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The Worst Development Job You've Ever Had?
manavendra asks: "I'm currently working for a solution provider for telcos, and as part of product migration the entire API has to be 'internationalized'. Owing to a legacy architecture, most (if not all) application logic is still embedded in PL/SQL stored packages. My job: find hard coded strings, and replace with calls to the globalization API.
Yes there is a script written to handle most tasks, but its quite primitive (not to mention fears of automating 'too much'). Boredom is at all time high. Have tried all means of whittling away the time, and hence this question to other Slashdot users: What's the worst ever job you had to do in the name of 'software development' (or as a software developer)?"
Converting a quarter of a million lines of VB code to Java...
The meek shall inherit the earth, in 3 by 6 plots. - Lazerus Long
What's wrong with Re-branding GPL Software?
:)
It wasn't quite like that. It was much more like "make it look like we wrote this, that it's proprietary, cutting edge, and that nobody else even comes close."
I don't remember all the details any more (this was about 4 or 5 years ago), but everyone I worked with agreed that it was way over the line, and could easily get us sued. Fortunately, when I complained (and got booted from the dev team), nobody else was given the task, and we were able to fail on our own merits.
Repetitive manual tasks allow my mind to wander and lets me think of interesting things to do. These days I'm just so mentally exhausted from work I just come home, stare slackjawed at the monitor, and hit reload on /. every 15 minutes or so
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
- We need to use the most expensive JSP interpreter we can find.
- We need to use the most expensive JSP IDE we can find.
- We need a separate computer for each person (including those who will work primarily from their computer located off-site), plus a test server and a backup for the test server and an extra computer just in case.
- We need to make the database as related as possible - if you can make a lookup table for a Yes/No field, then by all means you should do it!
- Make sure each and every table has an auto-increment integer index, expecially those tables that will contain over 100 million records.
- Development time must take at least 18 months to provide a proof-of-concept, but cannot produce anything that may be actually used.
Needless to say, I was kicked off the job and threatened with being charged under the Patriot's Act for complaining about the job on my BLOG. Now, I'm out of that environment and wrapping up a 4-month conversion of a VB/SQL2000 application to PHP/PgSQL. Practically the same job, but I really love this one.The previous comment is purposely vague and generalized, but all of the facts are completely true.
I landed in the middle of a project that had been in development for TWO YEARS, and was poster child of evil software engineering malpractices: hardcoded numbers and strings, no separation of content and logic, no coding standards, no comments, no docs, no NOTHING. Mixes of PHP, javascript and HTML in the same line. Copied and pasted javascript code that nobody knew what it did, but when pasted in worked. And, of course, with fire-breathing bosses looking over your shoulder. And with crappy dell computers on 14" monitors that gave 70Hz at 800x600. I had left a job coding java in a decent environment with people from wich I could learn lots, but switched for the money. Not long after that I realized there's more than money to a job. I left that job with the begginings of stress-induced breakdown I would suffer a month later, and a vow to never again work anywhere before asking about the documentation policy.
Well, I feel your pain on most of your post...but, in the area of database...if there isn't a proper natural key for the primary key, I'm a big fan of sequences and triggers to generate unique integer primary keys. And if the database is to be on a RDBMS, then hell yes, it had better use a related model...gotta be normalized. If you have a good model, the rest will fall in place.
However, I will agree with you about the expensive gear, but, with Gov. rules, they pretty much rule out trying to do things with open source...something I try all the time. Heck, have linux on many desktops around here...but, they are trying to get them out....and forcing that NMCI piece of crap down everyone's throat....
But, I gotta speak up for the database parts you complained about....you can't shortcut on that...ESPECIALLY if you are dealing with 100+ million records....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Y2k was WAY over hyped. I mean you would have to be really retarted . . .
It's obvious you've never seen a large COBOL program (I wish I hadn't) with two-digit-year fields and all the validation that's done on them. These even include birth dates in programs for HMOs and insurance companies. There are massive banking, insurance, and payroll programs written in COBOL. Try disrupting the banking industry or stopping people's paychecks, and then ask them if that's a "bad thing".
Y2K was no joke, and it hasn't been avoided, only postponed. Nobody expected those programs to last for thirty-plus years when they were first written. With all the *windowing* that was done to avoid Y2K, the problem has just been pushed into the future. If the *fixed* software isn't replaced in the next thirty years or so, it will be a Y2K redux, only worse.
Working for Lockheed Martin...
Sat around for a year waiting for clearance did absolutely nothing. We didn't even have enough computers for everyone waiting and by company rules bringing a deck of cards was forbidden and reading non company approved books was prohibited. However, I did get a stupid ID card to hang around my neck and an employee number by which I could be referred to.
In the end I left the company. I had been written up for viewing 'the onion' once from a computer. "The Onion" in Lockheed and the government's eye was an anti-social movement online publication that was a threat to the workspace.
Lockheed is a JOKE!
try { println( SigString ); } catch( Exception e ) { println( 'Who cares?' ); }