Since I started in computer science, I have heard the whole "how do we get more women" dicussion too many times to count. Personally, I think the whole thing is a lot of noise over a non-issue. Every reason they site for why women might not stay in CS never affected me or most of the women I know in computers. I never felt like I was defying the norm or that it was weird to be the only girl in a class full of boys. In fact, the reality of my gender is just not something on the forefront of my mind as I go through each day. It really is a non-issue. Bad teachers, well they can turn anyone off a subject, not just girls.
My question is, why are we so interested in trying to make people who aren't interested in the field get into it anyway? I mean, after those girls graduate from college because we've convinced them to go through this major, then what? I don't think they are going to stay in the industry very long. Let's be honest, it takes a particular mindset to really enjoy programming, and not everyone has it. This is true of every profession. Where is the big push to get more men into Early Childhood Education? Do you realize that nearly all preschool teachers are women? Maybe we need to change the educational system so that more men will be attracted to that major. Until I see people doing studies and mobilizing around this horrible gender gap in majors like Early Childhood, I am not going to waste too much time trying to change Computer Science either.
Take the writing the comments first a step further and write the tests first too. Test-first development is not just for the agilists in the house, many projects are realizing the benefits of doing it. It is a big paradigm shift for most developers but once you make the change, you'll be surprised how natural it becomes. It gives you all the benefits mentioned by Webmoth (getting it clear in your mind, knowing your inputs and outputs, having an outline to follow) and extends that to your whole API. You start with all your tests, which should all be failing because there is no code yet, and check your code in once you're passing your tests 100%.
The September issues of both IEEE Computer and IEEE Spectrum have articles about this and other software development practices I encourage you to check out, such as agile development.
Even if you don't choose to take a test-first approach, don't do like so many projects do and put testing to the very end either. Testing should happen throughout your project. You cannot test in quality later. Software maintenance accounts for more than 90% of the total costs for a project. Do something to help your company to reduce that amount by making testing a routine part of development from the beginning.
The batteries are a toxic mess, and I think a lot of people forget about that. Another environmental issue I never see anyone discuss is the oil consumed in the production of the hybrid car. First, there is the oil burned to create energy to produce the car. Then, there is all the oil used in all the plastic (yes, people forget plastic is made with oil) that the car is made out of. Then there is all the energy used in shipping. In the end, is there a net environmental gain to replacing your 5 yr old Passat with a new Prius? I would not be surprised if there is not.
If you have a car that is at the end of it's life and has to be replaced, get a hybrid. Getting one to replace your 10 yr old Accord because they are "cool" may not be helping anyone. We need to get the 15+ yr old smog spewing, gas eating, american cars off the road. That will make the most impact on our environment.
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My question is, why are we so interested in trying to make people who aren't interested in the field get into it anyway? I mean, after those girls graduate from college because we've convinced them to go through this major, then what? I don't think they are going to stay in the industry very long. Let's be honest, it takes a particular mindset to really enjoy programming, and not everyone has it. This is true of every profession. Where is the big push to get more men into Early Childhood Education? Do you realize that nearly all preschool teachers are women? Maybe we need to change the educational system so that more men will be attracted to that major. Until I see people doing studies and mobilizing around this horrible gender gap in majors like Early Childhood, I am not going to waste too much time trying to change Computer Science either.
Take the writing the comments first a step further and write the tests first too. Test-first development is not just for the agilists in the house, many projects are realizing the benefits of doing it. It is a big paradigm shift for most developers but once you make the change, you'll be surprised how natural it becomes. It gives you all the benefits mentioned by Webmoth (getting it clear in your mind, knowing your inputs and outputs, having an outline to follow) and extends that to your whole API. You start with all your tests, which should all be failing because there is no code yet, and check your code in once you're passing your tests 100%.
The September issues of both IEEE Computer and IEEE Spectrum have articles about this and other software development practices I encourage you to check out, such as agile development.
Even if you don't choose to take a test-first approach, don't do like so many projects do and put testing to the very end either. Testing should happen throughout your project. You cannot test in quality later. Software maintenance accounts for more than 90% of the total costs for a project. Do something to help your company to reduce that amount by making testing a routine part of development from the beginning.
The batteries are a toxic mess, and I think a lot of people forget about that. Another environmental issue I never see anyone discuss is the oil consumed in the production of the hybrid car. First, there is the oil burned to create energy to produce the car. Then, there is all the oil used in all the plastic (yes, people forget plastic is made with oil) that the car is made out of. Then there is all the energy used in shipping. In the end, is there a net environmental gain to replacing your 5 yr old Passat with a new Prius? I would not be surprised if there is not.
If you have a car that is at the end of it's life and has to be replaced, get a hybrid. Getting one to replace your 10 yr old Accord because they are "cool" may not be helping anyone. We need to get the 15+ yr old smog spewing, gas eating, american cars off the road. That will make the most impact on our environment.