>
> On 19 July 2016 at 16:16, DotNet Dude  > wrote:
>
>> I'd prioritise the most productive tools/keystrokes in terms of
>> productivity and have her do some pair programming. You or someone else who
>> sits with her can occasionally ask her to use some shortcuts. Just don't
>> bombard her with shortcuts as she won't absorb them. One or two per pair
>> session should help a lot.
>>
>> On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha > > wrote:
>>
>>> Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.
>>>
>>> I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came
>>> from a Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) for
>>> a few years now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much
>>> experience of many of the productivity features available in modern tools
>>> like visual studio, or the OS or office for instance.
>>>
>>>
>>> By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense
>>> (well some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring for
>>> instance. I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution
>>> (PF5 etc), or to use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper
>>> are a pipe dream it seems. I felt as though I was doing magic incantations
>>> when I started writing some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is
>>> sort of 'most manual way possible" it sometimes seems.
>>>
>>> Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that her
>>> productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this factor.
>>> I know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating other use
>>> my style however I do feel that a modern developer should be aware of the
>>> capabilities of their development environments.  If her productivity was OK
>>> I wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.
>>>
>>> What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training that
>>> would help her productivity and thus personal development. I've tried
>>> putting together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's
>>> always there) playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the training,
>>> and then stopped to get some work done". I've been more than happy for her
>>> to actually do the courses lowering the workload for this reason.
>>>
>>> I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be
>>> hamstrung. Can anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how
>>> perhaps I could approach this in a more positive way please?
>>>
>>> Preet.
>>>
>>
>

Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Preet Sangha]

This is what I've been trying to do this past week. Yeah I reckon I must be
bombarding her - I'll ease up a bit.

Thanks


On 19 July 2016 at 16:16, DotNet Dude  wrote:

> I'd prioritise the most productive tools/keystrokes in terms of
> productivity and have her do some pair programming. You or someone else who
> sits with her can occasionally ask her to use some shortcuts. Just don't
> bombard her with shortcuts as she won't absorb them. One or two per pair
> session should help a lot.
>
> On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha  wrote:
>
>> Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.
>>
>> I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came from
>> a Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) for a few
>> years now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much
>> experience of many of the productivity features available in modern tools
>> like visual studio, or the OS or office for instance.
>>
>>
>> By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense (well
>> some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring for
>> instance. I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution
>> (PF5 etc), or to use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper
>> are a pipe dream it seems. I felt as though I was doing magic incantations
>> when I started writing some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is
>> sort of 'most manual way possible" it sometimes seems.
>>
>> Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that her
>> productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this factor.
>> I know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating other use
>> my style however I do feel that a modern developer should be aware of the
>> capabilities of their development environments.  If her productivity was OK
>> I wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.
>>
>> What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training that
>> would help her productivity and thus personal development. I've tried
>> putting together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's
>> always there) playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the training,
>> and then stopped to get some work done". I've been more than happy for her
>> to actually do the courses lowering the workload for this reason.
>>
>> I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be
>> hamstrung. Can anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how
>> perhaps I could approach this in a more positive way please?
>>
>> Preet.
>>
>

Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Preet Sangha]

About 18 months. I've just taken this project new project.

regards,
Preet, in Auckland NZ


On 19 July 2016 at 16:10, Tom Rutter  wrote:

> I'm more of a manual guy myself and have become pretty efficient but it
> only came with experience and coding for a while. How long has she been
> with your team?
>
>

Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[DotNet Dude]

I'd prioritise the most productive tools/keystrokes in terms of
productivity and have her do some pair programming. You or someone else who
sits with her can occasionally ask her to use some shortcuts. Just don't
bombard her with shortcuts as she won't absorb them. One or two per pair
session should help a lot.

On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha  wrote:

> Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.
>
> I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came from
> a Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) for a few
> years now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much
> experience of many of the productivity features available in modern tools
> like visual studio, or the OS or office for instance.
>
>
> By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense (well
> some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring for
> instance. I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution
> (PF5 etc), or to use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper
> are a pipe dream it seems. I felt as though I was doing magic incantations
> when I started writing some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is
> sort of 'most manual way possible" it sometimes seems.
>
> Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that her
> productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this factor.
> I know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating other use
> my style however I do feel that a modern developer should be aware of the
> capabilities of their development environments.  If her productivity was OK
> I wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.
>
> What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training that
> would help her productivity and thus personal development. I've tried
> putting together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's
> always there) playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the training,
> and then stopped to get some work done". I've been more than happy for her
> to actually do the courses lowering the workload for this reason.
>
> I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be hamstrung.
> Can anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how perhaps I
> could approach this in a more positive way please?
>
> Preet.
>

Re: Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Tom Rutter]

I'm more of a manual guy myself and have become pretty efficient but it
only came with experience and coding for a while. How long has she been
with your team?

On Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Preet Sangha  wrote:

> Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.
>
> I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came from
> a Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) for a few
> years now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much
> experience of many of the productivity features available in modern tools
> like visual studio, or the OS or office for instance.
>
>
> By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense (well
> some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring for
> instance. I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution
> (PF5 etc), or to use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper
> are a pipe dream it seems. I felt as though I was doing magic incantations
> when I started writing some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is
> sort of 'most manual way possible" it sometimes seems.
>
> Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that her
> productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this factor.
> I know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating other use
> my style however I do feel that a modern developer should be aware of the
> capabilities of their development environments.  If her productivity was OK
> I wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.
>
> What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training that
> would help her productivity and thus personal development. I've tried
> putting together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's
> always there) playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the training,
> and then stopped to get some work done". I've been more than happy for her
> to actually do the courses lowering the workload for this reason.
>
> I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be hamstrung.
> Can anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how perhaps I
> could approach this in a more positive way please?
>
> Preet.
>

Training/Mentoring a developer who doesn't seem to use many modern development productivity tools

[Preet Sangha]

Guys I wonder if I can ask for some advice please.

I'm currently leading a project with a developer who originally came from a
Delphi background but has been using visual studio (C++ and C#) for a few
years now. However I'm finding that she doesn't seem to have much
experience of many of the productivity features available in modern tools
like visual studio, or the OS or office for instance.


By these I mean even simple things like autoformating, intellisense (well
some), keystrokes to comment/uncomment, snippets, or  refactoring for
instance. I even had to teach her to do auto build on starting execution
(PF5 etc), or to use the keyboard to save or build. Things like resharper
are a pipe dream it seems. I felt as though I was doing magic incantations
when I started writing some unit tests... Nearly everything she does is
sort of 'most manual way possible" it sometimes seems.

Now generally I'm happy to let other do it their way but I find that her
productivity is very low and I'm thinking part of it might be this factor.
I know we all have different styles, and I'm far from dictating other use
my style however I do feel that a modern developer should be aware of the
capabilities of their development environments.  If her productivity was OK
I wouldn't care how she used whatever tool.

What I'd like to do is encourage her to do some directed training that
would help her productivity and thus personal development. I've tried
putting together some Pluralsight (it's paid for by our employers so it's
always there) playlists for her, but I get the "I did some of the training,
and then stopped to get some work done". I've been more than happy for her
to actually do the courses lowering the workload for this reason.

I'd really like her to get the best out of her tools and not be hamstrung.
Can anyone with experience of this kind of thing tell how how perhaps I
could approach this in a more positive way please?

Preet.