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Ultimate Software Developer Setup?
wicked coding asks: "I'm a professional software engineer and I'm planning on building my ultimate setup for longer hours coding and hacking, but I'm kinda stuck when it comes with what to choose. What hardware would you choose to use, if money was no object? Obviously there may be some constraints on space. Leave no stone unturned, I'm looking for suggestions on desks, seating, lighting, keyboard and pointing device, monitors and even the computer system itself. Ideally it needs to be as comfortable and ergonomic as possible. What software would you choose to use, if the intended targets were Java and OO PHP5? Currently I'm using Eclipse on Gentoo. Is there a more suitable IDE that works with most popular OSS (and not so OSS) languages including XML, SQL, CSS, PHP, Perl, Java, and C/C++?"
One facing straight ahead and two angling into your peripheral vision. Not only do you get a ton of real-estate, but you never have to worry about getting that even-tanned look on your face. :)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
If you think you're going to produce better code by splurging $$$ on a shiny desk, maybe you should give up programming.
The accessories you need are a pile of paper and some good pencils, with which you can design your code nicely before you even fire up your IDE.
I find that vi has great support for every language I use.
Monitor: Dell 2005 FPW 20.1" Widescreen LCD
Totally awesome. Run it at its native resolution, of course, and no blurriness. I don't even get ghosting in FPSs. The monitor is beautiful and rock solid.
Mouse: Logitech MX610
Awesome mouse.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
http://www.hermanmiller.com/CDA/SSA/Product/0,,a10 -c440-p8,00.html
That simple.
You need to prioritize. First worry about your fingers, eyes and arse
1) Get a slick 1600x1200 or better LCD screen
2) Get more screens to broaden your field of view
3) Spend $100+ on a really good keyboard. I choose Happy Hacking.
4) Spend $500+ on a really good office chair (or $5 from a failed startup)
With this as a starting point, you can feel physically comfortable, freeing you to address your mental confort.
Evil people are out to get you.
Stop fucking around reading Slashdot instead of coding and you won't have to spend all those long hours at your computer ;)
Is my personal favourite.
:wq
Really. I do everything using SciTE, except the stuff I do with vim.
My Systems
I've never regretted learning Emacs, though eventually I switched to XEmacs (mainly because Emacs seemed to have trouble highlighting Python syntax correctly).
My pointing device of choice is an Evoluent VerticalMouse. It doesn't force your wrist to twist, which is a Good Thing.
I'm too poor to afford a good chair (since they typically will run you > $1000 + 1 arm + 1 leg), but get one with good lower-back support.
-Michael
What hardware would you choose to use, if money was no object?
More people on your team...
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
The one thing I'd count on for development is using virtual machines to host test different target platforms. If you'll be developing primarily for one platform/environment, you can still use VMs to simulate the different machines of the production environment for testing purposes--clients and servers.
Personally, I like VMWare, but I'm in the Windows world. If you're going to be developing and distributing exclusively on and for Linux, you could use something like Xen.
Regardless, I'm hooked on virtual machines, and highly recommend using them for your work.
Location: A beach in Northern California, slightly south of San Fran.
Power Generation: This Honda Generator for reliability and gas efficiency, 20hrs of code at a time. (note: after viewing the power consumption of this solution, you may require a second generation unit or higher model number)
Computers: 2 Mac Mini's - one for compile runing Gentoo, the other dual boot Red Hat / Os X... Cluttering up your beach space is simply unacceptable.
Second Computer set: some low power-drain and Form Factored PIV for testing that 'old and busted' windows crud people occasionally run
Display: 2x The DLA-QX1g - Why do monitors (old and busted) when you can have the new hotness of a projection screen with 1365x1024 resolution. It's a no brainer. Remember to get a widescreen lens for the projector, and an active screen to go with as well - these things are going to need to produce a LOT of lumens to compete with the sun.
A 4 port KVM switch
Input: Microsoft Natural keyboard w/ mouse, wireless versions. Gonna have to be both, although you might want a trackball that works in midair.... MS is still pretty much the best at putting together an awesome and non-stress creating keyboard / mouse combo. Alternatively, you could combine keyboard and chair I guess. That would mean, with the screen and the KVS switching hotkeys, etc, you wouldn't NEED a desk, although you might want a second screen and projector for a computer to be used as a notepad hooked up to one of the keyboard inputs on the KVM but not the video. Note: Sand might get into your chair, I'd be down with a yoga mat or chaise lounge, and the wireless keyboard.
My little site.
Donald Knuth works standing up, and so should you.
You might also want to consider investing in a full-sized pipe organ.
Eclipse has a huge future. Many IDE makers are abandoning their own IDEs and making Eclipse plugins. There's already good free plugins for C/C++, excellent inexpensive JSP plugins, and tons of others that I've seen but not used. I have to believe there's some good XML plugins as well. Since Eclipse is cross platform, you don't have to worry about being stuck to one OS. Stick with Eclipse unless you have some special need that Eclipse doesn't do.
AccountKiller
A lot of things you mention I don't care much about. But I recommend ridiculous amounts of RAM. Even if you get more than you think you'll need, you'll find a use for it.
My latest giant RAM sink is VMWare. I run a virtual copy of Windows for browser testing, and a couple more for virtual servers. Virtual servers are much better for testing than real ones: when you're done trying something out, you can revert the virtual disk back to a known clean configuration.
Vimi, vidi, vici
I'll leave the translation up to you.
You need:
:)
- A fridge within reach
- A lot of beer in that fridge
- Caffeine I.V. or just a lot of 'dew
- AMD64 box with gobs of mem and lotsa Ghz, dual core, more cpu's is better
- Gobs of diskspace so you can multiboot many operating systems
- A comfy chair
- Multiple monitors
- Dual head video card
- A simple PCI video card for that third head
- An IBM type M keyboard, or a Sun type 5 hacked to work on a normal x86-like system
- A lock on the door to keep the SO and/or cats out
- A 60 GB ipod hooked up to a dock for auditory pleasure
- A large desk to put all that crap on
- A shell
- vi(m)
I guess that's about it
I'd recommend just taking a trip to your local computer store and trying out the best they have to offer in terms of keyboards and mice.
If you have extra pennies to spend, consider more than two monitors (and their associated video cards). There is a real sense of 'space' when you can spread your GUI based apps over a number of displays. (Personally I think it helps reduce percieved 'stress'.)
Also consider getting the most powerful system you can afford. Having a window open slowly is just depressing. Fire as much raw CPU power/speedy disk/ram as you can at the problem and app/window opening should be faster than turning the pages in a book.
Last, but most importantly, make sure the system is quiet. Theres nothing worse than sitting next to the desktop equivalent of a Boeing 747 all day.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Ikea Jerker set to standing height. I guess I just like to work standing up, I think better, and it forces me to take occasional breaks.
15" G4 Powerbook. Portability is a factor for me, so I need something I can take with me
24" Dell Widescreen LCD.
Kensington Expertmouse (trackball)
Micro$oft Natural Elite Keyboard (the curved one)
This setup works for me, but I understand it's not ideal for everybody.
-s
It seems weird that you are looking for new things -- what's wrong with what you are currently using? While I can understand wanting to tweak some of your tools, if you've been coding for some time now, you probably know your habits best by now.
Some obvious things that come to mind:
(1) For programming, it's especially nice to be able to have at least two editing windows open side by side. The Dell 2005FP is great for this -- I've owned mine for about half a year, and still marvel at it. I have trouble using smaller monitors now.
(2) Editors are really a religious preference. Emacs isn't perfect, and there are a lot of things you can find wrong with it, but personally it's still the best editor out there. I've tried using the newer graphical editors, but in the end I always go back. The languages you suggested are probably going to be supported by most editors. However, just because the editor supports a language, doesn't mean it won't support it well. There are some very small things that many editors get wrong (especially with C++, I've found), which is one of the reasons I've stuck with emacs for so long.
(3) Mice is yet another religious preference. Personally, my favourite mice continue to be Microsoft's Explorers. I recently bought the cheaper Logitech version, and still wishing I didn't just pay more money. If only M$ could stick with the HW business...
(4) I've tried a plethora of keyboards. The flat no-nonsense keyboard ended up being my favourite. I tried one of the ergonomic weird shape keyboards for about a week, and maybe I was doing something wrong, but it started to hurt my wrists (never had that problem before). Even if I was somehow typing wrong, in the end, you really should just use what works for you. While you might find someone raving about some new product etc., it just might not work for how you operate.
Your best approach is to try to slowly fade new things in. I suspect if you take someone's advice and get a bunch of random 'highly rate' applicances, you will be unhappy in the end.
Emacs is the only IDE you need.
It's also the only thing you'll need to play tetris.
[user@localhost]$emacs -f tetris
Hey a bunch of developers on every platform known to humanity, what is the "ultimate" way to develop.
Here's a script:
CPPFanBoyMFC "I think Visual C++ is the best. I love MFC with a mighty passion!"
CPPFanBoySDK "No way dude, I use Visual C++ with the straight up SDK and roll my own classes as needed."
CPPKDEFanBoy "Visual Studio blows compared to KDevelop."
CPPMakeFanBoy "When I was a kid, I used to write make files and use Emacs and gdb from the console, and I liked it, so I still do."
CPPViFanBoy "Yeah, but, vi is better than emacs, everyone knows that"
AssemblyFanBoy "90% of you C/C++ guys talking about getting close probably don't even know the calling convention of your functions. Hop along IDE cripples."
VB6FanBoy "Assembly? I can do in two minutes that which takes you two weeks to write. VB 6.0 is the bomb, but MS ruined it with VB.NET"
WinFanBoyD "C# makes the rest of you obsolete..."
SunFanBoy "Too bad you stole it from Java."
PythonFanBoy "Java, Blah! Your weak languages do not enforce indenting..."
DelphiFanBoy "All your strongly typing innovations are belong to us."
Perl "While you guys were arguing, I just finished it all in one line of code... oh wait... where does that greedy matching operator go. I'll see you tomorrow."
Any more?
This is my sig.
A multiple-monitor setup using LCD flat panel displays should top the list. I can't begin to describe how much easier it is to do development work on a multi-monitor system, and I can tell you that if you work for a full day with an LCD (running via DVI connector, of course, not RGB/SVGA) side-by-side with even a good ViewSonic CRT, you'll be forever sold on the LCD panels because the brightness, contrast, color accuracy, and crispness are all so much better.
RAM and disk are the two biggest bottlenecks to development, in my experience. So the next most important thing is memory and storage. Get at least 2GB of RAM, and then get yourself set up with a RAID array with plenty of storage (200GB or more), running in a RAID mode that provides for full automatic recovery if a drive fails. Many motherboards now natively support RAID-mirror configurations (two drives) using SATA drives.
The RAID array will drastically improve disk performance. Plus, you'll never have to worry about backup/recovery again. The RAID array by definition always keeps itself "backed up" by its built-in redundancy, and recovery is as simple as popping in a new hard drive and letting the array rebuild to the new drive.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
Did you ever consider that modern IDEs also may have um.... advantages? Ever used Visual C? Eclipse? IDEA? Ever seen IDEA's refactoring capabilities?
:) ), but VC makes writing projects with hundreds of subprojects and files less painful than with a simple vi. And no, I'm not talking about RAD here (although its one of the greatest advantages of an IDE).
Your first paragraph is pointless, unfortunately it is still widespread among Unix hackers. See, if everything thats new is "l4m3" and only emacs+terminal is "l33t", then why not stopping progress altogether? By the way, why using a mouse? How l4m3! A monitor! Ha, in the old days l33t programmers stuck with their printers! Why using modern OS with multitasking and that fancy stuff! Why electricity! Dude, this fire thing is overrated, right?
Of course the new IDEs won't magically make better code, of course I don't need them for a hello world, but they sure as hell help a LOT when writing code, especially when writing larger projects.
I for one like Visual C. Yeah, call me heretic or whatever, I don't care. VC doesn't make some magical shiny code, I have to do that (and often enough its neither magical nor shiny
This sig does not contain any SCO code.
If money were no object, that's what my setup would consist of. A dual G5 and a 30" cinema display (2560 x 1600 resolution!). The apple pro keyboard is sufficient but I would upgrade to a laser mouse of some sort (Maybe one of the new 5 button bluetooth intelli laser mice...) Between OSX and Virtual PC you can test your code in both Windows and OSX. OSX also has x11 if you need it. You mention PHP so I'm guessing you're doing a lot of web development... with this setup you can test every browser Apache AND IIS, Windows AND *nix. I'd buy a license of Zend Studio for PHP development as well as a copy of BBedit (I use both, BBedit has some indispensable features). As for the physical environment, you can't go wrong with one of these: http://www.sittingmachine.com/ Pretty much the most comfortable desk chair ever.
Kiteboarding Gear Mention slashdot and get 10% off!
Seriously though, it sounds like you're trying too hard.
Don't build a desk that's comfortable enough to spend huge amounts of time at, it's not healthy physically or emotionally. If you plan to waste your hours at your desk, you'll do it, whether or not it's good for your career.
"Flame me and then brag about your setup."
You know what?
I just ordered Beta 2 a month ago (http://www.getthebetas.com/ ), and I've fallen in love with it. It's like Microsoft was joking when they released previous versions of VS. For C/C++, you can't beat it. Granted, I've never been an Emacs or vi person, but IntelliSense is vastly improved with this edition and will save you quite a few keystrokes.
It also contains the best XML editor I've ever used (Earlier this year I was working on an XML-heavy project, so I tried about 10 different ones).
I want to know who this guy is working for and if there are any openings.
All the above are no substitute for hard work, research and forethought, of course. But you'll go better for longer.
I found that reading and knowing the right people has much more to do with my productivity as a programmer. Fancy keyboards and the such only help if for some reason a piece of equipment is causing you pain. Multiple monitors and stuff like that are nice, don't get me wrong but I would rather save my C notes to buy technical books. From working with many programmers, I think they should do the same thing. Another thing that I saw mentioned was buying a 500 dollar chair. Can we say overkill? Personnally I can't code very often for more than an hour straight without wanting to get up and take a walk or something. A 50 dollar chair is confortable enough for me. I think a lot of this fancy equipment is more of an image thing, if you have a 500 dollar chair, 3 19 inch LCDs and a blazing fast PC then one seems to think they are cooler. I am a professional programmer, I get paid to think and produce. Give me the extra cash as a bonus, I wills stick with my 400 dell, 50 dollar chair and 17 inch lcd.
Paper and pencil are nice, but for some things, the big-ass whiteboard is really handy.
Bah. All you can do with vi is code, so you're still stuck with using a stunning array of separate applications. My life is too short for a complicated mess like that.
Now with emacs, you can have an editor, an interpeter, a compiler, a linker, a refactorer, a debugger, a CVS/SVN client, a machine virtualizer, an object browser, a documentation browser, and a game of Tetris. All in one convenient, bite-size package.
From Jetbrains. It's the best Java IDE on Earth, bar none. It's non-free, but well worth the purchase price. You *must* at least take them up on their eval period. It's that good.
vi is my shepard, I shall not font.
When it comes to a development tool for PHP, I know no better than Zend Studio http://www.zend.com/store/products/zend-studio/
I used to be a big fan of Notepad++, but this really helps me reduce my programming time by leveraging intellisense as well as database connectivity right in the package. They have a Beta out of their newest version that you might want to download to try.
Ever since that team of guys loaded NetBSD into a toaster I've been wondering if emacs can now make toast in addition to all the other things it does. And when it will be able to do my dishes and laundry for that matter.
Stop Global Warming!
Just say no to irreversible processes!
I am moving my little office home as DSL reaches my house (after 4 years waiting)
... as sometimes it is a brainstorming device that inspires me in different ways ....
I am planning on using a this strange setup:
2 monitor (later 3) setup mounted on a turnable pipe construction so they can "hang in front of me.
NO DESK. Instead of that one (or two) PC(s) will serve as a tiny desk next to me for gadgets (camera/pda/ipod/cellphone/etc).
The pc(s) will rest on the base that holds a retractable keyboard holder and my trackball. That's right, if you have a trackball you can save a lot of space (besides my pain in my wrist is gone since i use a trackball - I have to leave my wrist for plating paintball and riding offroad to develop my carpel tunnel while having fun.
I will be using a big TV seat with a footrest (not a lazyboy but one with a high seatback, adjustable so I can hold myself (healthier) or lay back (comfortable, when just "spacing out" or surfing/gaming.
Now the PC setup:
One linux PC that does all the network things with one, later 2 monitors, and one windows PC for testing this and that and using some win-only gadgets (like my heart rate monitor, and whatever else)
If you need a multi OS setup I recommend using x2vnc and a vnc server to connect your UN*X setup to windoz... So 1 keyboard 1 mouse/trackball for up to +4 other machines (north south west east)
As for software: you know what you need, i use gnome, a text editor and a browser to work.. but I mostly deal with web/database so i do not need fancy IDE tools.
Notes: have the monitors hanging gives you the opportunity to see below/over (as a projection screen and a TV will be in front of me as well....
also the deskless setup gives you the chance to showe the keyboard and grab a ps2/xbox controller and in case my projector/TV is used by my wife (occupied by channel-e, fashion tv or else (sorry babe)) i can still connect the consoles/DVd player to my monitors using a chep $40 tv tuner card (anyone knows something with COMPONENT input cheap?)
Also you can use a laptop or diskless quiet PC to have net all the time and sit there in case you really need a pc when watching TV (i often have the urge to make a search on stuff i see - imdb what is that song, or url in the news/commercial/ etc)
Ok that got long so just one more thing:
that setup is to save space and not occupy a full room with pcs and desks..
we have a tiny house and i like to sit in the surround spot and in front of the screen whenever possible if i have to sit... aslo for me it is important to have a TV on when working
If a TV and music + space saving is your goal, you might have some useful thoughts... otherwise just put me in your "freaks tab"
cheers
Eclipse basically is the only IDE which can fulfill your needs out of the box, the project really is taking off, refactoring is possible now even in C++ and lots of plugins for almost any language are available, just go plugin shopping and stick with it, that is basically the best advice I can give to you.
Eclipse sort of has become for the 2000s what Emacs used to be for the 80s...
I still use "vi" everywhere... but I suspect emacs would do a better job."
Whoa! A self-confessed vi user suggesting that emacs may be better at some things? Clearly this one has had his mind tainted. Burn him alive before the infection spreads!
In fairness, if parent didn't put the disclaimer in his comment (bitching), there would've been 20 people responding that had no idea what he was talking about saying that Windows does so do multi-tasking.
I'm a big tall mofo.
After coding since 1972 I've found that simpler is better. The more whiz-bang things you have around - the more they are going to distract you.
:-) RED means DEAD in coding. Blues and greens mean good things are happening and yellow means you are about to be pissed off by something either you did or someone else did to your code. :-P
:-)
I use vim to edit, gcc to compile, ddd/gdb to debug. Whether it is Linux, BSD, Sun Solaris, Windows, Macintosh (OS X and earlier), Cray, SGI, or whatever - I use the same things. It makes life simple. I have my vim macros - they do all of my documentation for me, help to reformat bad code I have to look at, and even can go through a complete file and replace various items I do not like to look at into things I do like to look at.
I have found that fancy IDEs, overly helpful editors, and things of that sort tend to piss me off since I type so fast. I especially hate it when an IDE overlaps what I'm typing so I can't see what I'm typing. It usually gets the wrong word and by the time the program finally figures out what the actual word is I want - I've typed it in already. However, I do like the color coding.
In any event, do whatever feels best for you, but fancy things tend to get in the way rather than help out (unless you just happen to like that sort of thing).
This is not to say that IDEs can not help. Especially when programming for Windows. Also, there are interface designers. The two I like are DialogBlock or wxDesigner. Neither of them get in the way of coding. Once through with them though - I stick to vim.
If you are looking for advice on creature comforts - here are mine:
1. Have someplace you can put things to drink. It always breaks concentration when you have to get up, go to another room, and get a drink. If possible, buy a small refrigerator you can put under the desk or in another part of the room. Put your cold drinks in there so you have them ready to drink when you need one.
2. Have lots of shelves nearby. You need them so you can put your reference books on them so you don't have to go looking for them.
3. Get a pet. Preferrably a cat. Cats are interesting creatures and if you ignore them for an hour or two they will eventually demand your attention. This is a good thing because you can forget that time is passing while coding and the cat will remind you to get up and move about. Why is this important? Because there is this little thing called Phlebitus that you can get. (It is also called Secretary's Disease.) You get it from spending long hours sitting doing something. The blood in your legs tends to slow down and pool (ie: not return to the heart to be renewed as much). When the blood slows down enough it begins to form blood clots which can result in your having a stroke or you getting Phlebitus. If you are very unlucky (like me) it will completely block your artery or vien and you will then be on medication for the rest of your life (or you could say I am lucky not to be dead because of the Phlebitus). So get a pet and live a long healthy life. (This is not to mention the fun you can have with a pen light making the cat chase it all over the place. Of course it isn't too fun when the cat hits your pile of printouts and scatters them all over the place - but hey! That's why you get the shelves!)
4. Windows. You need them. You need them so you can open them and let some fresh air in. You need them so when it gets dark you remember to eat, go to the bathroom, etc.... You need them to realize that your life is passing you by while you sit there and code away. I coded for almost thirty years in buildings without windows. Now I work part time and spend a majority of my time at home coding in a room with a window. I also help out those who can't make their computers work, teach people about computers, and do other freebie things instead of just sitting in a window-less room and coding ten to sixteen hours per day.
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
like what can be seen here http://cgi.ebay.com/DELL-SUPER-COMPUTER-EIGHT-20-F LAT-SCREENS_W0QQitemZ5234745742QQcategoryZ51147QQr dZ1QQcmdZViewItem
don't worry that auction is over I'm not seller are in anyway connected with him or her or whatever.
Well, technically, since you can run a shell inside an Emacs window, you don't even need the xterm. In fact, at one job many years ago, I had a VT-100 terminal on my desk, and used emacs to get multiple shell "windows" at once. :-) In practice, now that we have command line editing via tcsh, I do prefer a plain old xterm for command line stuff.
I have two monitors these days because I'm waiting for my CRT to blow up, so I bought a Samsung 213T before it does (great 21.3" LCD, if you're looking, by the way). It's a pivotable 1600x1200, and I nearly always use it pivoted 90 degrees 1200x1600 for longer pages. About the only time I switch to landscape position is when I'm editing a horizontal photo in Photoshop.
When my CRT does go out, I think I'm going to be stuck. I'm so used to having two monitors I'll have to run out and buy another 213T (or whatever the best deal on LCDs is at the time).Of course I recommend an Aeron chair and a convertible workstation-type desk. this is the type of workstation that has a raising/lowering/tilting keyboard tray and another paddle that raises/lowers the entire desktop. This allows you to move from sitting to standing position in a second...very important for keeping those wrists, back, and neck from repetitive motion injury. Get an ergonomic keyboard and a click-wheel mouse with side buttons--this minimizes moving back and forth from keyboard to mouse.
I'd also take a look at various accessibility options. There are footpedal typing aids--why not engage those for a whole body coding experience? Gloves that behave like a keyboard and a mouse, trigger style mice, etc. I'd invest in a couple of different input options just to mix it up every now and then.
Set up the room with all windows blocking light securely and all lights inside the room should be indirect only, and places way to the side of your monitors so as to to minimize glare. Calibrate your monitors so that you don't have overly contrasty or bright images in front of your eyes all day, and take frequent breaks every 15 mins to half an hour.
Seems to me like disk space is getting to be more and more of a hassle these days--nip this in the bud since you have an unlimited budget by getting one of those 1.5TB network-attached storage modules they sell (I've seen them for digital photographers). They have internal RAID and support 1Gb Ethernet, which means you'll need a 1Gb switch and card in all the boxes on your home LAN. (Get fiber if you can, but now we're talking real money, I think.) Since I haven't played with NAS I'm not sure what you can do with them, but I have no reason to think you couldn't set up the RAIDing internally whatever way you wanted--I would personally go with RAID-6, some kind of LVM configuration on top of that, and the latest ReiserFS for my source control partition (lots of small text files). As it would be a while until I used half that space, it would be cool if I could mirror the entire setup internally--that way, when I wanted to completely restructure my disk space, I could just break the mirror, do a complete format of half of it, rejigger it around, copy stuff over from the half-mirror, destroy that and re-mirror. (0.75TB should be enough for anybody. What!?)
That's about all I can come up with for now...should be a pretty good start.
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
Nothing you can code but what you know
Nothing you can type that doesn't load
Nothing you can write that doesn't look like a clean compile
It's Easy (dum dah dum dah dum dah dee)
All you need is VI (LAH DAH Dah dah dah dee)...
Thank you John, and I hope we passed the audition.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Sounds to me like you need to get Jon Travolta on the case. His setup was teh 733t.
I wanna be like Hugh Jackman running around swilling my glass of red wine going "Yes! Yes" every time I add something to my 3-D rendered virus software.
That would r0x0r. And I'd get to see Halle Berry's boobies.
http://www.chait.net/cgaindex.php?p=ASIN_B0002ILKN Q&page=2
I find that light wood colors reduce my stress,
2 00508.ars/4
and it is good to keep your field of vision as clear as possible. You want to reduce distractions and keep the mood light and serene.
I put in laminate wood flooring (easier to clean) with a light coloured massive L-shaped laminate desk with hutch, and real wooden horizontal blinds (all similarly light woods)
The desk lets me hide a couple of workstations in it (out of sight, out of mind - and less noise too) and lets me hold a massive glass monitor (FP1370) on the desk, with an alternate flat panel monitor on the library return. The Belkin KVM, powerbar and all wiring are all hidden underneath.
The old soapbar style MS mouse (with gel pad and mouse bungee) tucks away with the keyboard under the desk on a sliding shelf/tray.
The Klipsch satellite speakers are hidden away in various spaces and an electric coffee warmer pad, a phone, a webcam and a microphone is on the desk.
The 4x6 whiteboard is on the back wall so I have to swivel my mesh backed ergonomic chair to see it. The floor is protected with a clear mat against the chair's plastic casters.
Visitors seat themselves in a drafting chair (the kibitzing seat) just high enough to have difficulty reaching for the keyboard or my mouse. After all, a computer is more personal than underwear (no touching allowed).
The source control repository, database, NAS (get a big ATA one), firewall/router, LAN switch and web servers are all hidden away downstairs in the basement at a secondary L-shaped desk. I normally leave tbe repository and database servers off, but I can remote boot and VNC into them as needed. Any other funky hardware, old software, or odd parts need to hide in the basement office/server room too.
For software, I use Subversion for a repository, ANT for build scripts (regardless of programming target), and CodeWright for an editor (no longer commercially available - get SlickEdit instead). If I have to use an IDE, I use Eclipse, but usually it is more trouble than its worth. Hopefully it will be good enough someday soon.
For hardware, see the ARS system guide.
http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-
Get the God box for your primary workstation.
The secondary workstation should have removable drives so you can boot multiple OSes (screw bootloaders) and swap drives around.
All workstations and servers should be dual CPU.
Web servers should be as low power as possible.
Repository and database servers should have RAID for their storage drives (back them up to the NAS) Database server should have SCSI drives and at least 2GB RAM. All other boxes are OK with ATA or SATA drives and at least 1GB RAM.
Make sure you have one of those DVD/CD multiformat burner thingies (to cut releases), and a jump drive (to carry demo/test software around)
If you are serious about software, you will also have plenty of books and quite a few binders. Either get a separate room for them (a study) or put bookcases in the basement, or both (I had to do both) Disk media need to be stored in binders, towers or whatever, but keep a ready rack in your primary office (it's part of my desk hutch)
> ...All in one convenient, bite-size package.
Shouldn't that be *multi-mega*-bite sized package?
Max.
It defaults to a 200ms delay for autocompletion. Maybe you should try to play around with that number in the settings.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
I don't think anything beats a nice big whiteboard and plenty of colour markers (and eraser) for brainstorming and mapping out flows, structures, links, in and outs.
:-)
I've looked so many times for a nice computer package for doing that but I pretty much always go to the whiteboard - I can stand, I can pace, I can step back, I can use my fingers to rub out.
A digital camera is handy when working with a whiteboard - that you can take a photo, save it and print it out for later. I have seen some whiteboard type things that have markers (and eraser) that can be tracked and imported straight to the computer, but I know that when I've got thoughts happening I don't want to have to interrupt and remind myself that using my finger to rub something out isn't replicated to the 'puter.
Big sheets of paper can work, a premanent record to go back to (very handy if you suddenly realise that your new brainwave is a f$#% up), but it is hard to rub out stuff and when starting from scratch on a new sheet with some old info some thoughts can be lost.
A chalkboard/blackboard can do the same thing, but you want to keep the dust away from the insides of the monitors, system units etc.
Besides there is the added bonus that if you get the right markers you end up nice and relaxed while you are working
Also plenty of fresh air and a bit of pacing room for when you need to think things through a bit more.
Many people here have talken about multiple monitors but nor about their orientation. I find that vertical real estate on my screen is more productive than horizontal space. I would go so far as to say that 4x4 is an ideal monitor displacement. It would be so nice to get them "border free" as well
"The first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
Here is my guess at the point you were trying to make...
"It's better to be uncomfortable at a desk so you won't be tempted to stay there for a long time. Instead you will get outside more and spend more time being social."
That almost sounds right except for:
1) The poster said he is a "professional software engineer". Most likely, he has no choice but to sit at a desk. If he was some Everquest addict then you might have a point.
2) Sitting comfortable is healthy. Back misalignment and carpal tunnel syndrome is unhealthy. That is why when you are uncomfortable you feel nociception. Nociception is your body's way of alerting you to physiological damage.
USE IT!!!!
* Don't buy a $700 aeron chair and slouch in it.
* Don't let your wrists fall while you type.
* Don't lean in 3" from your LCDs, stay ~27" away.
* Take small 30-sec breaks every 20-30 min
* Eat healthy throughout the day, not a pile of pizza and candy once a day at midnight; regardless of how cool it makes you feel to drink energy drinks like Bawlz!.
* Avoid caffiene and meth, unless you have a major deadline to hit.
Seriously, if you can force yourself to do these things, you can go several hours longer programming during the day.
It works for me, but YMMV.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
.. get a Hardware Lisp Machine.
:-)
I got a Xerox 1108 in 1983 - a superb development system.
At the present time, I would suggest flexibility. For me, this means having a server were all of my design artifacts, code, etc. are under source code control. Then, no matter if I need to use a Mac, Linux, or Windows box, I can get the environment that I need almost instantly.
If you do a lot of Java work, think about investing in IntelliJ - it is better IMO than Eclipse and NetBeans.
For Lisp, currently I like the Linux-SLIME-Emacs-SBCL combination (and free!), although if you want to deliver small fast executables, Lispworks is great.
VisualWorks Smalltalk has a good deal for small developers: for $500/year you get all their development tools (great web services support, etc.) and the $500/year is a prepayment on royalties. It is an awesome environment but I find Smalltalk a hard sell (everyone wants their stuff delivered in Java).
For Ruby, I think that Eclipse + the Ruby plugin is a pretty good combination.
I live about 100 feet from a trail head, leading to wilderness area: that is the best "add on" for my coding environment because I like to take lots of work breaks. For a physical trainer, I went top dollar: bought an Italian Greyhound puppy who lets me know when I have been working too much and not walking him enough. We also have a baby parrot who hangs out a lot with me (shoulder, back of chair, or top of flatsceen monitor) - he is very little trouble and adds something nice to my work environment.
I work out of a home office. My wife insisted that I get good office furniture (great orthopedic chair, nice teak desk, etc.)
Good food: I like to take a lot of food breaks while I work. My wife and I have a fine recipes web portal (CJsKitchen.com) and one of us is almost always making something tasty because that is our main hobby. Good nutrition and exercise are important for coding or any other intellectual activities!
My last bit of advice: enjoy coding
Well let start with the basics, the computer(s). I would sugest that you get a separate system for each platform you want to develop for, don't get the latest and greatest system unless you are going to make a program that will take years to develop and by the time it is done the best model will become the standard. But go with the Normal Systems, For PCs 3-3.5 ghz P4 and a comparable AMD is more then enough. a new iMac G5 and a Sun Blade 150. This way you have systems that support most of the currently living platforms. Go with the medium video cards but try to diversify especially on your PCs.
Next Operating systems, Well there is Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and long^H^H^H^HVista when it comes out. 2 Different Linux Distributions like Red Hat/Fidora, and Debein or Gentoo. Free/Open/Net BSD, OS X 10.2-10.4, Solaris 8,9,10 for Sparc and Intel. On the Intel systems I would strongly suggest VMWare so you can have many test environments and different OS.
Next Displays The bigger the Better, the more screens the better. The more text you can fit on your screen the easier it will be for you to view code even ones that are well nested. Also get ones with clean display LCD are good, with anti glare.
Next Keyboard, Get a keyboard that you really like that feels good to you and offer the appropriate feedback. While you do a lot of typing I have rarely seen a programmer write programs like writing a paper with constant typing. So get what you feel best with.
Mouse, a 3 button, 2 button and scroll wheel, Mighty Mouse. Don't try to use anything with to much features as a programmer you will design your program to work with your interface if you have a too complex mouse your application my not work well with normal people.
KVM Switch. You don't want to be cluttered so a good kvm switch that allows you to swich platforms and use you favorite keyboard and mouse.
A stable File Server. You will probably like having a good file server with a large drive, mirrored! and Gigabit Networking so you are not copying files all day.
A Good Color Laser printer. Samsung has a good one for $500 bucks but if you are an HP Guy or a Xerox guy, Laser Printers while cost more then an ink jet, offer lower cost of ownership, You want color so when you print your code with syntax coloring your printed code is in color and helps you track threw it easer.
Large and adjustable desk. You want to adjust the angle of your keyboard many times and large enough to have many papers on it so you can track information.
White Board, whiteboards are great for short term flow charts, and working threw problems, or having a to do list. A big one adjusted so you can access it threw your chair.
Chair. The perfect chair is near impossible I would like to have 3. First the kneeling chairs for good posture (Perfect for deadline coding), second a good executive chair (For the reading and analyzing paperwork, and documenting code ) , then an easy chair (For working out problems, and waiting for long compiles)
Lighting: Standard Florence ceiling lights (Well maintained with no flicker), A large window for natural sunlight, A project spot light, and a spot light facing upwards. The Florence light combined with large window helps brighten up your day and the Florence light reduces the shadows from the window, but if it is dark or cloudy outside then use the spotlight faced upwards for mood lighting, and use the spotlight facing down to help you focus on what you need to do.
All the phones in the office should not ring loudly or play anything extremely distraction. a low pitch phones work best.
Privacy, if you in your office that is the best if not go with tall cubical wall and let them have 4 corners (3 with a window side) and a door, at least for me I like to take 10 minute breaks every couple of hours and I prefer to lie back in my chair and rest my eyes, and when I am in a good private environment I can avoid people distracting me saying that I am sleeping on the job.
Proper Temperature. Not to hot where you are sticky and uncomfo
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
My experience with eclipse:
Running on a 2Ghz machine with 512 Meg RAM, it took forever to start. Once started, it was fast enough on tiny projects, but once you added more than about 100 files to a project, it started to crawl. Projects with closer to 1000 files, I sometimes had to wait about 45 seconds between right clicking something, and the right click menu appearing.
On a friend's advice, I upgraded to 1G of RAM, and suddenly eclipse worked like a relatively normal IDE. Still a tiny bit sluggish at times, but bearable.
So my verdict: yes, it's horribly slow. If you've got a nice machine, you can make it usable, but is it really worth it?
What I really want is a full featured IDE like eclipse, but where the editor window is gvim. That would be heaven.
Here is a decent list.
I like CppUnit, but YMMV.
Maybe it's because my behind lacks the padding the average programmer has, but I really really like my Humanscale Freedom chair. I can sit in this thing for a LOT longer than I can with a cheap chair before getting uncomfortable. If you don't have such problems then you probably won't want to spend the $1K but if you do it's a godsend. (Yes, I know, get up, walk around, but...) I like it much better than the Aeron (I think I'm too skinny for those).
The rest of my furniture is cheap stuff though. A couple of folding tables work well.
I never got into the multiple monitors thing either but I really like my new Samsung 204T 20" LCD. (They were on sale, couldn't resist.) They're not that expensive, about half what the 19" LCD it replaced originally cost me, and 1600x1200 gives you almost 50% more pixels to work with than 1280x1024. Check 'em out.
Air quality is the other big thing with me. I recently figured out that paint fumes do very bad things to my head, and energy-efficient new construction seals buildings so tight that the interior doesn't "breathe" all that well. (I live on the top floor and they repaint the common hallway every other year, and the fumes have nowhere to go but the upstairs apartments, slowly, and I was told by my allergist to keep my windows closed because that's what you're supposed to do to keep out the pollen and mold that I thought was messing with my head... but now that I'm almost done with immunotherapy open windows help a LOT more than they hurt.) Do yourself a favor and buy Low or No VOC (Volitile Organic Compounds) paint the next time you do indoor painting. Make sure the powers-that-be at work know to do this too. It's a cheap way to make a BIG difference in indoor air quality. I bet that much of the "Sick Building Syndrome" thing is caused by this.
I don't know... I hear you on the ergonomic things, but then I don't think comfort, in general, is conducive to good programming. Having the right desk, the right light, the right chair, the right mouse, etc. - IMHO these are all distractions. and of course if you have no injuries or other physical limitations, etc.
When you need to do good work, you need to eat healthy, lay off the caffeine and alcohol, and get the sleep you need. and ideally, get some exercise. Get out and walk or do pullups or something while you think. That doesn't cost money. Then you can do great work anywhere.
must... stay... awake...
When I got out of college, I was used to working only 4 or 5 hours at a time at the computer. My keyboard habits were all right, but not good enough to carry me through an 8-hour work day. At my new job, my hands started to hurt.
I experimented with several keyboard positions, and eventually found that using a keyboard tray and a wrist rest was the best one. Using high mouse sensitivity was also much better because it reduced the wrist motion I needed to move the mouse. Now I experience almost no pain at all. So I have firsthand proof that ergonomics is important.
It is really important to spend some time finding the right office configuration. You may think you can put it off, but the reality of the situation is that using the wrong ergonomic configuration, even for a day, can lead to a lot of pain.
And as for "Dr. Sarno," he sounds about as scientific as
this.
Here's a helpful hint, kids. Real researchers advertise their findings in peer-reviewed journals, not through propagandizing the public. Yes, even psychology researchers.
"Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental." -Slashdot
This is an old thread. Chances are, the parent poster won't even read this. Ah, well. Such is life.
I started coding hard and heavy in early 2000, giving up a life as the owner of a small computer shop to pursue the much-more-rewarding role of software engineer.
Within a few months, I ran into the dreaded carpal tunnel issue - wrists that were sore and painful by mid-day, everyday. If I carefully positioned my wrists with rests, and adjusted my chair just so, I was good, but it was very hard to sit just so everyday, all day.
I bought a Microsoft Ergonomic keyboard, and was shocked at the difference it made. Immediate pain elimination. I could sit more/less however I wanted to.
About 2 years ago, I bought a Dell Inspiron laptop, and quickly had it set up at "the desk" with the large monitor (configured to do dual screen) ergo keyboard, etc.
But, then a few strange things happened.
1) I discovered that laptops let you sit anywhere you like.
2) I discovered that laptops let you move and flex.
I program at home, as in independent. I sit in the yard, I sit on the couch, I lay on my bed, whatever suits my fancy.
Today, I put in >12 hour day, but I spent part of it on the couch, part curled up in my papason chair, and part on the back porch deck watching my children swim in the pool.
And, with all these different angles and seating positions, my wrists just don't get sore. It'd still be nice to have dual-monitors, but KDE's virtual desktop + VERY tiny fonts does well enough, that the ergo keyboard and 20" monitor almost always sit, unused.
And, my quality of life has shot out through the roof, even as my young business grows rapidly!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
The thing about this: I think our minds are distracted somewhat unconsciously. Every time the hard drive whirs back up, I'm more likely to become distracted, and more likely to let something slip, but it took me a long time before I recognized this pattern.
If you don't mind switching to OS X (might be a good idea for an ultimate setup anyway), you should try out TextMate. It's a very nice editor, that's extremely extensible and has snippets, macros and commands for almost all mainstream languages.
Have a look at this screencast to see what it can do.
It is payware, but it's a measly EUR 39 and it's worth every eurocent. Plus, it may not be open-source, but it does utilise a lot of open standards.
Don't worry, it's all just 1's and 0's anyway...
Actually no, it feels and behaves like a normal IDE, most people and that is mostly a documentation problem, run it with the default memory settings, while they work, eclipse will start to choke once you dump a load of files into it or once you hammer it with a handful plugins. Most people do not know that java does not behave like every other program it only takes the amount of ram it is assigned to currently running heavy server development with a s***itload of plugins and even an integrated case tool with following settings -vmargs -Xmx700m -Xms200m -XX:MaxPermSize=128m and the IDE is fast, believe me.
Are you trying to stop all software development worldwide?
No caffeine?
No alcohol?
Devs need their caffeine to keep going all day, and their alcohol to get sleep. This is how software is made.
----- If communism is a system where the government owns business, what do you call a system where business owns govern