Curiosity killed the cat.. or was it Opportunity?! 🤔

You get to learn new stuff daily.

Not one assignment is the same, and if it's similar, you can hijack the old code, improve it & turn in the better version of it.. or don't improve..totally how you feel that day..if you're not a crappy developer no improvement should still also be ok..

I love mostly adjustable schedule, so there's no biggie of I have a day or two of coders block & can't produce much of value..I can switch tasks & do some simple ones on those days..or just refactor.. all's good..

I love solving puzzles, every bug is a new puzzle I can play with..

So basically, I love being a dev, because it's like being back in school, but only with the subjects you like!

I only prefer { on same lines if not used for class constructors & try catch blocks..
Other than that, I adapt to the existing codebase styles, to not fuck up things further, even if it makes no effing sense (old project, styles & best practises changed 'a bit')..

So I guess I'm being influenced most by the old code and pass devs on the projects..

When will I fuckin learn that
a) customers lie
b) customers are sloppy
c) customers are wrong
d) customers do not do their work (properly)
e) customers want us to do their (dirty) work
f) possibly all of the freakinly above?! + khm....

They will fuckin aaaalwaaaays say sth is not working after the update..
And I will alwaaaays assume I fucked up something..even if I didn't touch that part of the code/data..
And almost aaaaalways it turns out that the bug they complain about is how the system worked (or didn't work) before the update and/or some fuckup from their side..

Anyhow, I rushed over, grabbed the files went testing in dev..wtf, output is different, mine is ok, theirs is..wtf is that shit?!

Transfer newly built dll to test..same shit as on prod..wtf?! How?!

I assumed they have thing A correctly linked to thing B.. ofc thing A was linked to thing C in their case and in another case (our test) to correct thing B..
I got chillies when grabbing files, that
I should have tripple checked that they didn't fuck up something on the link part, but I just assumed they know what they were doing & that they checked they linked correct files with correct content already, before being pissy that the update fucked up things.. riiiight!! :/

I wanted to find solutions to this fuckup asap so I disregarded my gut feeling..yet again!! Fuuuck!
I've spent too much time trying to find ways to fix a bug that wasn't even a real bug to begin with.. :/

Fuuuuuck!!

So yeah, always treat the customers like they are 3yrs old & have no clue what they are doing & check exactly wtf they were indeed trying to do..it will save you time & nerves..

And note to self: reread this shit daily!! And imprint it in your brain that everything is not always your fault!!

Um.. If you mute rant.. and someone ++es a comment of yours..any way to actually see who was it?!

I thought this just doesn't make notif icon spark up and supresses bolded stuff in all but that you are still able to see it under ++ tab if you switch, but nothing is there.. o.O

VB CreateObject..
Why?!
Cuz it creates an ActiveX object..
So?!
I am using it to manipulate excel files..
Ooohhh...

Yeah, old code, finally getting around to replacing it, probably with something cross platform too.

But in the meantime, I still have to fix remaining bugs or add small features.. Lately just the latter. I manage to do so, even though it takes a lot more time that I'd like to admit as I'm not coding with VB on daily or even monthly basis...so the goddamn ; are everywhere, fucking with me like I killed the pope..
And the code is horendous.. I'm not even sure if it can be done more elegantly, with lesser lines etc.. but to me it feels like I am powertaping a stick to a robot and hoping it will autoconnect and start functioning as a third arm joined with using electric screwdriver to disassemble a watch..

FML! Icons missing from taskbar..check resources..available memory 1MB.. o.O

Okaaaay, usually with missing icons I restart explorer.exe.. restarts all good..not sure on the ram consuption at those times..

Well now that I did the same thing it fuckin closed everything!! Unsaved changes gone..VS saved changes..fuck me if I know what happened.. didn't check yet as it pissed me off, so I'm rebooting the comp..

So yeah, on top of everything that can go wrong in my life rn.. this..fuuuuuuck!!

P.S. people who actually use wins..how much ram you got?! 🤔

I didn't set out to be a dev.. so not much support dev wise, but in general loads.

I dropped out of uni, went back home to avoid paying rent and at least get some form of education.. here parents are obliged to take care of kids until they finish schooling but still.. they could've bitched about me dropping out. They were just concerned I wouldn't be employable without any kind of education and with lesser grade.. anyhow, I probably wouldn't be where I am if I continued wasting their money trying to finish uni when I wasn't motivated enough (still huge problems with ocd so at that time and it was too overwhelming).
I had a plan to finish this along the job when I can afford it but the courses are for regular students only..so no way I could attend them..
Anyhow, I am information science engineer by profession (if that is even how it translates to english), should be taking care of network & computer administration..yet here I am maintaining, bugfixing & developing most 'hated' projects at this firm & I love it!!
So yeah, I hope parents are proud of me..have to ask them though..

Some details in here somewhere: https://devrant.com/rants/2870913/...

edit: typoooooossssss

Fuuuuuuuck!!
CR estimates:
Part 1: 2h including testing
Part 2: 2h-2days-maybe never (small changes on horrifically fucked up project noone understands with tons of tech debt)

Managed to pull off the part two in one day.. //yay me?!

Additional day to unfuckup git fuckups (including but not limited to master head not compiling because a smartass included *.cs in .gitignore file which he also pushed..don't ask, I have no clue why..) which was a huuuge deal for me as I usually use only local repo and had no idea how to tackle this.. coworker helped out.. seems I was on the right way, but git push branchy was acting up & said I had to login & ofc I had no clue what the pass was set to (first setup was more than 2yrs ago)..so new key, new pass.. all good.. yay!

Back to the original story/rant: Now I'm stuck with writing jira explanation why it was done this way & not the way customer suggested. They offered only vague description anyways which would require me to do a hacky messy thing, ew.. + it most probably would require major data modifications after deployment to even make it work..

Anyhow, this expanation is also easy peasy in english..
BUT...
I must write it in my native tongue.. o.O FML! Spent almost 40mins on one paragraph..

Sooo.. if anyone will petition to ban non english in IT, I'm all for it!!

Rubik's cube, fidget cube, pipelike fidget toy, a bunch of happy meal toys, another bunch of Kinder egg toys, BB8 paper cup from ANA airplane..collection of lighters & tons of paper notebooks - doodles & my handwriting are each a very rare and unique art form noone quite understands.. 🤣🤣🤣

Why the fuck would you want to use a .tt on a web.config file?!

What about they keys you don't want to be mandatory? And you want to set some defaults for them if they're not present in the web.config file?!

I mean WTF?! Am I missing something here?!

Or is it really just that you wanted to be cool and have a file that writes some more code in another file in your project?!

Fuck!!

Does most memorable in a bad way count? 🤔

He left almost 2 years ago..or even more.. left a bunch of bugs and logical fuckups for me to fix.. some already fixed, some still lingering there..

I want to not blame him for everything, since we lack proper code review protocols and all.. but I've asked on several occasions if he understands the problem and what must be done..and the answer was always yes..results, after I got time to check up on him, the code he wrote was most probably copy pasted from stack overflow or somewhere else.. butchered in any and every way possible..

And of course already checked in to TFS.. along with bunch of files that were not even changed (he didn't bother to check that and exclude them) + a bunch of files from other projects... Told him to not do that on several occasions too, but he still managed to fuck things up this way.. leaving all the uncommented debugger; crap and alerts in the js files..

On one occasion I was working on new GUI..api part I already finished..got the order from above to delegate this to him as it is not much he can fuck up so I could focus on more important & complex stuff..
Maybe additional 4h of work + testing for everything..
I show him the prepared files, one controller, one view..explained what parts of code goes where etc.. a little short of writing everything myself.. Ask if he understands what needs to be done & how and told him if he has any problems/questions to ask me asap..
Said he understood what needs to be done.. after a day or two he asks me why something is not workig as expected.. I check the files, correct initialization was commented out and all the code was stuffed in the view file.. Took him another day to move the code to proper files.. Not sure about the possible bugs left there as the client later decided that they will not be using this..

I later found out that years of C# experience on his CV was actually a school course.. he didn't even know why the changes on api are not showing up..because he didn't know that he has to build the code..

I mean, if he was honest when asked about experience with .net, we would've taken a month or two to just explain everything from the start..

But as he didn't and based on his CV (much more experience with .net than me) and 'I understand everything' attitude from the start I assumed he knows WTF was he doing..

Boy was I wrong..

He was also more interested in how much I get payed and if I have a company phone etc..than actually doing his job.. I fucking hate chit chat, and this..well.. he didn't get the hints that this is in no way appropriate to ask.. I've told him that if he has problems with his pay and bonuses that he should talk to the management and not me about this..and that I'm only interested in his actual work and progress..

So yeah, I'll definitely be remembering this guy till the day I die..

TLDR: I didn't & still not sure if it is..

I love bug hunting & fixing & figuring out how stuff works, but many will argue this is not even real programming..

Long version how I ended up programming:
Back in highschool, I was deciding between english and mathematics & computer science.. I filled in the form for the latter. Got a change of hearts but I already gave the extra/backup empty form to schoolmate..

Figured it's for the better because it's a hell to get a job as an english teacher/prof anyways + I dislike comunications with people + documentation (if any) is in english etc..

At the end of first year, I didn't even apply for all the exams because you had to have both programming 1&2 to pass or even be eligible to take the year again.. I figured I'd fail them, so once I actually passed both (& actually not with bad grades), I was fucked.. had to retake the year, which means I lost time + still had to pay the rent etc.. decided to drop out and return home and do the IT engineer course instead to at least have some formal education to help me find a job. Finished that without problems, I 'specialised' in network administration.
I got a job straight out of school as a web developer.. the irony.. got some conflicts with the boss and was terminated (material for another rant).

Later I sought out admin jobs, but got declined because I was overqualified and had programming experince. FML, right?

Ended up sending out mandatory job applications for IT administration & programming to not lose the bonuses & got called up to a meeting in the company I work for since then.

No qualifications for .net & MS technologies, but they liked my CV so the ended up setting up the interview anyway. I didn't know half of the technologies and concepts by proper name, but they figured I understand enough of the content to give me a try. A few years later, I got the most fucked up project they have because of my love for new thigs and trying to understand everything. It's aaaalmost bearable now.. still needs a lot of work, but I'm happy where I am. Saddly, I'm still second guessing if I'm doing a proper job as a dev, but they seem to be very ok with my work. (:

God I wish it was legal to kill people... Taxi driver stopped outside the building.. on the street, not even parked, bur there are many empty spaces that he is also blocking - which would be another issue with these assholes during the day time..parking in the street, going to get some coffee, not the takeaway.. they sit on their fat asses and watch you struggle to park a car cuz it's a narrow street..

And now he's blasting music at full volume.. It's fucking 4 am!! 04:04!! Friggin birds aren't even up yet!!
Fuck you!! One day that it's not extremely hot here and I could actually sleep..and now I can't cuz this asshole woke me up with music.
Just die you sad excuse of a human being!!

Not really most painful, but definitely most painful of the recent bunch..
// yup, a bunch.. I've managed to fuck up a little on every thing I did that day :/ little friday the 13th for me, especially as I went on sick leave the next day and had to fixup my fuckups with a friggin migrane..

Anyways, I was fixing fallback to some default value in plsql.. before it didn't check what the input format was and simply relied on certain format, parsed that and converted to number..threw an error, duh!

I fixed it somehow elegantly to check with regex if the format is as expected and if not default to xy value..and if format is as expected to parse out the number..except that when I copied (or typed?! for the sake of me, I cannot recall how the fuck I managed to fuck this up) over the code to the package I didn't see additional [ at the begining, so everything went to the default.. Most embarrassing part is I commented everything, how it should work, use cases, what the input was and what was expected output..and failed to see the friggin extra [..
It was fixed easily, the extra [ stood out later when I saw the code, but it bothers me how I managed to overlook that in the first place. I think I need a vacation.. but have to fix other fuckups first.. :/

With all the master being renamed to main & other similar renaming crap happening because people are offended.. how is it that noone has a problem with wash your colors & whites separately?! O.o // random thought when doing the loads the other day..

Or is this also a thing people are complaining about and just hasn't found a way to me yet.. ?!? 🤔

Fuuuuuck!! Fuckin mosquito(s)!!
It's still too cold to not wear hoodies in the morning/evening, yet those fuckers are up & about..
Stop sucking!!

Ada Lovelace

Why? For thinking outside of the box and not conforming to cultural standards.. and most of all, cuz she started it all!!

I don't have to deal with this, cuz I know I am shitty dev..
I get the job done, most of the time better than the previous devs on this project.. but if you drop me in an entry level interview, I know I'd flunk it.. big time.. I don't have the necessary theoretical knowledge and my terminology sux..
Was discussing new hires with my boss and he was like wtf you're talking about, you're a senior.. I'd consider myself a middle at best due to lack of theoretical knowledge..

Aaaaaaaaa!! Anyone else getting crazy from WFH?! I'm starting to talk to dead plants..excessively.. o.O Blaaaaaaah!! We're on WFH for at least the end of month.. Fuuuuuu...
I hate WFH..

I think bugs are always my fault..
Still after so many years on this project I alwaaaaays go debug/recheck what I coded first before checking the old code and data...usually turns out it's something long before me that's still fucked up & buggy, but still.. I always think I managed to fuck up something.. :/ I need an egotrip/egoboost or sth.. but I doubt even this'd help.. I know my code is not pictureperfect, but still.. I never think it's good enough..and that it has bugs.. o.O I also have a bit sex daily so I dread to write/fix anything in js..

I live under a rock.. sooo notepad++ for me..or even a paper notebook..

Joke aside, depends what kind of code I'm writing or what I'm doing with it.. if I have to analyse what some part does and modify it I actually do take it from VS to np++ to check & write.. same for PLSQL.. not sure why I prefer doing this the 'hard' way, but it suits me.. after I'm finished I'm pasting it back and correct possible typos and so on..

P.S. I'm also one of those weirdos who have no problem writing exams on paper..

A bit late.. and not much about how to learn to code..but more of a figuring out if the kid has a right mind set to do so..

If the kid is not the type to question everything, not resourceful, not a logical/critical thinker, gives up easily and especially if not interested in how things work then being a dev is most probably not for them.. they can still persue coding, but it will end badly..

From my experience, people who have a better education than me, but lack those skills turned out to be a crappy dev.. not interested in the best tool to complete the tasks, just making 'something', adding more shit to the already shitty stack.. and being happy with that.. which of course is not the best way to do things around here..or in life!!

Soo.. if the kid shows all that and most importantly shows interest in learning to code.. throw him the java ultimate edition book and see what happens.. joke!

There are plenty of apps thath can get you started (tried mimo, but being devs yourself it's probably not so hard to check some out and weed out the bad ones) that explain simple logic and syntax.. there is w3schools that explains basics quite well and lets you tinker online with js and python..
so maybe show them these and see what happens.. If it will pick their interest, they will soon start to ask the right questions.. and you can go from there..

If the kids are not the 'evil spawns' of already dev parents or don't have crazy dev aunties and uncles, then they will have to work things out themselves or ask friends... or seek help online (the resourceful part comes here).. so google or any flavour of search engines is their friend..

Just hope they don't venture to stack overflow too soon or they will want to kill themselves /* a little joke, but also a bit true.. */

Anyhow, if the kid is exhibiting 'dev traits' it is not even a question how to introduce it to the coding.. they will find a way.. if not, do not force them to learn coding "because it's in and makes you a lot of moneyz"..
As with other things in life, do not force kids to do anything that you think will be best for them.. Point them in direction, show them how it might be fun and usefull, a little nudge in the right direction.. but do not force.. ever!!!

And also another thing to consider.. most of the documentation and code is written in english.. If they are not proficient, they will have a hard time learning, checking docs, finding answers.. so make sure they learn english first!!
Not just for coding, knowing english will help them in life in general. So maaaaybe force them to learn this a bit..

One day my husband came to me and asked me how he can learn.. and if it's too late for him to learn coding.. that he found some app and if I can take a look and tell him what I think, if it is an ok app to learn..
I was both flattered and stumped at the same time..
Explained to him that in my view, he is a bit old to start now, at least to be competitive on the market and to do this for a living, but if it interests him for som personal projects, why not.. you're never too old to start learning and finding a new hobby..

Anyhow, I've pointed out to him that he will have to better his english in order to be able to find the answers to questions and potential problems.. and that I'm happy to help where and when I can, but most of the job will be on him.

So yeah, showed him some tutorials, explained things a bit.. he soon lost interest after a week and was mindblown how I can do this every day..

And I think this is really how you should introduce coding to kids.. show them some easy tutorials, explain simple logic to them.. see how they react.. if they pick it up easily, show them something more advanced.. if they lose interest, let them be.

To sum up:
- check first if they really want to learn this or this is something they're forced to do (if latter everything you say is a waste of everybodys time)
- english is important
- asking questions (& questioning the code) is mandatory so don't be afraid to ask for help
- admitting not knowing something is the first step to learning
- learn to 'google' & weed out the crap
- documentation is your friend
- comments & docs sometimes lie, so use the force (go check the source)
- once you learn the basics its just a matter of language flavour..adjust some logic here, some sintax there..
- if you're stuck with a problem, try to see it from a different angle
- debugging is part of coder life, learn to 'love' it

Home..

On top of all the shit that's going on right now... This morning my shower head broke of, so now I can/have to hose myself to cleanlines.. Can't wait for corona shit to pass so I can start looking for a new place to live that will hopefully not fall apart.. :/
And then my laptop decided to do a harikiri.. MMD! Fuuuuck oooofffff!!

Shut the quack up!!
Quack you!
For quacks sake!
What the quack?!
Jesus quack!
Good quack!

Ok, scratch the last two.. but others..this might actually work.. o.O

1) communication is the key
2) if you don't understand something, ask
3) people always lie
4) you can always improove
5) if you don't stand up for yourself, noone will

Not so much that coding made me realise this, it's just something that got confirmed once I started working..

Covid-19 quarantine checklist:
> isolate yourself ✓
> wash hands ✓ // duuuuh
> work from home ✓
> buy normal quantities of TP ✓
> get attacked by a bat (from Wuhan?! O.o) ✓
> buy some favourite bar soap
> ...

W8 wut?!
Yeah...I saw a bat fly by the balcony.. I thought: oh, how nice, they never fly so close.. Wait...a bat?! Aren't bats supposed to start all this shiiii...O.O
Thoughts interrupted by a bat flap tap (sound it makes when it hits something) behind my back..
Quickly pull hoodie over the hair..and jacket hood to, just in case.. friend once got a bat tangled in her curly hair.. I didn't wanna test if straight but longer hair also make problems for them.. Some more flapping & scratchy noises (I think it fell on the umbrella) then nothing.. OMG did it die on my balcony?! How the fuck am I gonna explain a dead bat to the authorities who remove dead wildlife?! >Yeah, a funny thing happened the other day, I got a message from Wuhan and the messenger dropped dead on my balcony..< Yeah, this would totally work.. o.0 Anyhow, once the noises stopped, I turned around to check on it..but couldn't find it.. so I just hope it managed to fly away and I won't find it after 3 days in the middle of my apartment... o.0

No commute.. oh, wait, I live next to work..like literally next building.. ok, if I move it'd be no commute again..
No need to brush the hair, can wear yoga pants & hoodie & swear all I want.. oh, I do that even at the office (trying to tone down on swearing though)..Umm.. boss doesn't get to tell me to go home at 17.. well he does that even now.. o.O ok ok, I got this!! I can wash my hair during lunch break! And wash the dishes and clothes when on 'cig break'..
Meh... I wish I had a doggo to play with.. :(

I am getting a new laptop today so I'll have an option to work remotely (if needed).. yay?!

No arguments.. just me bitching over

var name_variable_int;
var someOtherNeme;
var ThisIsAlsoInSameFile;

that some guy thought would be nice to have in same file..
Just pick one, even if it's incorrect for the language, ffs!!