Are you a programmer?

[AbsurdMan]

If you program for a living or it's just a hobby, would you mind answering a few questions. It's for a paper i have to write for English. I would really appreciate the help.

1) What what about programming first caught your interest?

2) What is your favorite part of the job?

3) Do you work from home or in an office, which do you prefer?

4) What type of projects do you work on?

5) What kind of mentality do you think it takes to be a good Programmer?

6) What is the toughest part of the job?

If there's anything you would like to add please do.  

Thanks again to anyone who responds.

[Quarzac]

I don't actually have a job programming, but do it as a student, so I'll take a shot at these anyways.

1. I was directed towards programming by my sister, who was a huge programmer, and once I stared doing it, I found I enjoyed it mainly for the mental stimulus it provided. I didn't find much challenge in any other classes, and here was something that was occasionally difficult, not to mention interesting. It made me think in a way that no other classes had mandated, but I had done anyway: in terms of problems and solutions. More on that later.

2. I enjoy the challenge. Often I'm given an assignment, and I initially have a rough idea of how to go about it, but as I start to implement it, I realize errors in it, and refine it. The more I work on something, the better it gets. It's like taking a diamond from a rock in the ground to something beautiful.

3. Usually from home, though an advantage is that I can pretty much work anywhere. You'll find scraps of code on my notebooks, other computers, pretty much anywhere where I might be when I think of a different approach.

4. Recently, game development. Made a platformer with a partner in HTML5/Javascript for a competition. Other than that, it's mostly algorithmic problems.

5. You can't be disheartened by failure. Very, very rarely will something work entirely correctly the first time. You need to identify the problem, apply a solution, and in the event that it does fail, continue to identify problems within your solution until you've refined your diamond into a gemstone.

6. In my opinion, learning a language that is vastly different from what you know, especially when what you are doing in that language is very different from what you normally do. Learning Javascript coming from Java was weird, because I was so unfamiliar with different languages in general.

Other people on here that may be able to help: Hashbaz and Hazeluff. I know those guys program.

[Nighted]

30 years.

[laffindude]

I am a hobbyist.
1. Pure curiosity. Looking under the hood to see what make it tick.
2. I like making things work. I also enjoy fixing cars and electronics. See above.
3. Home office. I have very low productivity in a shared office setting.
4. Some projects in academia. Some open source projects. Small tools I use daily. I don't do C much anymore. Ahem C# and Autohotkey is what is do mostly now /lazy.
5. Determination and creativity. Spitting out code is just a small part of being a programmer, though usually the most time consuming part. Identify the problem/a function, find a way to solve it, program it, done. Determination comes in when the code blows up in your face. I suck at debugging my own stuff, but am pretty good at debugging other people's code.
6. OCD. Hard to say when something is "good enough" and leave it alone. A lot easier when it was programming homework that I just had to turn in. But for my own stuff, I am always tempted to tweak it, and end up wasting tons of time on it with negligible gains.

/just read quarzac's 5. Similar thoughts I see

[Findecanor]

1) Wow, it was 20 odd years ago and I don't know if I remember correctly. I remember that I entered some very simple programs from a magazine and was captivated with seeing my first programs run. Then I started modifying them on my own. It was fun to create things.

2) My favourite part of the job is the creative part. Figuring out how things should work.

3) I have tried both working from home and at the office. I prefer the office. For me, it is important that there is a spirit of work in the atmosphere. When you work at home, you need a lot of self-discipline.

4) Currently, I am unemployed, but hopefully not for too long. I prefer fairly low-level programming in C and C++, and that is what I have been working with the most, but often there are other things that just need to be done to make things work, and that can be something completely outside your "comfort zone". You can't be too picky.

5) An analytical mind and a sense of style and order is needed to be a good programmer. Most of your work is not writing code from scratch -- it is going through existing code that you or someone else has written, to see how it works, how it can be modified and to look for bugs. That stresses the importance that the written code is easy to follow: ordered and in a good style. Some problems involve a lot of complex relationships no matter what, and you need to have the mind for it.
A good programmer is also open to learning new things and perspectives. The field is constantly evolving.

6) I have found the toughest parts of the job have to be with dealing the outside world outside your program, and your programming. Demands from bosses, customers, clients, etc.

[davkol]

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[keyboardlover]

No.

Thank god.

Noted.

AFAIK rippy couldn't code his way out of a paper bag. Reminds me, I should have another programming contest soon =)

[keyboardlover]

I've been a professional developer for more than six years. I'm currently a .NET technical lead, intern coach and subject matter expert in continuous integration.

The good news is that programming is pretty easy once you learn the basics and get some decent experience. The bad news is that developing a significant piece of software is incredibly challenging.

1) What about programming first caught your interest?
My 8th grade math teacher taught us HTML and I found that I loved making web pages.

2) What is your favorite part of the job?
Probably the fact that when things are going well, it's actually a fun job to do. Things don't always go well though.

3) Do you work from home or in an office, which do you prefer?
In an office currently but I would prefer to WFH.

4) What type of projects do you work on?
I've done work in the marketing, non-profit and healthcare domains in the past. Now I'm working in the insurance/financial domain. I've worked in web development but in the past 5 years have mostly focused on windows-based large-scale application development.

5) What kind of mentality do you think it takes to be a good Programmer?
You need to be careful, confident, good with people/a good team player, but also able to drive tasks to completion independently. You need to be smart, dedicated, honest (mainly with yourself and with others regarding estimation of tasks) and personable. You also need to be service-oriented and willing to go the extra mile to make your various stakeholders happy, but at the same time, be able to say "no" when appropriate.

6) What is the toughest part of the job?
Delivering software that correctly meets the needs of the end user.

[tchuladdiass]

1) What what about programming first caught your interest?

I was first interested in artificial intelligence, when I was younger (before I had a computer) -- I wanted to program a machine to be my friend.  Once I got a computer, I realized that AI was a "hard problem".  So I abandoned that idea, and got into mostly automating things.  The first time I automated applying pricing data and using a script to enter it into an old green-screen (RS232 terminal) application, and saw it finish in a half hour instead of taking 3-4 people 2 days to enter it, I was hooked for life.

2) What is your favorite part of the job?

I would say the feeling of creating something that hasn't been done before, and getting recognition from peers and managers.  Basically making life better for myself and others.

3) Do you work from home or in an office, which do you prefer?

Both.  I like working at the office, since there are fewer other distractions (except the normal office distractions), and the clock keeps me focused on getting the job done (I can't be there till 3:00 AM).  I also like getting paid for what I find is "fun".  At home, I like the freedom to work till 3:00 AM if need be, and at home I can work on my personal projects.

4) What type of projects do you work on?

I'm not that good at User-facing things (fairly horrific at user interfaces), so I tend to stick with task automation scripts, and creating/using APIs.  I can do back end Web work, but need to partner with someone else to make a pretty and usable front end.

5) What kind of mentality do you think it takes to be a good Programmer?

You need to have the ability to keep a thousand details in your head at once; know which details you can kick out and look up vs. committed to memory; and you need to not be afraid of failure.  The computer will tell you hundreds of times during a coding session that "you suck", "this is all wrong, fix it", etc.  You can't let this get to you.

6) What is the toughest part of the job?

Getting started on a new project is fairly difficult -- trying to figure out where to start programming.  Sometimes writing code in a language which has a log of "boiler plate" code is helpful -- by the time you finish typing in all the headers and includes, you forget that you don't know how to start your program, and before you know it you are on the second, third, forth tasks already.

If there's anything you would like to add please do.  

My primary job is systems administration/engineering/design, etc.  Some programming enters into it, such as creating build scripts, and occasionally designing internal projects.  But I tend to tinker around with things more than I should, although instead of getting in trouble for it I usually get promoted.

[hashbaz]

If you program for a living or it's just a hobby, would you mind answering a few questions and just p.m.ing me the answers. It's for a paper i have to write for English. I would really appreciate the help.

Programming started as a hobby in junior high school.  I got my first programming job during high school, working on games for the GameBoy Color (at the studio that produced Broodwar, btw -- which was not actually Blizzard).  I've been working more or less continuously since then.  Counting high school and college jobs, it's been 13 years.

1) What what about programming first caught your interest?

It was just a next step in learning about computers.  In 5th grade my school got a new lab full of Macintosh Performas, and I was instantly hooked.  I putzed around with HyperCard and learned to circumvent the school's meager security settings.  A year or so later my family got a PC with DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11, which I dove into and became proficient in.  In 8th grade I picked up an ancient book on BASIC programming from the school library and started entering code listings.  I started trying to make games with it, and have been coding ever since.

2) What is your favorite part of the job?

Elegance and utility.  I enjoy designing and building things to fill a need.

3) Do you work from home or in an office, which do you prefer?

Office primarily, though sometimes I work from home.  Home for me means distraction and more difficult collaboration, so I prefer the office.

4) What type of projects do you work on?

Mainly building tools for use in the production of 3D animation.

5) What kind of mentality do you think it takes to be a good Programmer?

A curious mind above all, which usually implies a love of learning and a fascination with details.  Another thing I notice about the great engineers that I work with is that they have a fluency with abstraction and the language used to describe it.  Programming, like math, is all about concepts and the relationships between them.  You have to be good at visualizing this in your head and talking about it efficiently with others.

6) What is the toughest part of the job?

The tedium of doing proper engineering.  Maintaining old code, debugging, testing.

[Aseral]

1) Being able to give computers instructions to execute so they do stuff for u sounded really cool. I don't remember excactly what was it that got me into programming, cos I wanted this ever since I was a young kid. Seing how computers are everywhere and wanting to understand how they work also motivated me to study Computer Science.

2) Creating programs that work and can actually be helpful. There are so many tools at your disposal that writing software makes me feel like an artist that gets creative and creates things. Also that moment when it finally compiles without erros and it works.......DAMN I feel like a god.

3)I'm still in uni so there is no real office for me but I like working in both the uni labs and at home. In uni theres a more chilled atmosphere and a casual chat with friends but I prefer home when I need to get **** done fast before deadline.

4)Well mostly game simulations and algorithmic solutions to solve pure math problems. Atm I'm working on creating an assembler for a custom language and as a personal project I'm trying to make a text-based adventure game.

5)Patience most of all. Computers do excactly what you tell them to, so if it isn't working like you thought it would, it's 99% your fault. It's true what the say "At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer". You must always have a good idea of what a change you make will do. Don't do random stuff and it helps a lot if you have knowledge of how computers work at the lowest level so you understand how different lines of code effect the computer.

6)Being forced to work on things that don't interest you, especially before a deadline. Things can become really anoying when errors start poping.

[AbsurdMan]

Thanks for all the responses, it really help and i really appreciate it.

[liquidsteel30]

1) What what about programming first caught your interest?
I had the misfortune of signing up as an electrical engineering major. I had never written a line in my life, but it seemed like something that I would do well in. Mind you, being EE means that I have a "limited" amount of coding expected of me throughout my bachelors. The heavy coding, for me, is for my research (started as an undergrad, continuing now as a M.S. student). My thesis covers "Cognitive Software-Defined Radar", so based on the title there is obviously a lot of code being throw around -- from the AI and sensor portions.

2) What is your favorite part of the job?
I just submitted a paper to a conference (prepping for journal soon, I hope...) that I couldn't explain to you what was going on without dragging on for hours and hours. I still don't fully understand what I am doing, but my advisors seem to think that it is something important. This absolutely fascinates me -- figuring out something new without really even realizing it.

3) Do you work from home or in an office, which do you prefer?
70% from home
25% from my cubicle
5% from the lab itself

For what I am doing, I really don't need to be in the office (student, after all...), so I make use of the 25" monitor on my desk, rather than the 13" laptop. I am supposed to be in my office 25hr/week, but I get everything done faster from home so nobody complains.

4) What type of projects do you work on?
Doing research/development on an autonomous sensor platform based around a UWB OFDM radar system built in-house. I am presently doing simulations and post-processing in MATLAB, with the receiver running F#.

5) What kind of mentality do you think it takes to be a good Programmer?
Caffeine.
But really, I wish I knew. I would guess that a desire to understand each step along the way. If you tend to gloss over details, you're going to have a hell of a time later on trying to figure out what steps you missed (or over-simplified)

6) What is the toughest part of the job?
Mirrors number 2, actually. Last weekend I put in an extra 30 hours and without realizing it, I stumbled upon something that actually worked. Had I stopped to think, I could have saved myself at least half of that time. This is probably relatively unique, in that my code is being implemented based on the equations and physical realizations/models that I have constructed. Everything has to be done properly before I even get to the coding, but sometimes I don't spot errors until I've already poured hours into trying to get an invalid process to work (/facepalm)

[tradet]

1. I'm not really sure. I was introduced to VB in school where I made a cool game of mastermind. For the next course we had a new teacher who knew C++! Turns out he was a complete failure but whatever. During the summer before our faited meeting I worked away from home but I borrowed a ton of programming books and I read like obsessed. My very first C++ book was actually Stroustrups "The C++ Programming Language". I didn't understand much but that didn't matter to me, I just read the next... What caught me initially I don't know, but I do know that programming might be the most satisfying thing in the world for me.

2. It's either problem solving or the act of creating something from basically nothing. I love making games or making small utility scripts which makes my life easier. I like to test new languages, frameworks and simply new stuff. I like to learn new stuff I guess.

3. I'm a student so I don't work but we do have computers in school we're supposed to program on, but they're horrible so I'm always skipping class and working from home. There's nothing like using the setup you're used to. Add my habit of customizing everything, from the height of my chair to my window manager of choice, and I think we have a winner.

4. I've done a lot of game prototypes for various online competitions (Ludum Dare and The Experimental Gameplay Project). Made a couple of web sites, most recently I'm trying out a new framework mojolicious, which is great fun. Otherwise I've done a lot of small utility scripts for "useless" stuff like reorganizing a folder hierarchy, converting data from a format to another etc. In the past I've made an irc bot with various funky stuff like monkey island quotes. Often I'm not doing anything large but just trying out stuff, maybe from a book about a new language (Haskell is eluding me atm) or stuff like that.

5. You need to be curious, creative and you need to love what you do. You have to learn from your mistakes, not to be crushed under them, and it's a dangerous thing to be too much of a perfectionist but we need a little bit of that too I'd say.

6. It's hard for me to be happy with what I've done, there's always something I can change and do better. I guess I might be too much a perfectionist after all? I'm rarely happy for my small games and it's hard to brag about projects I know aren't as good as they can be. And so it's hard to finish stuff as well, but it's been a great help to do these game competitions as they have a very limitied amount of time for you to work with. Ludum Dare for example only give you 48 hours to complete your game!

[hazeluff]

1) What what about programming first caught your interest?

I was always into technology and related things when I was a kid. In middle school I always wanted to learn it, but it felt really foreign and I never found a good place to start. Right before uni, I decided to just go for it and teach myself through online sites/books and got round to building a .exe that just computed some mathematical stuff. From there uni has required me to use a ton of different languages for a variety of things. Not just your typical java/C/python, but HDLs as well.

2) What is your favorite part of the job?

Just working out how to implement something and make it more efficient. It's always a challenge and there are more than one way of doing things. I also really enjoy figuring out how certain things work.

3) Do you work from home or in an office, which do you prefer?

I do a ton of work in uni as it keeps me from playing games. I work at home as well, but not as often.

4) What type of projects do you work on?

I've worked on:
-An Android App out of personal interest.
-FPGAs
-DSK for Signal Processing
-Made a incomplete turn based strategy game on the PC
-Arduino line follower

5) What kind of mentality do you think it takes to be a good Programmer?

Someone who loves a challenge and wants to take the extra step in everything they do.

6) What is the toughest part of the job?

Probably the amount of time you need to put into it to finish a project. You gotta have balls to sleep 3 hours a night and sit at a desk all day and do nothing but write code.

[minnus]

5) What kind of mentality do you think it takes to be a good Programmer?

I try not to give personal details, so I will only answer one of the questions.

I like to think that good programmers have a 'lazy' mentality. Lazy programmers are those who typically go, "Ugh, I hate doing ______, its so tedious...&#*@, I'll just write a program to do it."


After all, you can train someone to be a programmer ~ but it doesn't make them someone who will use their skill with their own initiative.

[hazeluff]

I've always thought of programmers as people who don't mind doing things wrong the first time.

Yeap.

Rule of thumb. If it's right the first time, you've done it wrong.

[mkawa]

1) What what about programming first caught your interest?

i loved video games. i wanted to be a video game. failing that, i wanted to make them

2) What is your favorite part of the job?

elegant solutions, hard problems. the frisson one gets when you get to pair the former with the latter.

3) Do you work from home or in an office, which do you prefer?

my office is a madhouse but good for the frothy part of thinking. when i need to gear down and be alone i sit at home.

5) What kind of mentality do you think it takes to be a good Programmer?

it really depends on circumstance. when you just need to hit a deadline, the "just make it work" types are very effective. when optimizing, there's a certain low-level no-abstraction type that does well. when needing to scale, there's no substitute for an orderly thinker, etc. imo there's really no such thing as "good programmer" there are just people who have the knowledge, skills, and flexibility to adapt to circumstances and those who don't.

the only other thing i would say is that it is not clear to me that there will be a useful distinction between developer and user in 10 years or so. it's odd that it's almost anachronistic to think this (see, UNIX), but computation is becoming ubiquitous enough that the natural interface is quickly going to become something close enough to "programming", that the distinction is pointless. instead, i think the most useful distinction will be the level of abstraction that people work at. there will be those that flowchart their lives in some kind of apple interface, and those who hack up drivers for iDevices, and it will be hard to argue that they are doing the same thing, but at a theoretical level they absolutely will be.

[Encryptor]

Don't forget that Jeff Atwood agrees with my observation about Assburgers and Coders.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/01/software-developers-and-aspergers-syndrome.html

Interesting read.  I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science but decided to go into law.  A successful career in programming definitely requires a particular mentality... detached, maybe?  You have to learn to balance time and quality when managers expect you to churn out code.  When I did work as a programmer, my most successful / productive colleagues could best be described with the term “careless robot”.