Hitting stumbling blocks

'lo

What do you do when you hit a stumbling block when you're developing?

Just for comparison, I usually switch off (my brain, that is) and go play CounterStrike or check for any new posts on the forums I regular before continuing.

I know its possible to persevere at them, but the big "Steam" icon is too much for me to resist, especilly when I don't have any real deadlines to hit.

So, what do you do?

I take a cup of coffee and i start with new energy like i didn't work the whole day. (Typical symptom of stubbornness)

I usually get up and move around -- make tea or take a pee.

When I was at school our physics teacher taught us a simple exam revision technique -- break your work down into half hour chunks, spend 25 minutes working and take a 5 minute break.  When you start the next work period, review what you did in the last work period. It saw me through school and through several universities (I'm not Dr Herbie for nothing you know!).

I still use this technique for work, it keeps attention levels higher and seems to prevent stumbling blocks.

Ask the end user's of your software what you should do, so that they can tell you to get back to work Can you give any details about Insecticide? Theres nothing concrete on the Wiki, and Google doesn't turn up anything of relevance.

W3bbo wrote:

'lo

What do you do when you hit a stumbling block when you're developing?

Just for comparison, I usually switch off (my brain, that is) and go play CounterStrike or check for any new posts on the forums I regular before continuing.

I know its possible to persevere at them, but the big "Steam" icon is too much for me to resist, especilly when I don't have any real deadlines to hit.

So, what do you do?

If I had an answer I would have conquered the world by now.

I have the same problem.  Its just like handling any other priority management in your life.  Visualize the consequences, or have someone babysit you.

Personally I invite the boss to my office to help me develop.  I usually work faster when she is here because she knows all the details of what I'm trying to get accomplished, she realizes what I'm doing is not exactly easy, and its yet another reason for me to keep my office clean and presentable.

When your working on a project without a "boss" you could consider joining a team effort with people that are productive who will hold you accountable to your commitments.

Good luck.

I usually just go for a walk (even when its raining)

 

It depends on what you mean by stumbling block.

If you mean debugging: sometimes it helps to ask another developer

I've had developers ask me to help them out with a piece of code, and I'll sit there and just ask questions -- "Well, what does this do?  And what's this argument?  And why did you code it this way?" etc.

And more than once, halfway through answering my dumb questions, the developer will SEE the bug just LEAP out at them from the code, and they'll say, "Oh... never mind, I just figured it out."

Sometimes you just have to step back far enough to question basic assumptions before you can see a bug.

I think that works pretty well for analytic (debugging-type) problems...

If your stumbling block is in synthetic thinking -- you're creating something new, but not sure about how to implement it -- you're composing a new module/document/symphony... then yeah, sometimes it helps to get away from the problem, not think about it for a while (or think about it unconsciously...)

Debugging: Ask for help. The reason is simple, sometimes you just can't see what is right in front of your face... I've done that on too many occasions to count.

Programming: Sleep. I always get my best solutions after a good nights sleep and then think them up the next morning in the shower (I do ALL my best thinking in the shower ). If that doesn't work or I'm on a time-table then I'll just hack it in place with whatever means I can come up with... With the intention of (in the future) optimising or coming up with the 'correct' solution.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of:

"Oh look, I've got to type out VB's unnecessarily long property definition code 20 times out, I think I'll take a half-hour break"

Which brings me to another point:

Are the VB devs sadists or something? Why is it so painful to write out VB property definitions!?

W3bbo wrote:

I was actually thinking more along the lines of:

"Oh look, I've got to type out VB's unnecessarily long property definition code 20 times out, I think I'll take a half-hour break"

Which brings me to another point:

Are the VB devs sadists or something? Why is it so painful to write out VB property definitions!?

Yay for snippets, then!

W3bbo wrote:

Are the VB devs sadists or something? Why is it so painful to write out VB property definitions!?

??? Not sure what you mean... Example?

Karim wrote:

W3bbo wrote: Are the VB devs sadists or something? Why is it so painful to write out VB property definitions!?

??? Not sure what you mean... Example?

C# guys only have to do this for a simple Property -> Private Field binding

public string Foo {
    get {
        return Bar; }
    set {
        Bar = value; }
}

But in VB, you have to do it long-winded. The Set argument is vestigal and serves no purpose!

Public Property Foo As String
    Get
        Return Bar
    End Get
    Set (Foo As String)
       Bar = Foo
    End Set
End Property

Spot the difference.

W3bbo wrote:

But in VB, you have to do it long-winded. The Set argument is vestigal and serves no purpose!

But nearly all of that is inserted by the editor, you don't have to type it if you're using VS.

I'm not trying to troll, but if you cared how much you have to type why are you using Visual Basic?  That is the biggest advantage to VB, that it is long-winded and easy to read back; but you can't take the good and not the bad.

So stop complaining and go buy a C# book.

Sven Groot wrote:

W3bbo wrote:But in VB, you have to do it long-winded. The Set argument is vestigal and serves no purpose!

But nearly all of that is inserted by the editor, you don't have to type it if you're using VS.

...where?

I can't find a "Insert Property/Procedure" command like there was in VB6

Oh well jeez I thought you meant a REAL problem.

Do you need the "(Foo as String)" part though? 

Set
   Bar = Foo
End Set

That didn't strike me as "painful" or "sadistic."

If your property is ReadOnly, you don't need a Set, do you?

Karim wrote:

Oh well jeez I thought you meant a REAL problem.

Do you need the "(Foo as String)" part though? 

Set
   Bar = Foo
End Set

You do, if you don't include the Set argument it won't compile.

Karim wrote:

That didn't strike me as "painful" or "sadistic."

It is when you've got classes with 20+ properties

W3bbo wrote:

Sven Groot wrote: W3bbo wrote: But in VB, you have to do it long-winded. The Set argument is vestigal and serves no purpose! But nearly all of that is inserted by the editor, you don't have to type it if you're using VS.

...where?

I can't find a "Insert Property/Procedure" command like there was in VB6

If I type:
Public Property Foo As String

All the rest is inserted automatically. In VS2005, you can use the vbprop snippet which makes it even easier.