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Programming Marathons?
Mattygfunk asks: "Coming to the submission date of a major university project the other day, myself and another group member coded in XHTML/CSS and ASP (yuk!) for 27 hours straight to complete it. What is the longest Slashdot readers have coded in a single session? Apart from being more organized and having plenty of coffee, do you have any tips on getting through ultra-long coding sessions?"
The most I've ever actually coded in a single session would be around 35 hours or so. However, I've had the lucky experience of having 100+ hour work weeks of coding, mainly due to the fact that I was recently employed (and so very eager to do a good job), and my boss was of the type to think that everything had to be done yesterday, and that any price was worth paying to get it done.
;) I sure can't do it, but I really have to hand it to the people who can.
Needless to say, I burned out like a match. The best thing I can suggest for anyone stuck doing this is to use it as an education lesson. No matter how much caffeine you want to put through your body, your mind simply can't take that much. In the end, I was writing code that all ended up being rewritten and reworked several months later when I realized I hadn't seen the big picture.
Even more important than learning the lesson yourself, use it to teach your boss(es) the same lesson. We all know a lot of managers don't understand the process, and think that pushing their programmers to work insane hours is somehow more productive. Make sure you document any setbacks or roadblocks you encounter because of programming under such conditions, and make sure you explain each and every one of them. It might take a bit, but they do get the point, and soon you'll be on your way to a good programming schedule, and doing things the productive way.
Of course, if you're one of those guys who *can* program for 100 hours a week and put in all this extra time without making mistakes, you're probably doomed.