• ulterno@lemmy.kde.socialEnglish
      4·
      7 months ago

      It’s kinda fun to think of programming as magic.
      And “libraries” as grimoires/tomes .

      It’s surprising how far you can go with the analogy.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
      1·
      7 months ago

      Some time ago:

      • Me: “Programming is fun, but user interfaces are a PITA”
      • CS student: “What!? The algorithms I’m given to solve are really complicated!”
      • After a year on a job: “I hate testing user interfaces…”

      Some other day:

      • Me: “Programming is mostly copy&paste”
      • Engineering student: “What!? We have to come up with a new solution for every problem!”
      • After a year on a job: “I don’t program anymore, just copy&paste…”

      Told ya.

        • jarfil@beehaw.org
          2·
          7 months ago

          No matter what you work on, programming is one of:

          • Check the documentation for a library, copy&paste the interface call, fill in the blanks.
          • Pick the best algorithm for the case at hand, copy&paste, change a few variable names.
          • Get out your snippets archive, copy&paste the one you need.
          • Write some boilerplate, copy&paste over and over, then fill in the blanks.
          • Look up how someone else solved your problem, replicate it in a way that doesn’t look like copy&paste.
          • Once in a blue moon, come up against an actually novel problem, spend some days figuring out the best way to solve it… then copy&paste the solution back into the project.

          Doesn’t matter what you’re working on, in the end it’s mostly copy&paste 😂

          • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
            0·
            7 months ago

            I work on compilers (we can’t/don’t even have access to the C++ standard library in my case)… Most of the time, Google can’t help me ⚰️😅

            It was definitely a bit more copy and paste when I was working on web applications… But even then, most of the code I was writing was fairly novel / more application and database architecture problems than trying tying libraries together.

            • jarfil@beehaw.org
              1·
              7 months ago

              What are databases, other than glorified MS Access (¹)? 😜

              But seriously, if you’re working on compilers, then your “target users” are way different than the average thing: you have actual problems to solve, and can stick to the CLI.

              Most copy&paste begins the closer to a GUI you get. Modern web interfaces, have also become a string of libraries and frameworks.

              (¹: once upon a time… I tried to explain to a client, why there was no way on Earth to make their in-house MS Access solution compatible with personal data protection requirements for medical data, like 100% access control and logging. I failed… then some years later saw a story about the same problem on Coding Horror; still wonder if it was the same guy who got some other poor soul to try and go through with it, or if it was a more widespread problem at the time when personal data protection laws got enacted)

  • nilclass@discuss.tchncs.de
    2·
    7 months ago

    It’s like if farmers were just letting plants do all the work, instead of manually assembling the potatoes themselves

  • xep@fedia.io
    1·
    7 months ago

    Sometimes it feels like most of my job nowadays is deleting code now.

    • ElCanut@jlai.luOP
      1·
      7 months ago

      There’s an intern inside the server that checks every transaction by hand

  • lad@programming.dev
    0·
    7 months ago

    The biggest scam about programmers is they barely program

    He’s got a point, though, the further you go, the less time you spend inputting code. Although some people prefer to continue going head first and then remaking everything.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      1·
      7 months ago

      like with many jobs you’re learning to only do the work that matters, and oftentimes when you can avoid doing work that actually improves the product.

      There’s a reason why construction workers aren’t making their own planks and nails, that would be horribly time consuming, inefficient, and they’d probably make shitty planks.

  • Digital Mark@lemmy.mlEnglish
    0·
    7 months ago

    “She”. The gag of SwiftOnSecurity is it’s Taylor Swift, posting infosec. Tho these days she mostly trolls like this.