• jarfil@beehaw.org
      0·
      1 year ago

      Some time ago:

      • Me: “Programming is fun, but user interfaces are a PITA”
      • CS student: “What!? The algorithms I’m given to solve are really complicated!”
      • After a year on a job: “I hate testing user interfaces…”

      Some other day:

      • Me: “Programming is mostly copy&paste”
      • Engineering student: “What!? We have to come up with a new solution for every problem!”
      • After a year on a job: “I don’t program anymore, just copy&paste…”

      Told ya.

        • jarfil@beehaw.org
          0·
          1 year ago

          No matter what you work on, programming is one of:

          • Check the documentation for a library, copy&paste the interface call, fill in the blanks.
          • Pick the best algorithm for the case at hand, copy&paste, change a few variable names.
          • Get out your snippets archive, copy&paste the one you need.
          • Write some boilerplate, copy&paste over and over, then fill in the blanks.
          • Look up how someone else solved your problem, replicate it in a way that doesn’t look like copy&paste.
          • Once in a blue moon, come up against an actually novel problem, spend some days figuring out the best way to solve it… then copy&paste the solution back into the project.

          Doesn’t matter what you’re working on, in the end it’s mostly copy&paste 😂

    • ulterno@lemmy.kde.socialEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      It’s kinda fun to think of programming as magic.
      And “libraries” as grimoires/tomes .

      It’s surprising how far you can go with the analogy.