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Ask Slashdot: What Are the Hardest Things Programmers Have To Do?

Posted by Soulskill on from the moderate-their-criticism dept.

itwbennett writes "Software development isn't a cakewalk of a job, but to hear programmers tell it (or at least those willing to grouse about their jobs on Quora and Ubuntu Forums), what makes programming hard has little to do with writing code. In fact, if the list compiled by ITworld's Phil Johnson has it right, the single hardest thing developers do is name things. Are you a software developer? What's the hardest part of your job?"

7 of 473 comments (clear)

  1. Two sides of the coin by swm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The head and tail of the list

    9. Designing a solution
    1. Naming things

    are pretty much two sides of the same coin.

    If you have a design, you will know what call things.
    If you have names for everything, you will be able to build a design from there.

    And these *are* the hardest things on the list.

  2. Estimation by scottnix · · Score: 5, Insightful

    By far the hardest part of my job as a professional software developer is estimating how long a feature will take to develop.

    1. Re:Estimation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      By far the hardest part of my job as a professional software developer is estimating how long a feature will take to develop.

      More often than not, it's the pointy-haired-boss who tells me how long a task is going to take. And since they're the ones signing my paycheck, I tend to figure out how to get the task done in the time allotted. Unfortunately with time and complexity fixed, that makes quality the variable.

  3. Programmer Troubles by girlintraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Easy: The hardest thing a programmer has to do is explain why what they're doing isn't a simple matter of programming.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  4. Time Estimations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's a spec that is incomplete and will keep changing over the life of the project. Tell me how long this will take and remember that your preformance will be measured against how well you meet your estimates.

  5. Re:Maths by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What is the hardest thing "coders" have to do? Based on the evidence that I have seen, over more than 20 years?

    Comment their code

    Either that, or produce relevant, well-defined logging.

    The other hard things they have to do are usually related to have a project to complex or ill-defined for producing a clear outcome. This is usually not the coder's doing, but a downstream problem derived from insufficient architecture role/guidance and probably a weak project management function.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  6. Getting requirements that conflict. by darkwing_bmf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The hardest part is when the person asking you to implement something new doesn't think through the implications of what they're asking for. Sure it looks great on powerpoint for one specific use case, but rarely are all of the relevant factors are taken into account.