FBeyer wrote:The one thing about programming that gets me is that I don't know how to get feedback on the quality of my code when I don't work with more experienced programmers to tell me.
Documenting code and readability has always been important to me, but I don't know what 'industry quality' looks like. I know what scientist code looks like and it works... but only just.
So: Where does one go to gauge how well one codes and especially how good one's workflow is when you're self-taught?...
Lotsa interesting points in your post. I was once referred to as a "scientific programmer" early in my career. It was kind of an insulting title.
A great self taught software guy I worked with (he was EE hardware by schooling) recommended that anyone who was serious about becoming a better programmer should study the Linux source. Then contribute. I never did but I think it was a good tip. In 1998...may not be current.
He saw me in the class of (embedded systems) programmers who could make the machine work reliably but in a crude way. This kind of happens when you learn by hacking if you don't study good code or get mentored. Just compiling and moving forward can do this. This thread is really bringing it out.
Learning assembly helped me understand arithmetic better. Didn't exactly help my coding. I guess I'd worry about compiler optimization where my non assembly friends would just trust the machine. Funny how fifth grade math is a bunch of blind methodical rules that really come to life when you have to understand how a machine does it. This is what assembly did for me. Kind of the backwards direction for the OP
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I can recall some silly things a guy who didn't understand processor architecture coded that made inefficient moves in an arithmetic logic unit on one job. He was a mathematician incidentally. He demanded more and more clock rate and bus width till I dissected his code line by line in a department meeting and painstakingly illustrated all his silly shifts in and out of the core. Funny, he still works at HP. I lost my job shortly after that. That may have been a career ender.
one of my old friends says that guy still uses what he learned in that public ass kicking to look smart in front of management. They call it Sclass's ghost when this geek gets up there talking about designing for speed.
Remote work? I guess it depends on what you're doing. The guys I knew who could do this were really badass developers with years of experience. Part of that was the ability to work independently, some of it trust, and some of it was their ability to demand their terms based on our need for their expertise.