Things I’ve Learned · Tue Feb 3, 04:57 PM

• If the customer really wants a feature implemented a particular way, and you know a better way to do it, but the way the customer wants it done will work and they don’t seem displeased with the tradeoffs…do it the customer’s way. If you do it “the right way,” you’re just going to end up going back and re-doing it the actual right way (i.e., how the customer wants it).
• You can’t make other people unit test. Well, maybe in a certain position on a certain type of team, you could, but in general…you can’t. Just do your best to set a good example.
• UI implementation will require several iterations, no matter how well-specified and how much feedback you got before you put it in place.
• If you read in approximately 750 places on the web that a particular thing doesn’t work, but you think you’ve found a nifty trick that will make it work, go ahead and try it—you may have found a nifty trick that will make it work. But don’t be surprised when it doesn’t, because it probably won’t.
• If you blow most of your money on beer and snacks, you won’t be able to save up very much. (This one I learned as a circus roustabout, but it’s quite extensible to a large number of situations.)
• If the powers-that-be are not willing to buy enough licenses for cool-library-or-component-XYZ for your whole team to use, don’t bother trying to use it as a lone member on the team. You’ll lose way more time in frustration and wacky workarounds trying to not break the licensing agreement than you’ll gain by using the component.
• Money spent on a good editor is some of the best money you can spend, in terms of ROI. Ditto money on VMWare or Virtual PC for testing.

-- David Pickett --

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1. Honestly, I’d say its a toss up between a great editor (alone) and a great debugger. Really depends on the amount of time you spend maintaining / fixing vs. adding features / developing.
   
   For my job, debugger >>>>>>> editor. Covienent eh? (don’t talk about my spelling).
   
   — Steve C.    Friday April 2, 2004    #

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