Braindump: The Laws of Coding
Things I have learned about software development and developers in the last three weeks:
There is a reason they plan everything in insane detail beforehand. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to change how I store data, among other things, all of which involve completely rewriting vast chunks of my code.
There is a reason they don't use notepad. There is also a reason they don't save files on top of one another, no matter how much space it saves. There is also a reason they don't change several completely different areas of code at the same time between tests.
Sometimes vast, complicated scripts spanning half a dozen different files will stop working for no apparent reason. Your ability to put them back depends primarily on how well you have obeyed the two aforementioned rules. Beyond that? Good luck, sucker.
As you can probably guess, it hasn't worked at all for about two days. Granted, I've been focusing on other things (like automating the data formatting with PHP), but it's still mildly worrying.
On the upside, I'm actually learning languages like JavaScript, PHP, Matlab, and CSS, as I've been intending to for years. I'm not good at them, by any means, but I can code with gaping errors that my Javascript: The Good Parts book assures me are going to earn me a special place in hell.
There is a reason they plan everything in insane detail beforehand. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to change how I store data, among other things, all of which involve completely rewriting vast chunks of my code.
There is a reason they don't use notepad. There is also a reason they don't save files on top of one another, no matter how much space it saves. There is also a reason they don't change several completely different areas of code at the same time between tests.
Sometimes vast, complicated scripts spanning half a dozen different files will stop working for no apparent reason. Your ability to put them back depends primarily on how well you have obeyed the two aforementioned rules. Beyond that? Good luck, sucker.
As you can probably guess, it hasn't worked at all for about two days. Granted, I've been focusing on other things (like automating the data formatting with PHP), but it's still mildly worrying.
On the upside, I'm actually learning languages like JavaScript, PHP, Matlab, and CSS, as I've been intending to for years. I'm not good at them, by any means, but I can code with gaping errors that my Javascript: The Good Parts book assures me are going to earn me a special place in hell.