The Art of programming
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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.
C++ is a perfectly valid school of magic.
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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.
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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.
@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". :(
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Don't worry guys. We can do anything. Absolutely anything. We are the experts.
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@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.
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Even though everyone is entitled to my opinion, I should probably stay out of this conversation.
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Even though everyone is entitled to my opinion, I should probably stay out of this conversation.
@Kent-Dorfman
we are just having fun so please feel free to share :) -
"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.
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Unfortunately the "art of programming" is being replaced with the "assembly line mentality" of programming. Can you say agile?
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Unfortunately the "art of programming" is being replaced with the "assembly line mentality" of programming. Can you say agile?
@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.
C++ is a perfectly valid school of magic.
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@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.
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@fcarney I'm often tempted to borrow the motto of the late great Red Adair, "I can do it right; I can do it fast; I can do it cheap. Pick two."
@mzimmers I'm pretty sure a total denial of that motto is a hard requirement to be in any company business unit: manager, executive, operations director, marketer, etc.
