How emotional do you get when programming?

As I'm sat here at the Nth hour, a tomorrow deadline rapidly approaching and the gradually kicking in feeling that I'm not going to get everything done on time I'm a heck of a lot calmer than I should be. I think its becuase I know i've been here a million times before and I know i'll be here again. And to be here again means it wont kill me this time


Doing this thing we all do and love programming, has taken me on some journeys of emotion to hell and back. Just wondering if everyone else has had these same emotional nightmare trips:

Maybe due to an imminent deadline that will NEVER be achieved (client delivery, college assignment, boss is waiting etc).
The feeling of a hdd failure and you know you were getting round to doing a backup but you were just too busy.
That little problem that SHOULD be a simple 10 minute fix... 4 weeks later.
The guarenteed run-time in your perfect system the second you implement it at a client location.
The system crash at the climax of a 14 hour bug fix... without saving!

Sound familiar or am I the only one that repeatedly subjects myself to these foolish mistakes of poor planning, time management and over ambition?

Once I'd been working on a program for a C64 computer for several hours without saving my changes. The computer only had a tape drive which took a very long time to write my code so I was lazy. About that time, the power went off and I lost everything I'd just done and nearly cried. I found out later 2 airplanes had crashed into each other and one came down on a powerline. It was quite an emotional day for me.

Algorithm fruit stand effect:

That one gets to me. I work for a long time on an algorithm (pile of fruit) and then find one little logic error (one little orange at the bottom) that makes the whole thing fall to the ground.

Nothing like highlighting a big mass of code and then hitting backspace and starting all over.

Sometimes I use sketched out flowcharts, sometimes I just start coding and face the consequences later.

So yes, I've been the emotional victim of dire results based on irresponsible behavior, but then who hasn't been down that road before?

Danny,

Any job has it's share of stress.

Since you are taking college courses while working it can only add to it.
I feel your pain.

I think you know the answer as you have already stated it.

Create a complete and detailed plan / contract.

Don't promise what you can't deliver.

If the clock is ticking don't add bells and whistles of your own.

Back up religiously and often.

Remember to breathe. :)

Don't beat yourself up.

Share congratulations of success with everyone involved on the project.
(Much of designing a successful project depends on good communication with your client and co-workers. You will be amazed at what good will can achieve next time around.)

Reward yourself when you do good.
(This last one is important and the most overlooked.)

Oh man, I don't know how many times I've had to just delete my source and start over. It's such a hopeless feeling... I spend hours telling myself "I can make this work, I know I can...", when the problem is a poor implementation.

The worst feeling ever was when I was working on a CSII lab. It was the day before it was due, and I had worked for 3 days on the project. I knew of 2 ways to implement it, so after I completed it I decided to make a copy and try to implement it the other way. I was not careful enough. The 2nd implementation proved so difficult I stopped halfway through, as it was quite late and I was ready for bed. I went into the folder to delete the bad file, but I hadn't named my files well enough and ended up deleting the actual valid file. There's nothing like having to entirely redo a 3-day lab because of a screwup like that.

The only other time I've been really stressed was another lab. It was due the Monday after Thanksgiving holidays. I had to interview for this job over that weekend, so I took my laptop with me and wrote hundreds of lines of code in the car while my father drove. I stayed up until 3AM Saturday because I wanted to rest all day Sunday. The first guy I see when I get there Sunday is a friend in the class. I asked him about his program and he said he was about 1/3rd of the way done. I was horrified for him, then he told me "Didn't you check your email? He extended it for 2 weeks." I WAS MAD.

Though I must admit, the punch card days were much worse, from what I hear. As stated in another post and by most of my professors, you used to turn in your cards and wait 30 minutes for the results. That's definitely not something you can put off until the night before LOL.

I once permanently rolled back a module in Visual Source Safe that contained a very clever solution to a tough business problem. I guess you could say emotions were very high then :whoops:

the only time i came close to crying was when my brother threatened to delete my program i had spent hours making. Oh yah, and also i when you work on a program for hours then run it and find out it doesnt work and have no clue how to fix it. or when you know exactly what you want to do you just can't, or something, since im only 13, and program for fun(yes its fun) i dont have lines although i should set some for myself to finish programs.

Since I'm now in the 4th year of a Batchelor of Computer Science with Honours degree, I've seen a lot of this happen. Although what I find more frustrating is when people get overjoyed about working with computers. Now don't get me wrong, I like like computers plenty, but I'd rather be outside in the sun or spending time with friends than sitting in front of one coding. It's all to common for us to get a really hard or boring assignment (like yesterday we were told we have to write a Ray-Tracing program), and while most people think about the amount of work which is going to go with it and are generally pretty depressed, there's always at least one person who cheers and is so happy that they have more work to do. I hate those people.

Doing this thing we all do and love programming, has taken me on some journeys of emotion to hell and back. Just wondering if everyone else has had these same emotional nightmare trips
I love coding, but the most depressing time for me is knowing I have to crank out a program, opening up the IDE and staring at blank page (with just "Option Explicit" on top).

No matter how many programs I write I never get over the depressing feeling staring at that blank page anxious about where I should start.

I often put off a simple program for weeks rather than face that.

Finally I sit down and just start making up (typing out) comments--some rambling pseudocode explanation of what I want to do and when I get a couple of pages of green commented text I relax and start to get into the flow...

Then suddenly it's as if the program is writing itself and before I know it the program is fully working and I start rubbing my neck looking up at the clock. 10 HOURS! :eek:

Wow...where do that time go?

And I think tt's weird that I got so angst-ridden in the first place...

At first when I read the first postI started laughing but then I thought about it and figured out programming is all about emotion. Basically whenever sees one of my programs and says they really liked it or if I send in a resume and get a positive result back you get on this tremendous high. The high is awesome probably better then a drug high although I wouldn't know and don't plan on knowing either. The other side is when you show a program that you get all hyped up about and then people start saying well it's good but you can do this and this. My favorite is when someone says "Can't you make it 3D because all the other games I play are 3D". When I hear this I have to stop myself from smacking the kid. It's really hard to make a 3D game or any game/program fot that matter but they have no idea how hard it is until you start talking in programming language. Programming is awesome and has really helped me rebound from tearing my ACL(Knee) playing football. Very nice thread question. Thank you.

My favorite is when someone says "Can't you make it 3D because all the other games I play are 3D". When I hear this I have to stop myself from smacking the kid. It's really hard to make a 3D game or any game/program fot that matter but they have no idea how hard it is until you start talking in programming language.

Sorry to digress off-topic, but you have my permission to smack whoever says that. I hate when people say that, as if whether the game is 2D or 3D affects its gameplay. Gah, kids. People just don't realize that not every game is suited for 3D.

Thanks for supporting me. I always get that question except when I show it off to my programming class and then everyone says "wow that is good". The average user doesn't understand programming and doesn't know it takes a team of dozens of people to make a commercial 3D game.

I love coding, but the most depressing time for me is knowing I have to crank out a program, opening up the IDE and staring at blank page (with just "Option Explicit" on top).

No matter how many programs I write I never get over the depressing feeling staring at that blank page anxious about where I should start.

I often put off a simple program for weeks rather than face that.

Finally I sit down and just start making up (typing out) comments--some rambling pseudocode explanation of what I want to do and when I get a couple of pages of green commented text I relax and start to get into the flow...

Then suddenly it's as if the program is writing itself and before I know it the program is fully working and I start rubbing my neck looking up at the clock. 10 HOURS! :eek:

Wow...where do that time go?

And I think tt's weird that I got so angst-ridden in the first place...

LOL!

Yep - been there, got that t-shirt! I have a way around that, though - I simply up-load a series of library modules, and have them open in the background - it's purely a psychology thing, but it works! Remember - don't hit that Maximise button, just make sure you've got some code lurking behind your top window!

As for getting things to work, I find that if I swear profusely at my computer, threaten it repeatedly with sharp objects, or scream irrationally I can usually route out the problem thereafter. :chuckle: (Sub: it's a bit disturbing when it answers back, though!)

My current project is causing me a whole load of problems, though, the main one being a calculation in some SQL that works in one column, but a very similar one doesn't work in another. I feel some harsh language coming on...

:whoops:
Paul.

LOL youre funny. but that has happened to me. Even the column thing i was working with a program that kept some values in a database and for some reason the numbers kept switching on me and some times not showing a number. In the end I got it sorted out and pretty soon it will be Maligricks RPG!!!!!!

My current project is causing me a whole load of problems, though, the main one being a calculation in some SQL that works in one column, but a very similar one doesn't work in another. I feel some harsh language coming on...


IT WORKS, I TELL YOU - IT WORKS! I threatened my computer with a cup of hot coffee, and the problem became apparent immediately! (Though it was down to pure stupidity in this case!)

When in doubt, up your caffeine levels! ;)


Paul.

I ask a lot of people what their background is, for people around my age. quite a few say "I've deferred", or.. "...ahhh, just got one more subject to go".

if you do complete a degree, i suppose it means you have gone the extra mile, and this shows to your clients.
trans.

I suppose I should be worrying about the workload in college next year. Whenever I find a bug, I usually spend an hour tracking it down (you have to stop along the way to improve things/make more bugs!) having a blast. If I ever get mad I just do something else.

When I get an error on some code, I am, at first, calm. If i can then fix the bug relatively quickly then I am still calm and feel better because the bug is gone :). If, however, I have been trying to fix a bug for a long time and it just isn't working then it's all I can do to stop short of chucking the whole **** computer out the window! But then I come to my senses and ask this forum and usually the problem is fixed within minutes! (Thanks, guys!:))
When one of my programs finally works, I get a great deal of satisfaction as often I will have been writing it for a long time and will have had to have ironed out many bugs along the way.
Programming is only difficult when one or both of the following things is true (well, as I find it anyway):
a. You have done something stupid
b. You do not fully understand the code you are entering
I find that one of the best things about learning programming languages is the growing ability to assist others in their programming (I now give more help to people here than I receive as opposed to only a couple of months ago when every one of my posts was a question).
I totally agree with Bljashinsky about the misunderstanding of programming. I've never done any game programming, myself, but I can understand the fury that arises when someone does not understand the amount of work involved in making a program and thus thinks something is not very good.

So many people I know will swear audibly at their computers, it's probably good that we still haven't got extensive voice-recognition input.

I find most of the time, if I lose my code, at first I will be majorly p*ssed, but once I get back to coding it I realise that my way of doing it was all wrong, and actually in the end I would have had to have re-wrote my code anyway! My code ends up usually being twice as fast and there are far less bugs to be fixed. I am though currently coding for fun and I understand when I start coding for a living (Sometime in the future I hope) that my feelings towards lost code/re-writing code may change due to a deadline not far away!

Anyway, as a hobbiest coder its all part of the experience :)

cya
Jonny

Lol I worked a program for several weeks, had it what I though perfected, and released it on the net. I get only a single e-mail after around 100 downloads. Not bad - they had found only an error. By this time, I had moved over to a new computer, and had transferred over all my stuff I needed from my old computer, then formatted it. Turns out this one bug they found was fairly important, though you had to do the exact wrong things to get the bug. I go to look for my project, and I find that it never was transferred over.

I agree with wakjah, the people in this forum has helped me a lot! It then inspired me to help others, too, whenever I can! Actually I don't really like programming at first. It was only after my industrial placement when I begin to learn and understand more, and therefore learn to like it. At times, I really feel frustrated when the codes I spent days to write could not function, or bugs that I failed to solve. About saving the work...this is quite normal to me, too! There are times when my computer hangs and I have not saved my work! Hmmm....now I am having quite a stress as I am rushing through my final-year project. Since I am doing multimedia, there are just so much of work to do but the end product just looks simple! I agree with Bljashinsky and wakjah that people should understand the amount of work in making a program!

Hmmm.....thinking of my FYP presentation I am so worried, I am not sure whether I will make it...