So, right now I'm having to study the code of an old pretty complex Delphi calculation tool so I can migrate it to Matlab. There is no actual documentation.
The person who knows the tool best and only one left to have even seen the code is not supposed to know what I'm doing.
I'm supposed to talk him into giving me a quick (1h) walkthrough of the code without actually telling him why, or figure it out all by myself.
He feels too strongly about Delphi.
I kinda don't feel this ...

Just found this on Reddit
"I used to think that everybody should learn programming. When I first started learning –thinking about how to organize the world in terms of data structures and algorithms– I thought, "Wow, this is such an amazing way to organize information. Everybody should learn to do this!"

I don't think that anymore.

I think there has to be something seriously wrong with you in order to do this work. A normal person, once they’ve looked into the abyss, will say, “I’m done. This is stupid. I’m going to do something else.” But not us, ‘cause there’s something really wrong with us."
Douglas Crockford

When you're so exhausted that the weekend isn't enough for you to reset anymore, that your manager won't pull you off the project because client likes you (or that he just doesn't want to lose the project), that you can't quit, or kill yourself (because you start getting those ideas), since sister depends on you financially and you just care for her that much, you just keep going, wearing your smiling face at all times, trying to continue shitting code because it's your job, and what's left of you deep inside is yelling for help.
Man, do I need a new job.
No worries people. I just really need some whining right now. Hopefully I get news from my latest interviews.

Untangling spaghetti isn't fun.

We've only met once and it was love at first sight. But now we're apart because some forces are conspiring against us x(
Give me back my storm trooper mug !

If an E is symmetrical, what of f(E) where f is a transformation ?

A tech trend I'm excited about ?
Fuck these days everyone is so excited about everything. One can't decide what to pursue. I end up reading and trying bits of many things without being useful at anything.
I can't imagine how lost newbies might be these days lol
For now I just decided to be better at what I do. We'll see if I can hold my horses 🙄

I want to adopt this habit of coding one fundamental concept/tool/.. every day before/after work. I already started doing it and I've been coding sort algorithms. every morning since last week, in Java.
What do you guys think should go on the list of things to practice regularly ?

What shows (series) talk about the software industry and are actually realistic?

I don't think that we need to get rid of social media.
I mean, the data generated creates so much value and opportunities. and the services offer so much convenience past which we couldn't possible go.
In light of this what do u think should be the approach to fixing this mess ?

Some avatar around here just reminded me of the bazillion Europeans living the hipster life in India (I interned there).

context : In India fair skin is a very desired feature, every face washing product has "whitening" on it, god damn it even the shaving foam!
So they tend to treat white people very distinctively : free entry and alcohol in clubs, lots of money in media gigs and the like, strangers inviting you to their marriages just because you're white..
So some white folks would abuse this. And they develop some kind of clothing taste that's weird to say the least.
Maaan they must be trashier than the fucking original hipster God.
I just can't fathom their ways..

Sorry I had to lash out 🙄

How do I get through tough dev days ?

If by tough day we mean a day where I'm really not feeling it or the like, I don't.
I let it pass by me though music or doing something I enjoy doing, or something random but interesting.

If we mean that the task at hand during that day is tough, then there's no escaping it unless you want to risk losing your job, and I can't afford losing my job. So I ask for help, try to do it one little thing at a time. little progress is better than no progress.

I started reading the book "The clean coder" by Robert Martin and now I feel depressed.
So many of the things that he qualifies as unprofessional have I done :'(

Do you always make sure to understand the basics/fundamentals of a technique/solution/tool/.. you're using ?
I don't do it all the time and I feel that it's something I should do more often (or always?).

SpaceX fanboy here
I'd like tp print me a Starman mug
Anyone knows of services I could use in Belgium ?

Here is a story about 5 years of my life.
My studies had little to do with web. I did embedded systems (architecture and software) but quickly realized that I couldn't see myself living my life in my homecoutry and that my degree would be worth little to no more than shit elsewhere in the world. That was on my 3rd year in uni.
I liked coding so I decided to pursue computer science, then web development. For that, your degree mattered little.
From then on, when I wasn't in class I was doing some coding.
This allowed me to get short (2 months) internships in Mobile and web development, 4 in total.
Doing so I had made it so that my professors would allow me to do my graduation project in web and mobile dev. That project having ended, I secured a long (1year and a half) internship in Mumbai India doing web for a big consulting company. Having finished that I headed to Belgium for my current job. All with having no to little financial resources except what I could come up with.
"I'm proud of all the efforts it took to make it" is what I think sometimes but what is it that I made? I realized my first objective which is to be on the international job market, but now that I genuinely love software I realize that I didn't really make anything I can be proud of working as a consultant. And having worked on many things but not a lot on practically anything, it's getting hard to do something else.
I'm hoping for devranters insight on how I should proceed.

Here's some delphi code where one random developer from the 80s tries to force an error
if k=N then
begin
Memo.Lines.Add('Error, [some info]');
a:= 0 ; b:=b/a; {Here we try to force an error}
end ;

Oh god :'(

Colleagues find it weird how happy I can be when a bug is found in my code in development phase.

That calculation engineer who knows some programming and thinks he can tell you how to do your job 🙄

I feel that I'm cursed or something 🙄
Why would anyone want to develop anything in Delphi?

Sometime ago in my previous job an IT prick decided to troll developers by blocking access to stack overflow in our offices. It coincided with a settlement case of a few million dollars that our company had to pay because some idiot copied code illegally.
It was one of the most confusing hours of my life : a few hundred developers looking at each other and laughing in the weirdest fashion.
We sure shat some bricks.

In year 2000, I was 10, Tunisian government had made it possible for middle class families to get cheap computers and pay later. So my dad brought one home.
I played with it then I got more interested in what was inside.
Think of it as a 10 years old with no prior experience playing puzzle with computer parts.
It can't end well.
But the thrill I felt while doing it definitely had something to do with my career.
Hint: I don't do hardware :v

That moment you receive your salary but decide to hold off paying your dues for a few hours just to take a break from being poor 🙄