The Art of programming

J.Hilk

@mrjj
😨 fine 🙄

But let's be honest, everything starts with int as in int main()

SGaist

@J-Hilk said in How to enter Images in a listWidget inside tabWidget:

@mrjj
😨 fine 🙄

But let's be honest, everything starts with int as in int main()

Unless you use Python :-P

JonB

@mrjj
"design", "specification", "testing", "documentation". Are these from a computer science course? Next you'll be saying we should use "comments". I don't think they are intended for Real Programmers....

mrjj

@JonB

Heh :)
Im not really sure they do include it as they seem to only tell about main.cpp and
nothing else exists :)

If you must use comments, make sure it simply repeats what the code said

// make new object
Object *obj = new Object;

and not that intent of it

// prepare account object for insertion to database

Else its far too easy to the maintenance crew.

Also do not alter the comments if you change the code. :)

JonB

@mrjj said in How to enter Images in a listWidget inside tabWidget:

If you must use comments, make sure it simply repeats what the code said

Absolutely spot-on with this! And not just comments, it drives me mad that often that actual end-user documentation/Help for the FooBar button says "Does a FooBar". Gee, I would never have guessed without that! But what does that actually do? Will it reformat my disk?

mrjj

@JonB
ahah exactly. :)

Like sitting with a very expensive raid controller and
have the field that says
Idle time for GX44 interrupt core.
and the docs says

"Allows you to change the value"

No shit sherlock..

ps. maybe we should fork the thread :)

J.Hilk

@SGaist I bet ya, the python interpreter starts with int main( 😎

@mrjj

ps. maybe we should fork the thread :)

probably a good idea, we derailed quite a lot

mrjj

@J-Hilk
No as derailed as my first attempt to move it :)))

J.Hilk

@mrjj I noticed!

It even went 10 years to the past 🤣

fcarney

This is how my designs usually go:

Customer: We want to do "this"
Me: What do you want "this" to look like?
Customer: I don't know
Me: <creates interface and basic functionality>
Me: How about "this"?
Customer: Well we don't want "that"! Here is what we want...
Me: <thinking>Why didn't they say that before?

So for anything I build that sequence events is usually how every project starts. Rarely do I get specs at all. Even from my management who programs. They usually say "this" with no real details.

aha_1980

Hi @fcarney,

Me: <creates interface and basic functionality>

Don't you have a bot for that? ;)

Regards

JonB

@fcarney
So true! At least I know I am not alone....

One step worse: your example implies when they see it they say "we didn't want it done (looking) that way, we wanted it done this way". But I often get: "we don't want that at all, we want it to do something totally different from what we said we wanted it to do". :(

fcarney

That happens sometimes too.

Chris Kawa

Don't worry guys. We can do anything. Absolutely anything. We are the experts.

fcarney

@Chris-Kawa said in The Art of programming:

We can do anything.

I have been in meetings like that. That is why I prefer technical meetings with only technical people.

Kent-Dorfman

Even though everyone is entitled to my opinion, I should probably stay out of this conversation.

mrjj

@Kent-Dorfman
we are just having fun so please feel free to share :)

aha_1980

"We just need to get this feature in now. Fast. We'll care about the architecture and the cleanup later. Promised."

That's how it goes for every feature.

Kent-Dorfman

Unfortunately the "art of programming" is being replaced with the "assembly line mentality" of programming. Can you say agile?

fcarney

@Kent-Dorfman I think I see what you mean. I was asked to add some features to some code. The architecture was very basic and inflexible. I rewrote the code and now it is some of the fastest in that industry. The customer was not sure what to think at first, then they realized their code was much more maintainable and higher performing. They were very satisfied with the code in the end. They wanted a cheap fix, they got a better design.