Do everything in Java…

[Chris via Digitalmars-d]

On Monday, 8 December 2014 at 16:04:31 UTC, H. S. Teoh via 
Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 08, 2014 at 11:22:45AM +0000, Chris via 
> Digitalmars-d wrote:
> [...]
>> What I gather from all the posts about code reviews and 
>> testing is
>> that it's a solid mess out there, and the bigger the company 
>> the
>> bigger the mess. I'm pretty much the only guy who works on the 
>> code at
>> the moment and sometimes feel a bit bad about failing to 
>> update this
>> or that (unit) test (simply because I lack the time). On the 
>> other
>> hand the code and the programs are constantly being tested in 
>> the real
>> world and are very stable.
>
> Sounds like you're actually in a pretty good state, compared 
> with the
> rest of the industry out there! :-P

Well, I don't have to meet deadlines all the time and deal with 
customers who've been promised by someone in the management that 
you can turn straw into gold. I don't need feature X until 
tomorrow (or yesterday), but can think about a proper 
implementation first. Thankfully we have someone on the team who 
can test the software immediately and thoroughly before we give 
it out (or use it internally).

>> This might be due to the fact, that I "unit test" a lot during
>> development (code a little, test a little). It is also down to 
>> the
>> fact that the D compiler often helps me and warns me 
>> immediately. It's
>> not so easy to get away with dodgy code in D.
>
> Yeah, D does fix a lot of the flaws with C/C++ that allow you 
> to shoot
> yourself in the foot and then erase all evidence of it. While D 
> does
> have its own share of dark corners, it's generally very 
> pleasant to work
> with, and does encourage good coding style.

D does have dark corners, but only if you care to go there, and 
sooner or later (rather sooner than later) your house of cards 
will collapse, because the dodgy code is often "found out" by the 
proper code. I've always had to rewrite any dodgy, highly unsafe 
code I introduced to save a nanosecond - and the dodgy code is 
usually due to some interaction with C!

>> Regarding the working hours, it is hard to measure efficiency 
>> in
>> working hours when it comes to software development. Sometimes 
>> a major
>> improvement takes only one or two hours of highly concentrated 
>> work
>> (after which the brain is wrecked). Sometimes a stupid little 
>> problem
>> takes a whole day to sort out. And let's not forget that 
>> programmers
>> often tend to think about how to solve a certain problem after 
>> work. I
>> often found it more efficient to shut down the computer and go 
>> home
>> than to keep on trying to find a bug when I'm already tired and
>> annoyed. The next morning (with a fresh head) I often spot the 
>> bug
>> immediately. Or I think of the right solution on my way home. 
>> Mere
>> working hours don't count.
>
> Yep. I have experienced this many times. Sometimes repeatedly 
> trying to
> attack a problem eventually gets to a point where my brain is 
> just
> overwhelmed and cannot make any further progress, but when I 
> take a walk
> and relax for a few minutes, my subconscious brain clears up and
> suddenly the solution pops into my head seemingly out of 
> nowhere. I've
> had occasions where I wake up in the middle of the night with 
> the
> solution in my head -- at least once, I actually got up at 6am 
> and drove
> to work just to implement what I became convinced was the fix, 
> and found
> that it in fact was, whereas many hours of intense 
> concentration the day
> before got me nowhere.
>
>
> T