Actually the post has reminded me of a University lecture I had (many, many
years ago) where the lecturer gave some incredibly low figure for the number of
lines of code written daily by professional programmers. Nobody thought the
figure could be so low - after all we cranked out programs at a great rate. It
was only after I started working professionally that I really understood what
was going on.
At university our programs didn't have to work. They had to work 'mostly'. They
didn't drive displays for hospital machines nor did they control nuclear
reactors. In addition to this, nobody else would work on them, they didn't have
to be readable by anyone else, they didn't have to follow any standards. We
could churn this stuff out and impress.
Then I started work. Suddenly my software was going to be used by thousands of
people. If it failed (yes, it did have some assembler) it would corrupt the
disc drives it controlled to write data away. Finally, I had to sit down first
and design it, talk about it, keep the documentation up to date, co-operate
with others and eventually hand it over so others could maintain and develop it
further without me. Suddenly I was that professional programmer, suddenly I
didn't write much code every day. As far as I know, my code never corrupted any
disc drive.
Then our lecturer explained that when he spent late nights out at parties, or
just went into marathon coding sessions, he usually spent the next day fixing
all the stupid things he did the morning after, or the night before. He didn't
do the late night thing anymore, or if he did he didn't attempt to write code
the morning after.
Now I wish my code were as good as that first project I did. I have done the
late nights, I have written the bad code, bugs are something I know only too
well. One thing I do know is that the more time I spend not coding, the less
code I need to write and the better my applications are. I write the least code
I can and I produce the fewest components that I can and I often look back and
wonder how I spent so long writing so little code, that looks so simple.
One great thing about avoiding end to end coding sessions - it allows you to
step back from the project and find that simpler approach that just doesn't
appear when your head is buried in the code. The gaps between intense coding
are important and arguably as productive in taking you out of blind alleys or
complicated scenarios that can be simplified.
I happen to think that's the best way to be and I'd ask anyone involved in
regular code marathons to really consider if it actually helps (either them or
the project).
I actually used to admire a project manager that used to spend much of his time
sat at an empty desk, often reading a newspaper. He always seemed to know the
right thing to do and wrote great code. Others thought he just wasted his time.
Enough,
Paul
(hey, I hardly even mentioned documentation. Documentation takes far longer
than coding..)
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Andrews
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 1:43 AM
Subject: Re: [flexcoders] Re: Best Way to learn Flex
----- Original Message -----
From: DreamCode
To: flexcoders@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2007 1:18 AM
Subject: Re: [flexcoders] Re: Best Way to learn Flex
In the past 50-60 days I have been learning Flex I have gone to bed before
4am once, gotten up after 8.30am once and skipped 20-30% of all nights
completely.
Strangely enough, it's not something I'd be advertising, nor something I can
see Adobe promoting as sound practice, though sadly, I know where you are
coming from.
.... In retrospect it would probably have been smarter doing a "Hello
World" instead of a massive project based 90% on custom components and
convoluted data access.
Absolutely.
If you want it bad enough you will make it!
I've never understood why people are happy to boast they work this way. It's
hardly good for the individual, project or industry.
Quite honestly, I saw Flex as a way to avoid ridiculous working hours and mad
sessions (and I hope one day it turns out that way).
YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A VAMPIRE TO LEARN FLEX!
LOL
;-)
Paul
--Allan
