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Things That Annoy Programmers

kevinwilliampang.com

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Re: Things That Annoy Programmers

#31

Post by pchristensen »

jacquesm wrote: post #11
edw519 wrote: post #9

A few more of my own: Being told "how" instead of "what". Use this API to access that database to do this process. Don't tell me how to do something. Tell me what you want. Let me figure out how. That's my job. Being told "what" instead of "why". So you need a 4 GB csv download of the entire database every day at noon? Why? Oh, in that case, why don't you just use which has been right at your fingertips all along. If…

If you list 'how' instead of 'what' and then continue to list 'what' instead of 'why', you could save yourself one aggravation in between by being merely upset at 'how' instead of 'why' ;)

"how instead of what" - to do something

"what instead of why" - they need something

Re: Things That Annoy Programmers

#33

Post by julio_the_squid »

Vague bug reports and scope creep are definitely up there.

One of my least favorite situations is dealing with other people's minor plugins or libraries...

If it's in Python, usually it's good as-is.

If it's in PHP, usually the structure is so disturbing that if we have to use it, I simply try not to look. The code ranges from naive to over-engineered, the latter of which is especially pointless in PHP.

For other people's JavaScript, usually I'm horrified by all of the 'for' and 'if' blocks that are lacking braces. Argh! Half the time I end up rewriting and removing portions of various plug-ins, and I often feel the compulsion to go fix all of the lazy bracing at the same time.

Re: Things That Annoy Programmers

#34

Post by weaksauce »

edw519 wrote: post #9

A few more of my own: Being told "how" instead of "what". Use this API to access that database to do this process. Don't tell me how to do something. Tell me what you want. Let me figure out how. That's my job. Being told "what" instead of "why". So you need a 4 GB csv download of the entire database every day at noon? Why? Oh, in that case, why don't you just use which has been right at your fingertips all along. If…

Anytime I find myself at a customer site with an overzealous webfilter it's time to fire up my trusty ssh tunneling for web traffic.

Re: Things That Annoy Programmers

#36

Post by umjames »

edw519 wrote: post #9

A few more of my own: Being told "how" instead of "what". Use this API to access that database to do this process. Don't tell me how to do something. Tell me what you want. Let me figure out how. That's my job. Being told "what" instead of "why". So you need a 4 GB csv download of the entire database every day at noon? Why? Oh, in that case, why don't you just use which has been right at your fingertips all along. If…

Great list. I'd add on to that:

1. Employee self-assessment forms - We don't need HR to make to my manager make me tell him what I think I do well/poorly. Business jargon is no substitute for 2-way honest conversation.

2. Managers that try to shoehorn every problem into one solution.

3. Being restricted to technology choices that your manager knows.

4. Being the single go-to guy for everything in your department because no one else is interested enough to learn things on their own - Want me to setup your enterprise Java portal while fixing IE CSS/Javascript bugs that our web developers couldn't figure out while debugging a WordPress plugin for another department? Sure, you want fries with that order, sir?

Re: Things That Annoy Programmers

#37

Post by goodmitton »

SingAlong wrote: post #4

IMHO #11 could be added as "unindented code". I was going to a guy's code yesterday and I felt very _irritated_ to read it, that i ended up spending 15min indenting it myself. I'm sure a lot of people don't like unindented code. and I totally agree with #1, it's very true for me. And especially when I've used some framework and the framework has been updated to a newer version with lots of goodies, i feel lazy to mai…

Also, some editors have their own rule for how many spaces a tab makes - some use 3 and some use 4 - or if you're like my designer co-worker, you manually use the space bar arbitrary. Gave me a big headache when looking for matching css selectors.

Re: Things That Annoy Programmers

#38

Post by ehnus »

edw519 wrote: post #9

A few more of my own: Being told "how" instead of "what". Use this API to access that database to do this process. Don't tell me how to do something. Tell me what you want. Let me figure out how. That's my job. Being told "what" instead of "why". So you need a 4 GB csv download of the entire database every day at noon? Why? Oh, in that case, why don't you just use which has been right at your fingertips all along. If…

I don't mind fixing other peoples problems. I will even stay late to do so if asked but if you do so and then fuck off out of the office at 5:00pm you can better believe I'll be doing the same. If your problem isn't an emergency for you then it isn't one for me either.

Calling my work shit without providing any constructive feedback, problem details, or patches will tend to make your future requests for help go straight to the bottom of my priority list.

Blaming me or my work for a problem you are experiencing without performing any investigation into what actually the problem is also will make any future requests for help go straight to the bottom of my priority list. Not quite as far down as the category above though.

I don't want to sound like a prima-donna but I don't like creating unnecessary work for others because most people have better things to do, I just wish this was reciprocated more often.

Re: Things That Annoy Programmers

#39

Post by mawhidby »

Ygor wrote: post #27
mawhidby wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have someone on my team who uses SlickEdit, and it messes up all the indentations when I look at the same code in Eclipse. I have to spend a few minutes reformatting it every time he makes changes to the code, and it's a real pain.

Have you tried ctrl+shift+f in Eclipse?

Just noticed your reply now. Thanks a lot! That'll save me a lot of time :-)
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