Coding/programming discussion thread

[Esternial]

This is a spin-off from the Science and Maths discussion thread.

The topic is - I hope - fairly straightforward. I'm interested in finding out what different kind of programmers lurk around NS (and the world) and how people's practices vary. Hopefully we can have some enlightening discussions along the way!

Some stuff to get everyone started:
- How did you get into programming? Is it a hobby, or is it (also) your profession?
- What are some of the programming languages are you proficient/interested in? What do you use it for?
- How do you code? Do you have a preferred IDE? Preferred Operating System (OS)?

I'm sure more questions will pop up. I can add them to the OP at some point.

I'll set things off: I got into programming over the course of my university track. I studied bioinformatics, which gave me sort of the basics but was a very "if it works it's fine" approach. Never used source control or a lot of other tools. Now I work in the financial tech industry as a software/infrastructure engineer and its still a bit tricky getting used to "best practices" and the Agile methodology used in this company.

I mostly code in Python, shell and PL/SQL. At my job, we have a bunch of on-premises Oracle Exadata machines, so we almost exclusively use Oracle Databases. We also use Jenkins and Ansible Tower for deployment automation, so I've got some knowledge of Groovy and YAML as well.

As for my preferred IDE, I actually use Notepad++ a lot, as well as Toad (for SQL). Sublime to a lesser extent.

[Torisakia]

I've learned some coding since I started university. I'm decent at Python and C++, but am terrible at Java for some reason. I'm planning to go into cybersecurity so coding is a pretty useful tool for me to have. As for IDEs I typically just use what's recommended by people that also use the language. When I was learning C++ I used Visual Studio 2017 and for Java I used NetBeans. Both were pretty good for me. But I don't think I'd want to be a full-time coder.

[South Reinkalistan]

As for my preferred IDE, I actually use Notepad++ a lot, as well as Toad (for SQL). Sublime to a lesser extent.

Finally, someone else! Notepad++ is a godsend, and widely underrated.

[Esternial]

As for my preferred IDE, I actually use Notepad++ a lot, as well as Toad (for SQL). Sublime to a lesser extent.

Finally, someone else! Notepad++ is a godsend, and widely underrated.

Hahaha I always feel like I'm not doing it the "right way", but a lot of IDE's feel very cluttered and distracting to me. For Python and shell scripts it's perfect.

[Torisakia]

Finally, someone else! Notepad++ is a godsend, and widely underrated.

Hahaha I always feel like I'm not doing it the "right way", but a lot of IDE's feel very cluttered and distracting to me. For Python and shell scripts it's perfect.

Netbeans always worked pretty well for me. But I was using it for university and the things we did weren't very complex so it made using Netbeans easier. If I were doing longer, more complex Java I would definitely use Notepad++.

[Dylar]

I did some coding in high school for a web design class, but I only did HTML, C++ and a little bit of Java. Honestly, I should try going back to it since it was a lot of fun. Might even try Python.

[Bombadil]

Honestly I find VBA adequate for what I do but for web design .html and C++ - mostly I just need know the language of things like Python etc, but in the end it's 1's and 0's

[Risottia]

I got into coding - well, I prefer to call it "programming" - in the early '80s when I was given a Sinclair ZX Spectrum, so my first language was the BASIC-A (which is basically Fortran 77 for dummies). 16 kB to do EVERYTHING, so bah humbug to youngsters who don't even optimise their code.
I mostly use Ansi C and C++ (especially for Arduino, I am supposed to teach folks to program it, too), have done some (very limited) Javascript and Python. Also some HTML and CSS, but that's not really "coding". Also, not true coding, but I like tinkering with spreadsheets.

[South Reinkalistan]

so bah humbug to youngsters who don't even optimise their code.

Oh, uhm, about that...

[Esternial]

so bah humbug to youngsters who don't even optimise their code.

Oh, uhm, about that...

It's very true that well-performing infrastructure can result in lazy coding. Having a script run in "a few seconds" can be bad if you run it on high-end infrastructure.

It's why all our Dev environments generally have fewer CPUs & memory, to create an artificial bottleneck in performance to force code optimization.

[The Blaatschapen]

Oh, uhm, about that...

It's very true that well-performing infrastructure can result in lazy coding. Having a script run in "a few seconds" can be bad if you run it on high-end infrastructure.

It's why all our Dev environments generally have fewer CPUs & memory, to create an artificial bottleneck in performance to force code optimization.

I am a professional developer. That means that I get paid for coding. Not that my code is any good.

I work in PHP and Java. I can also do javascript, bash, python and 1 perl script that logs my puppets into NS. And I got into it with MOO, back in the late 90s.

To actually reply to Esty's post here. We deploy our code in docker containers. Which has the benefit that all environments are similar. That the containers are relatively limited in size (CPU, RAM, also hard disk to a lesser extent) is an added benefit.

Besides pure programming skills, the one thing that helps me the most in my job is figuring out what exactly is the business value of a certain feature and what is actually needed. Domain knowledge saved so many lines of code and hours of work. And all the lines I did not write, are 100% bugfree.

Another thing is prioritization of tasks. Again, related to the domain, but here the business has a huge say. Unless I play a critical system vulnerability card. But those instances are luckily rare. And usually related not to our code but to an underlying dependency *glares at heartbleed bug*

[Alvecia]

I work with (Oracle) SQL on a daily basis so I'm pretty well versed in that.

I've had some training with Java and Javascript, but I can read them better than I can write them.
I don't get much opportunity to play with it though, despite the product I support being java based, cause access to that code is above my station as a lowly support analyst.

Our servers are Unix based, so I can navigate around them confidently.

I've always been interested in computers, but it wasn't really where I was headed until I flunked out of university. After that I went looking for apprenticeships in tech and basic support positions.
Got eventually picked up by the place I've been for the last 5 or so years, supporting a particular software product made by this company.
It's been pretty good, cause we were able to start off basic with just some base level troubleshooting , but as time went on I was able to sink more and more into the technical side of things.

The DB management side of things is honestly what interests me the most. I also quite like just pulling out data from time to time and making some pretty graphs in Excel. I feel like Excel is almost a language in itself.

[Esternial]

It's very true that well-performing infrastructure can result in lazy coding. Having a script run in "a few seconds" can be bad if you run it on high-end infrastructure.

It's why all our Dev environments generally have fewer CPUs & memory, to create an artificial bottleneck in performance to force code optimization.

I am a professional developer. That means that I get paid for coding. Not that my code is any good.

I work in PHP and Java. I can also do javascript, bash, python and 1 perl script that logs my puppets into NS. And I got into it with MOO, back in the late 90s.

To actually reply to Esty's post here. We deploy our code in docker containers. Which has the benefit that all environments are similar. That the containers are relatively limited in size (CPU, RAM, also hard disk to a lesser extent) is an added benefit.

Besides pure programming skills, the one thing that helps me the most in my job is figuring out what exactly is the business value of a certain feature and what is actually needed. Domain knowledge saved so many lines of code and hours of work. And all the lines I did not write, are 100% bugfree.

Another thing is prioritization of tasks. Again, related to the domain, but here the business has a huge say. Unless I play a critical system vulnerability card. But those instances are luckily rare. And usually related not to our code but to an underlying dependency *glares at heartbleed bug*

Ooh, Docker. Would really like to get some hand-on experience with that. From what I've read, it seems incredibly useful/powerful.

[Cekoviu]

Just a hobbyist -- I know C# and some R (and bash, if that counts). For C#, I use MonoDevelop (used to use Visual Studio before I migrated to Linux), and for R, I use RStudio. For languages other than those, I just use Kate.

I also tried to learn C++, but manual memory management is very confusing coming from a C# background, so I quit.

[Cekoviu]

As for my preferred IDE, I actually use Notepad++ a lot, as well as Toad (for SQL). Sublime to a lesser extent.

Finally, someone else! Notepad++ is a godsend, and widely underrated.

Kate (the KDE text editor) is a great replacement on non-Windows systems! It has many of the same features and more.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

Computers weren't part of most education when I was at school and university, so I did some Open University courses as an adult learner so I wasn't entirely left behind. First course I learned some basic programming using Smalltalk. After that some C programming, but unfortunately it was mainly focused on programming things like central heating controllers, squeezing as much as you could into a very small amount of code, which doesn't exactly teach you a good programming style. Did some C++ after that.

Dabbled in Python a bit, but to be honest nowadays I find the speed things are evolving in computing is outstripping my ability to learn new things.

[The Blaatschapen]

I am a professional developer. That means that I get paid for coding. Not that my code is any good.

I work in PHP and Java. I can also do javascript, bash, python and 1 perl script that logs my puppets into NS. And I got into it with MOO, back in the late 90s.

To actually reply to Esty's post here. We deploy our code in docker containers. Which has the benefit that all environments are similar. That the containers are relatively limited in size (CPU, RAM, also hard disk to a lesser extent) is an added benefit.

Besides pure programming skills, the one thing that helps me the most in my job is figuring out what exactly is the business value of a certain feature and what is actually needed. Domain knowledge saved so many lines of code and hours of work. And all the lines I did not write, are 100% bugfree.

Another thing is prioritization of tasks. Again, related to the domain, but here the business has a huge say. Unless I play a critical system vulnerability card. But those instances are luckily rare. And usually related not to our code but to an underlying dependency *glares at heartbleed bug*

Ooh, Docker. Would really like to get some hand-on experience with that. From what I've read, it seems incredibly useful/powerful.

It is. Especially in combination with kubernetes (basically a docker management system). Though there I suggest to start with miniKube locally on your own machine to get a feel for it. Before implementing it company wide.

---
We got a good system in place with a build pipeline which creates docker containers as artifacts that get stored. Those containers then can get deployed. But you can also download the docker container yourself, connect a few together and have your own representation of the various services locally, all seeing each other. Together with for example, docker compose as a script that puts it all together. And then the QA runs their tests against the whole ecosystem.

It's fancy stuff Of course, as a developer, I am not maintaining the whole kubernetes system, that is more DevOps or operations. But I do know my way around it a bit, enough to find what I need.

[Esternial]

Ooh, Docker. Would really like to get some hand-on experience with that. From what I've read, it seems incredibly useful/powerful.

It is. Especially in combination with kubernetes (basically a docker management system). Though there I suggest to start with miniKube locally on your own machine to get a feel for it. Before implementing it company wide.

---
We got a good system in place with a build pipeline which creates docker containers as artifacts that get stored. Those containers then can get deployed. But you can also download the docker container yourself, connect a few together and have your own representation of the various services locally, all seeing each other. Together with for example, docker compose as a script that puts it all together. And then the QA runs their tests against the whole ecosystem.

It's fancy stuff :) Of course, as a developer, I am not maintaining the whole kubernetes system, that is more DevOps or operations. But I do know my way around it a bit, enough to find what I need.

I'm doing a lot of infrastructure work at the moment and we're moving more and more towards DevOps, so chances are I'll get into contact with Docker and Kubernetes (more likely Red Hat OpenShift) eventually. Haven't heard of miniKube before, but I'll start there once I decide to get started with some self-learning there. Thanks for the tip!

[Dukin Donuts]

I’d like to be more involved in coding but my primary device (an IPad) isn’t up for the challenge.

[Risottia]

I’d like to be more involved in coding but my primary device (an IPad) isn’t up for the challenge.

You can get a decent laptop for about 300 € on the internet. Even less if you look for used stuff.

[The Blaatschapen]

I’d like to be more involved in coding but my primary device (an IPad) isn’t up for the challenge.

How? Why?

If it can run a browser, it can do some coding. Like at https://www.codecademy.com/ for example. Or http://www.hedycode.com/ a language designed to start from the very beginning.

Of course, it might be nice to have an external keyboard attached to it, but that is a 'nice to have'.

[Dukin Donuts]

I’d like to be more involved in coding but my primary device (an IPad) isn’t up for the challenge.

How? Why?

If it can run a browser, it can do some coding. Like at https://www.codecademy.com/ for example. Or http://www.hedycode.com/ a language designed to start from the very beginning.

Of course, it might be nice to have an external keyboard attached to it, but that is a 'nice to have'.

This IPad currently suits all my needs at the moment. My wants it does not.

I do have a keyboard attachment and I’ll take a look at those sites.

[Daves Computer]

Ok but... who does Java graphics? g.drawLine(x1, y1, x2, y2), am I right, fellow intellectuals? I'm not crying. I'm just sweating through my eyes.

[Risottia]

I’d like to be more involved in coding but my primary device (an IPad) isn’t up for the challenge.

How? Why?

If it can run a browser, it can do some coding. Like at https://www.codecademy.com/ for example. Or http://www.hedycode.com/ a language designed to start from the very beginning.

Of course, it might be nice to have an external keyboard attached to it, but that is a 'nice to have'.

I sometimes use an online C compiler, here: https://www.onlinegdb.com/online_c_compiler
It's useful in the classroom sometimes. We teachers aren't allowed to install stuff.

[Window Land]

How? Why?

If it can run a browser, it can do some coding. Like at https://www.codecademy.com/ for example. Or http://www.hedycode.com/ a language designed to start from the very beginning.

Of course, it might be nice to have an external keyboard attached to it, but that is a 'nice to have'.

I sometimes use an online C compiler, here: https://www.onlinegdb.com/online_c_compiler
It's useful in the classroom sometimes. We teachers aren't allowed to install stuff.

It might be worth checking out http://www.repl.it. Without paying money privacy isn't really a thing but it lets you code and run in a whole host of different languages. You can also connect to github from it, although that can be a bit of a hassle. On a related note, if your school blocks github, you can still access it via git.