HN user
Even harder to debate about when it's something on the verge of stupid, but has been decided otherwise by the top brass.
This video seems relevant here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg
Since a year ago upto a few months before, my day was split in half while working on two projects. The first half had me working in C, bash and HTML/CSS, Javascript for an embedded project and the latter half was Java (Android), HTML/CSS and Javascript for a mobile/web project.
Nowadays, (moved on to another company) the first half is in Scala (Play), HTML/CSS and Javascript for a web project and the second half in Java (Android) for a mobile project.
It has been not been that difficult to manage switching between languages unless the programming paradigm changes (Java <-> Scala), but even that you get used to. The major goal is, in my opinion, to become so proficient with the language(s) that you're working with, that it becomes second nature to transform your thoughts to source code. Very much similar to learning a second natural language. It's not really necessary to learn the ins and outs of each language that you work with, but at least the stuff that would be required.
Some problems that I had,
* Realizing it takes time to get used to the context switch.
* Using different editors. I was doing C and bash coding in vi, but working and modifying Linux source in KDevelop, mostly due to changes in coding style like tabs vs spaces. Java(Android) coding was in Eclipse and HTML/CSS/Javascript was in Sublime Text.
* If you go off one lanugage for a couple of days, it takes some time to get back into it. Doing at least a few things daily keeps one in the flow.
* Static compilation helps a lot when we make mistakes after a context switch. Javascript and Bash proved to be a major pain for this (I did try out JsHint for Sublime, but it slowed the system down, so I went back to looking at errors in browser console).
When we migrated over from CVS to git, we installed an instance of GitLab. It is really awesome, a private GitHub for your needs. The setup was a pain though, even after following the instructions. Nice to know they have a single installable package now at https://www.gitlab.com/downloads/.
We also use Atlassian Stash and JIRA for a client project (the client migrated from CVS to git) and honestly, found it to be quite similar in functionality and not too much better for the extra costs. Mostly, it helps that both (Stash and JIRA) are linked together, but I'm sure that can be done with GitLab and another issue tracking software like Bugzilla.
SEEKING WORK - Remote
~5.8 years of work experience
* Java (Android ~3.8 years)
* HTML5, CSS3, Javascript
* Node.js
* Embedded C
* Requirements and Architecture Design
* Project Management
* Open to learn new tech as and when required
--- Feel free to contact me for any help on open source projects as well ---
(hypr DOT geek AT gmail DOT com)
Link to resume in profile.
I would highly recommend Asus F202 laptop that has been my official work laptop (with my employer's) for over a year now. It's a single boot Arch Linux (removed Win 8). I work on Android (Eclipse) and embedded C / C++ (mostly vim and terminal, a little kdevelop). Two things that I love about Arch Linux that made me use it, first and the most important, rolling release and second, excellent docs and forums. Also, I've never had a driver issue.
The specs are good enough, i3 3rd gen, 4gb soldered RAM, 500gb, 11.6inch 1366x768 glossy touchscreen, 1.4kg. (It's like a budget macbook air).
No use for the touchscreen (it's more of a hinderance, when someone touches the screen while pointing out something). Two major essential that I needed for a laptop, small and lightweight, and non-reflective (put a matte screen guard which works great).
Highly recommended.
SEEKING WORK - Remote
~5.5 years of work experience
* Java (Android ~3.5 years)
* HTML5, CSS3, Javascript
* Node.js
* Embedded C
* Requirements and Architecture Design
* Project Management
* Open to learn new tech as and when required
--- Feel free to contact me for any help on open source projects as well ---
(hypr DOT geek AT gmail DOT com)
SEEKING WORK - Remote
~5.5 years of work experience
* Java (Android ~3.5 years)
* HTML5, CSS3, Javascript
* Node.js
* PHP (Magento)
* Requirements and Architecture Design
* Project Management
* Open to learn new tech as and when required
--- Feel free to contact me for any help on open source projects as well ---
(hypr DOT geek AT gmail DOT com)
SEEKING WORK - Remote
5 years of work experience
* Java (Android > 3 years)
* HTML5, CSS3, Javascript (jQuery)
* PHP (Magento)
* Requirements and Architecture Design
* Project Management
* Open to learn new tech as and when required
--- Feel free to contact me for any help on open source projects as well ---
(hypr DOT geek AT gmail DOT com)
SEEKING WORK - Remote
~5 years of work experience
* Java (Android ~3 years)
* HTML5, CSS3, Javascript (jQuery)
* PHP (Magento)
* Requirements and Architecture Design
* Project Management
* Open to learn new tech as and when required
--- Feel free to contact me for any help on open source projects as well ---
(hypr DOT geek AT gmail DOT com)
I've am currently using a 11" HP dm1 3016 (just a grade above netbook), and I refuse to believe people do not find value in netbooks. Yeah, they may be underpowered, but are usable for most tasks that an average user needs to do, mostly web browsing and facebook, watching 720p movies, using MS Office, and a long backup (~7-8 hrs after 1 yr).
Heck, I've been developing for Android on Eclipse, working on Spring MVC app, Play 2.0 projects and doing graphics work on Adobe Photoshop on this laptop since I bought it in Dec., 2011. Attached a 24" display to the HDMI port when needed. Planning to upgrade to SSD, and it will last me a few more years. What it cost me, around INR 20k (~$400).
I guess what netbooks need is an upgrade to a minimum 1366x768 display (which is why I bought the dm1 and not a 10" netbook) and an AMD E series Fusion grade processor.
This sums it up for me, and usually everyone else (smart or not)...
Trying to get him to realize why it was such a good idea is still an ongoing battle, but I eventually won him over with the following argument:
"Just take my word for it. I can sit here and keep trying to hammer home the same points, over and over, and you'll sit here and keep denying them. So lets just stop this, and you just take my word for it. This project is going to live in source control. If you hate Mercurial and want something simpler, we can switch to something else. But you aren't getting away from this. And any projects we do in the future, will ALSO be in source control. So you may as well make peace with it now."
No offence, but I do not think that's called winning over. It's more like he was forced and who knows, he might still be doubting or having apprehensions about using it.
The thing I believe he was really missing, and that we (I) haven't implemented yet is a continuous integration solution, with simplified deployments directly from the checked in source. His major gripe about not developing directly on the production server was the time it took to see changes. Which is a little silly, but when I look at it from his perspective, I can see his point. If I had taken the time to set that up from the start, he would've seen the benefit of it more immediately.
I'm afraid I don't really understand this point, can you give an example? I thought everyone can pull one's own copy, make code changes and check out their output/results, and if all's good, just merge/save into main mercurial repository.
The moral of my story? Always use some kind of VCS. It may seem like a waste of time with just yourself on the project, but you'll always know for sure you have a copy of your work, safe and sound, accessible from anywhere you need it from. Just make it a part of your life, and before you know it, the "overhead" of using one will more or less disappear from your life. It's an essential building block to a successful project.
Well said, I do intend to make it a part of my life, as I don't think I will always be working alone. :)
I can completely see how, if you had been forced to use VSS for anything, you'd see VCS as something that could get in your way. VSS was/is a blight.
It wasn't that bad, but I didn't have an "oh, this is so radical" kind of moment when I first used it (even though it was). I mean, I was used to taking backups with text file of changes, as I previously mentioned. I guess such an automated system would show its true potential when working in a team, or collaborating over the net.
Well, thanks for your thoughts. Appreciate it.
I've been using Git for version control for all of my own personal projects as a sole developer. I've heard that Mercurial and Git are very similar, and your reasoning for choosing Mercurial is very similar to my own choice of Git :-)
I, too, thought about using git and github to host my code, but then found that github is free for open-source projects only and the generally accepted notion looked like git was more powerful but required more time to learn. This also lead to me try out Mercurial.
And the tutorials at http://www.hginit.com really made it look easy to get into.
As far as disciplining yourself to continually check into version control, maybe I'm too paranoid, but I used to always find myself creating copies of files before making big changes to them, just to be safe, or commenting out code instead of deleting it, because I might need to reference it again.
This is exactly I am (almost) right now. My code has a lot of previous code I've just commented instead of deleting, just because I thought I might need them again, or the new code wont work. Like, when I'm trying to do the same thing using more optimized solution. I guess using version control helps me get out of this habit. :)
Thanks for your reply. :)