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Aug 25, 2017
How often do you usually "smooth sail" when coding?
Full-time devs (pro or amateur), just curious, how often do you find yourself "smooth sailing" through writing code, versus actually finding some challenges/roadblocks that you have to lookup in order to solve? Do you find the smooth sailing through code increases as you gain more experience or are there pretty much always new challenges which force you to stop and think, if not hit a brick wall?
Responses(5)
I voted for 50% of the time. However, that's while I'm coding something in a language that I've used for over a decade. The brain can only hold so much, and as you get older, it will always seem to be filled to the brim. That's what search engines are for... reference, verification and discovery.
Right now, learning Go - which is officially the first programming language I've decided to deep dive into without fully ever coding in C or Java or a language you'd need to compile - I'd say I'm around 15%-25%, at this point. Completely self-taught in every skill set and never going to college, sometimes it feels like I'm storming the beach at Normandy without a firearm.
Programming, in general, is invigorating, confusing and disappointing - all at once. With new things popping up to accommodate the hyper-acceleration of technology (Moore's Law), it seems impossible if you don't force yourself to focus on something for a few years without getting sidetracked.
I also feel that anyone who claims "All the time..." (unless they were just kidding around) is quite possibly the most egotistical fool you'd ever have the displeasure meeting.
75% is pushing it, as well, however, some of us just grind - and, as someone who teaches private classes - I can honestly say I can meet that level once focused and uninterrupted. I'm extremely self-defamating though, and would rather force myself to evolve within my skill sets than to make an assumption that I'm wonderful at them. lol
I don't necessarily have to lookup something to overcome a roadblock, but sometimes I'll be "smooth sailing" when I come across a piece of code that makes me stop and ask about how I'll handle certain situations, typically "what if a user does this...?" I often realize that a user could break my code with certain odd behaviors that could happen, though might not happen that often. In those cases, I can get stopped for quite a while. I work from home, so I might go fold some laundry or vacuum the house or something while noodling on the issue.
Depends If I'm designing and implementing a solution from scratch or if I am working on an already existing implementation without any documentation.
Gergely Polonkai
You have to believe in things that are not true. How else would they become?
I'm pretty much always code sailing. Yet, I'm no way a Coding God.
As I wrote in another answer of mine, I don't code all the time. I spend a good portion of my time with thinking, planning, and researching things, technologies, and other people's solutions. When I'm all done with that, I open my trustworthy Emacs, and write the actual code and tests for it (not necessarily in that order).
This is when I create new features. When fixing bugs, the whole process changes. I write a test which, obviously, fails. Then I find the entry point to access that bug, and with all the needed input in my head, go through the code line by line. Then I fix the bug, again most probably sailing, run the (now green) tests, commit, push, profit!
Except when the bug is so sneaky even my rubber duck can't help. Then I just randomly press keys until the bug disappears.