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Published another one! Started life as an answer to a question in the forums, and it still took 5 days to get it right as an article, despite being mostly the same material with some additions - I admit that fighting the article submission wizard took a goodly chunk of that - but it's a relief to get it out.
Is it just me, or is getting the words right a lot, lot harder than the code?
Anyone else find that?
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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I experienced that talking about code is hard - I'm so familiar with my own code that sometime it's hard to say anything about it...
That's the point when I understand that it's ain't an article really, but some code-tip...
However 5 days for an article is good...I'm going to see it...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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 I doubt you will learn anything new!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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See my post there - not that is new to me...but it's so true. Unfortunately...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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It is, unfortunately - the info is all there, but by heck you have to work at getting it out in a useful form sometimes!
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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I do a lot of research for most of my articles and that takes time, clean up the code, etc. but when it comes to the writing I stumble. I usually spend most of my time proof reading and rewriting and then have to settle for what I think is not perfect but gets the point across.
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OriginalGriff wrote: Is it just me, or is getting the words right a lot, lot harder than the code?
Absolutely, and what makes a person a professional developer (in my opinion, but it's also widely cited in the community) is the ability to put the code into words. So congrats!
[rant]What really amazes me though is how little people give credit to that skill -- if you've never tried writing an article, you really have no basis for understanding. It's something I find amazing in how glossed over the article/book publishing skill is when interviewing at a company.[/rant]
Marc
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Thanks! 
I think that's why it annoys me when we get people who assume it's ok to copy anything from a paragraph to a page from somewhere and post it as their own article. It does matter that someone else wrote it: that paragraph may have taken them an hour to get exactly like that! You probably didn't spend that long on the damn code you are adding to it...
Sorry, sorry - don't know what came over me there...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Marc Clifton wrote: What really amazes me though is how little people give credit to that skil ... I find amazing in how glossed over the article/book publishing skill is when interviewing at a company.[
That is all very nice but maybe they want you to write code. 
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JimmyRopes wrote: That is all very nice but maybe they want you to write code.
If you can't communicate, the code you write is at best worthless.
At a gig that I just landed, documentation is severely lacking. It's taken days just to get a computer to run the entire code base (which ironically is quite small, but there's lots of configuration nuances) locally, without the need for direct connection to the production servers. Lots of man-hours wasted, but fortunately the people higher up on the food chain amazingly recognize the need for good documentation so that waste of time doesn't have to be repeated by future people that the company brings on board for the project.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: Lots of man-hours wasted, but fortunately the people higher up on the food chain amazingly recognize the need for good documentation so that waste of time doesn't have to be repeated by future people that the company brings on board for the project.
Good on ya. At least you have a place that likes that you can write.
Not something I have been able to get lately. Usually they just want me to crank out the code and let others, like yourself, document the process.
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You have such an interesting attitude. Why is that?
Frankly, I often find that if I do some up-front documentation / design, not only does it make it clearer what needs to be coded, but I can also provide better estimates. It also often highlights sometimes significant problems that end up causing re-thinks of major sections of the code.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: You have such an interesting attitude. Why is that?
Because I have been around for 40 years.
Oh yes I am jaded. I used to think like you but the reality is that they want you to crank out code.
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JimmyRopes wrote: Because I have been around for 40 years.
In the industry, or total years of life? I'm 51, been programming since I was 12. What I hear is a lot of bitterness. Yes, working in this industry has left me rather jaded, but there are definitely some gems that I have enjoyed, but people and jobs.
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: In the industry, or total years of life?
In the industry.
Marc Clifton wrote: What I hear is a lot of bitterness.
Yes it is reality hitting a former optimist in the face.
Marc Clifton wrote: Yes, working in this industry has left me rather jaded, but there are definitely some gems that I have enjoyed
Me too but they are few and far between.
For the most part people pay you to code what they want, period.
What you think is, at best, just your opinion.
Good luck with that!
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Some companies actually forbid you to write articles.
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Writing articles is hard work. When the article seems to go unnoticed once it posted does not make it any easier. I guess posting a message in the lounge about it would be a good way to get it noticed, but then the lounge would soon get filled with "New article" posts.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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They do appear on the home page - but how many regulars go there, except on Monday for the survey, and to check the moderation queue?
It would help if some of the QA posters would use the (heck, any) search facility - probably half of them could get a quicker solution from existing articles if they did...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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PJ Arends wrote: guess posting a message in the lounge about it would be a good way to get it noticed
Don't even think about it. 
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Oh no, it would have to be subtle.
Within you lies the power for good - Use it!
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OriginalGriff wrote: Is it just me, or is getting the words right a lot, lot harder than the code?
No, it's definitely not just you 
Cranking out the code for D3.js crash course - Part2[^] - and writing the article wan't all that hard as the code isn't very complicated.
On the other hand I put a lot of work into DBTool for Oracle - Part 1[^], and I'm pretty certain that I was unable to create an article that did justice to that effort. Too much information, unclear as to what the project really is about, etc...
So far I've found that it's extreemly hard to create readable material on anything but fairly simple subjects ...
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Just yesterday I wrote an article about my software auto updater. It took me the better part of a day to write the software and about the same to write the article.
I have given up on the online editor. I just write it offline in html and paste it into the html box.
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Yvan Rodrigues wrote: my software auto updater.
Last week I almost posted in the Hall of Shame how I broke our software auto updater in the last release...the one that most customers are now running!  At least it's an easy workaround. I will check out your article.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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Depends on the article. My latest two on SQL certainly took more time in writing the words than writing the queries. Together they took me about 100-150 hours to write.
The one before that, A Look under the hood of the .NET Framework, took a lot longer. I wasn't familiar with the stuff I was writing about and actually getting the code right was harder than getting the words right. I would spend hours getting the code right and looking up each and every opcode on Google and MSDN and then simply write down what I had done for the last few hours. I also did that article in both VB and C#, which also took quite some time to get right (both languages had to compile to the same IL).
And yes, a lot of time does go into fighting the submission wizard, unfortunately... 
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I am a .NET trainer, so I'm very precise about the words I use in article and the one that my trainee use. I'm used to that, and I was not before. (A C++ programmer, that, in C#, calls a "field" an "attribute" is a cardinal sin for me. The reverse is true.)
Also, I use Windows live writer to write, and post-edit the article to make it works in the wizard. Writing article in the wizard in unproductive.
If it is hard to put things into words, I tend to search for flaws in my own understanding.
Everytimes I write an article it results in major refactoring of my project. Somehow, the human language catches flaws and semantic errors in my code better than the compiler.
Writing seems harder because it catches different type of errors your machine can't detect.
You don't have to write though. Just buy a rubber duck, works also for other purpose than debugging.
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