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last week my GE refrigerator stopped working and sent clinking noise from the rear.
I did some research and found the solution: the controller board malfunctioned.
So I ordered it from Amazon and it will be my exercise in labor day.
diligent hands rule....
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this controller board is even more interesting: image is here
diligent hands rule....
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The fun part of IoT and embedded is a lot of times you're working very close to the metal, and you can't rely on things like an operating system and graphics drivers - you have to write them yourself (or find code that's already written in some cases). I have a graphics library I wrote which I've been using for about 2 years both professionally and as a hobby. I've extended it in that time to support Unicode, TrueType, SVG, PNG and JPG. I liked writing all that code. I hated documenting it[^]. I'm working on documentation for my user interface library that builds on top of it right now and it's a slog.
Testing it is at least as bad. I can't decide which I hate most. Probably testing, considering I enjoy writing at least. I've got some unit tests for my major library, but I haven't written it to cover the absolutely vast surface area of my test matrix.
Design is typically fun for me, but I feel like every third time I think I'm clever it bites me. Lately the above user interface library has been kicking me in the teeth, requiring me to make breaking changes over several iterations of the code. I'm not thrilled about it, but it's better than testing.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
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Definitely documentation, I'm terrible at it!
I don't think before I open my mouth, I like to be as surprised a everyone else.
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.1.0 JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: SimpleWizardUpdate
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I hate documenting my code, but I enjoy writing technical articles. I've tried using codeproject articles to document my code, but in the end I found they were at best supplementary.
Now I've taken to using markdown and generating a wiki web from it using Gatsby. Markdown is at least easy to format, and I can do it all in VS Code, putting the markdown in a /docs folder under the project. I even have a server script that repulls my doc updates from git and pushes them to the web.
Markdown, once you know it - and if you use a preview extension with it, is a nice way to document. It's now used all over the place, including Github, and it's also easy to read even if you don't have a markdown display app.
I know it isn't the silver bullet you and I are hoping for, but I like it a lot better than trying to fill in the blanks with something like doxygen.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
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I just started using VS2022 for a serious project and I was amazed when I went to add my source to git, it automagically pushed my code to github and set up the ?site?.
So I broke down and learned enough markdown to create a readme page and it wasn't to bad.
Technology is progressing but not to the stage where I can tell the IDE what I want and it produce it, document it and push it to github and recommend a good place to eat. Is that really too much to ask? 
I don't think before I open my mouth, I like to be as surprised a everyone else.
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.1.0 JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: SimpleWizardUpdate
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I'm still waiting for the flying car the science fiction authors promised us.
Or wait, I'm too young for that.
It looks like we're getting that cyberpunk dystopia they mentioned instead. 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
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honey the codewitch wrote: It's now used all over the place, including Github,
Not yet[^]   
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Writing documentation and troubleshooting very intermittent problems, in web apps.
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Dave Kreskowiak wrote: troubleshooting very intermittent problems, in web apps.
That is like everything about my nightmares
1. Troubleshooting
2. Intermittent problems
3. Web applications
My horror trifecta 
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
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Diagnosing customer issues when the bug report is of the following order:
"It's broke."
Software Zen: delete this;
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To be fair, sometimes they do add extra details... like
"I did not change anything."
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Hell yeah.
McAfee is installed at work and we have had really weirdo things happening... everytime we do get a "not so logical" thing, the first we do is to deactivate it for an hour (the only thing we can do due to server policies) or check the second most common cause... the windows updates.
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Nelek wrote: McAfee is installed at work
We have it here as well.
We use Inno Setup for our product installers. One day I was working on an install script and compiled it. I got a popup message from McAfee claiming a real-time scanning violation. Inno Setup closed up. I restarted it, and the source for my install script was gone, as were a number of the files included in the install. McAfee had terminated the Inno Setup compile process and deleted all of the files (including source code) that process had opened. I only lost an hour's work, but still.
My problem report to IT was... flammable.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary Wheeler wrote: My problem report to IT was... flammable.
Yeah... been there done that too...
We had a new password policy in a firm I worked too, where 90% of the workers were with mid to long term projects mostly on the way. Suddenly we had to change password every 6 weeks. I wrote an email to our IT that got escalated to the CTO and I got a very CTO-answer explaining me how wrong I was and how insecure was our previous policy.
A guy got a project ended, went 4 weeks in vacation and when he came back his first day was to go to the company, grab som equipment and go to the airport for a project somewhere in the US west coast (almost 30 hours until he reached the hotel). He slept and on the first work day, connected the VPN in the hotel, checked the emails and went to the customer...
Once there, the laptop wouldn't let him log in. He called me to explain the problem and I was like "oh, oh" (but rubbing my hands in my interior).
I went to the company and started a discussion with the IT about it. I supposed it had to do with the password policy. With vacations and the trip he went over the 6 weeks, the first log in the US was with an offline valid user, once he connected the VPN the windows got the message "password expired" and after the reboot... bye bye. Once they confirmed on their own, what I was telling them from the very beginning the good dialog started.
- He can change it with the Ctrl+Alt+Supr menu
* No he can't, because he can't log in
- Then he should use the password recovery option in the website of the company
* No he can't, because it only works in VPN and he can't log in in windows
- But he can use the VPN in other computer
* No he can't, our VPN certificate is in encoded in C: and he can't log in in windows
- OK, I have reseted the validity of his user, that should solve the problem
* No, it won't, because the change is only valid once you connect to the VPN (and we already spoke about it)
...
Rinse and repeat with two additional "support levels", the final solution was to send another laptop per messenger. That was Thursday, Laptop was expected to come on monday. The guy had not expected "holidays" and could do tourism, the company got a really angry call from our customers and had to discount the not worked days, we got a new password policy for 6 months instead of 6 weeks and I got the most satisfactory "I told you" in my whole life. 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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lmoelleb wrote: I did not change anything
That statement is always a lie.
Software Zen: delete this;
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honey the codewitch wrote: What's your least favorite part of coding?
Implementing that rarely used (used less than 10 percent of the time) feature, which takes a huge coding effort, and
bigger testing effort.
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Sorry I have to somewhat contradict you, but I don't think your question has a proper answer between professionals. My view is that we do the work, and the whole work or we get out of this profession or we call ourselves hobbyists.
What would you say of a surgeon who says "I enjoy cutting, but stitching not so much"? The oft repeated lament "I hate documenting/commenting" is driving me nuts: what good is your work if you cannot explain to someone how to use it or if you explain it badly? Saying that you don't want to cover with tests all significant cases is like someone performing a CAT scan and stopping in the middle: probably the other half is also OK.
Speaking for myself, I like my profession and try to do it the best I can. I strive to document my code (although English is not my mother tongue), write unit tests and, in general, do all the drudgery tasks associated with programming. The fun is doing the whole lot.
Mircea
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I wasn't necessarily speaking professionally. In fact, in my OP, that code is something I developed on my time.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
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Sorry, but it doesn't matter if it is "professionally" or "your own".
I know it is a very popular view these days, but I learned to document first, before even writing a single line of code. And that includes having (insisting! when it comes from an outside request) the specifications for a project.
And then, and only then, start "coding", according to the existing specs and docs. And if you do this, properly, without using shortcuts, this will drastically cut down on any debugging/testing/troubleshooting afterwards.
If you don't do this, you are just a code monkey, hacking away at a keyboard and you will always run into problems, no matter what the project is. And that "running into problems" is the real part that takes away any fun and satisfaction on this kind of job. It is NOT the documentation. And no, the documentation is NOT in the code, not by a long shot...
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None of that has anything to do with liking it or not.
I spend plenty of time on documentation.[^]
It doesn't mean I enjoy it, and I don't mind saying so.
I should add: Furthermore, everyone's got their own opinion on how things must be done, will argue it 'til they're blue in the face, and everyone that does things differently is a "code monkey". I'm too old for that nonsense. When I start reading it, my eyes glaze over. I developed a process and order that works for *me* and allows me to produce solid, maintainable work. And it does work. I'm paid quite well, and my clients are happy with what I produce. At the end of the day, that's what matters, not how I got there.
Check out my IoT graphics library here:
https://honeythecodewitch.com/gfx
modified 28-Aug-23 12:57pm.
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In an ideal world, I should get a specification which fully documents what something is needed to do. I write it and send it back having tested as far as I can, then the business does extensive tests and the bugs get corrected before it gets released.
So we should only need to code and test to the requirements and then the specification is the documentation.
As I said, "In an ideal world, ...". 
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StarNamer@work wrote: ...and then the specification is the documentation.
As I said, "In an ideal world, ..."
Well, I have issues with that on two counts:
- the specification only provides the "black box" description of the code, what gets in and what gets out. It doesn't say how to do it. It is up to you, the programmer to choose/devise the best algorithm, data structures to be used, limitations and compromises you had to make and so on; in brief, the nitty-gritty of the implementation.
- as you say, the world is not ideal and specifications are not complete so you have to make decisions during the implementation on how to solve those blank spots in the specification. You do it either by going back to the user, or by making informed choices but in the end all that accumulated knowledge has to be put somewhere by someone and I'd argue that you are in the best position to amend that specification and transform it into a manual.
Of course things can be different if you are part of a humongous organization and you are just a little cog doing your little bit for an enormous project. In that case there are probably many other people doing documentation, testing, integration, etc. and you just have to do (well) your bit of coding. However the OP was talking of design and contrasting it with documentation and testing, often seen as "lowly" activities. My point was that, in smaller projects, where you have certain freedom to design and implement stuff, there are no "lowly" tasks and everything has to be regarded as equally important.
I could go on, but I already feel that I'm ranting. Sorry...
Mircea
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