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Ask HN: As a developer, what are your biggest pain points?

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Re: Ask HN: As a developer, what are your biggest pain points?

#41

Post by tluyben2 »

noir_lord wrote: post #27

The inevitable Schema vs Code mismatch that creeps in. I've yet to see a belts and braces solution that works when introducing it on an existing database (rather than from the start with something like Flyaway). I mostly like SQL but I kind of wish someone would do a clean slate design of a relational data store and unfuck the last 40 odd years of cruft. I work in an environment where our data is eminently relational…

I was wondering about this a few days ago when I was, again, stuffing a square peg in a round hole by doing work you would hope a db or orm should be able to handle.

Is there any research going on to solve this in a non OO environment? I worked with (expensive) OO databaes in the past and that was crap, nosql is not helping much either, although the idea (I say the idea as I hate the implementation) to have the language married with the datastore like Mongo is something. I have seen non OO environments where the company just extended sql to be a full generic programming language which also works but it all feels... Not quite there. Q/k on kdb+ I find pleasant as I find Mnesia with Erlang. That feels far more natural than the other choices, but I feel it can be better with research and more FP oriented.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, what are your biggest pain points?

#42

Post by corysama »

vga805 wrote: post #15

The need to be stationary for 8 hours a day. standing desks help, but not enough. I plan to start doing yoga, which I think will help with this.

Not perfect, but... get up and walk around! You have more than enough to think over for a short walk on a regular basis. If it doesn’t seem like it, maybe it should. In practice I only spend a few minutes a day actually typing code. Most of my time is spent trying to figure out WTF I should do.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, what are your biggest pain points?

#44

Post by treespace8 »

Honestly none. Not when I compare what I do to anyone I know.

Pay is excellent. Hours are standard, work environment is comfortable. Jobs are plentiful. (Again compared to other professions)

I know my programing skills here are nothing. But after 20+ years of doing this professionally it's clear there are not many people who can do this type of work.

I'm very lucky to be one of them.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, what are your biggest pain points?

#45

Post by AlexanderNull »

Technical debt. Some places let this stuff mount up under constant pressure from product or management to always deliver features as quickly as possible. This makes it more difficult to track down bugs or add new features as this mounts. Most often it severely impedes on the ability for low-mid level engineers to write good quality code as the complexity of refactoring the existing issues surpasses their skill level.

I guess the big pain point then is actually having management that doesn't support tech debt cleanup at any appropriate level. Without support, budgeting you'll end up at a point where even as a skilled developer your choices are to a) say to hell with your managers guidance and blow the whole iteration refactoring just so you can even start on the right footing with a new module, or b) write code that isn't as reusable, maintainable, or performant.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, what are your biggest pain points?

#46

Post by Ygor »

Most of the pain points raised here are a day to day reality, fair enough, but I would like to also bring up another point not often surfaced here:

Fellow developers not aware of the business requirements, or fellow developers not being able to see things from the business perspective and where the money comes from. I know, our code is not monadic enough, but we do really need to solve that problem affecting customer X before end of September, or there won't be enough money in the bank to pay for that fresh avocado on Monday morning.

Re: Ask HN: As a developer, what are your biggest pain points?

#49

Post by vga805 »

corysama wrote: post #42
vga805 wrote: post #15

The need to be stationary for 8 hours a day. standing desks help, but not enough. I plan to start doing yoga, which I think will help with this.

Not perfect, but... get up and walk around! You have more than enough to think over for a short walk on a regular basis. If it doesn’t seem like it, maybe it should. In practice I only spend a few minutes a day actually typing code. Most of my time is spent trying to figure out WTF I should do.

good point. i used to walk and think a lot when i was in academia. the act of walking always added a different dimension to my thought processes, though it's hard to describe in exactly what way.

I'll try to make an effort to do that more often now! thanks

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