Subj : Re: do serious programmers have a life?
To   : comp.lang.c++,comp.programming
From : Phlip
Date : Fri Sep 23 2005 04:55 pm

Jon Slaughter wrote:

> I don't agree with that... many times I have stayed up late at night and 
> when I "get up" in the morning all my code has been written ;) and it 
> works usually ;)

I see the ;)s; the word to the newbies is "heroism is not sustainable". The 
occassional inspiration-driven all-nighter is mostly harmless.

The original poster reported "feeling like a robot", which is a clear sign 
of sleep deprivation.

Fresh thinkers can spot the latent abstractions in their code, express 
these, and achieve the "Open Closed Principle", where code is easy to extend 
and hard to break. Sleepy thinkers don't spot these abstractions, and make 
the same high-risk edits over and over again to add features.

>> When you work, as you get tired, you cross a point where you are not 
>> adding value but removing value from a program. Go home.

> Yeah, but what point is that?  If you don't work enough you tend not be 
> productive enough because you are not involved in the coding enough... 
> like if you try to only code 1 hr a day or something on a complicated 
> project then on vacation for the rest of the day.

?

If your boss doesn't mind, that's still lower risk than chronic overtime. 
With your system the schedule will also go long, but at least bugs won't 
accumulate.

>> Programmers should go home on time and have a life.
>
> Well, tell that to their bosses ;)

Uh, there are serious movements afoot to do so. The "EAspouse" blog 
resonated with a lot of programmers, even outside the game industry. 
Enforcing overtime (even via the subtle channels of rewarding chronic 
overtimers without actually setting a policy) is immoral, almost illegal, 
unethical, and very bad for the technology.

Some bosses get that. The rest will learn it, either from their own 
programmers, or from the competition.

-- 
  Phlip
  http://www.greencheese.org/ZeekLand  <-- NOT a blog!!!

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