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wonderwhy-ER — Tetris has thought me
by-nc
Published: 2012-04-05 21:05:00 +0000 UTC; Views: 2998; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 21
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Description
Software development(but not only) related motivator.View of this strikes me well... That's how messy software development feels like, same as Tetris full of mistakes which cost a lot more to clean up then cost of putting them right in first place.
They are there, they itch, but you can't touch them without changing bunch of other stuff, and you are limited in time and other resources to fix them now.
Original Russian version, I just translated: [link]
P.S: Mostly done to pin to pinterest to my programmers wisdom board [link]
P.S.S: Initially put it in to scraps but now moves to miscellaneous as people seem to like it
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Comments: 14
Yes, but sometimes, those mistakes are not turning fast enough.
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I need this to remind to get my work done and out of the way.
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Welcome back!
Mistakes do pile up, yeah, but when it comes to bug-fixing and such, software that are well-divided into smaller parts are somewhat manageable, I'd say.
What really feels painful about mistakes piling up is that you have bugs, but you cannot fix it because there are lots of people depending on it. Microsoft's famous blogger Raymond Chen has talked about a lot of these, and explains why are Windows and the Windows API the way they are now. Leftovers from the DOS or even CP/M days remain in Windows to date...
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Hehe, I am not truly back, and also I was never truly away. Though my DA usage significantly dropped. Almost not checking other works, rarely checking journals and not posting anything myself. But I do respond to comments.
Though after posting was thinking to post a journal to tell what I am up to lately. Which I think I will.
Its all about dependencies... I am a lot in to some things to ease those issues up... Lower dependency of code elements on each other to allow removing some at will...
thanks for the link, will try to check it out, curious what decisions haunt Windows still and why they can't change underneath providing interface upon new stuff that provides old behavior for old apps.
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I agree that mistakes are piling up and you get the trouble of dealing with this mess and fixing it. For example if I do some drawing badly, I sometimes get to redo it (especially if it's a commission). But it's not that successes would disappear. Yes, when I finish a drawing and do it very well, I put it aside - it was a success, it's finished now and I move on to my next job. But it haven't disappeared. I still have the result (a good drawing or some points in tetris) and I have all the knowledge I learned and experience I had while doing this job. And these successes are exactly what allows you to move on, to take new harder challenges. Together they make some purpose, some movement, which is your life.
Besides it's not only bad things, which are left after you make mistakes. You also get some experience and knowledge what not to do in future so that you don't repeat the same mistake.
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Hmm, I am somewhat sure you don't really "feel" what this one means, I mean you did not really played Tetris I guess
About your comment, its not like that in software development with time constraints. Its like building a building, its very hard to return and redo foundation if you made mistakes there.
Thing is its not some drawing made in 8 hours. Its project with development life of say 6 months and support life of years. Sometimes couple of dozen of years. They even have a name for it. Long lasting software. Now imagine having problems in foundation of such software. Problems on which something was built, problems with many attached dependencies so if you touch them it all collapses.
That's what this one is about. Both give you same itch... Desire for it to not be there... Yet no ability to reach and clean it... So you are stuck with itching so bad that it becomes pain sometimes.
Other then that I agree
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I have played the game many, many years ago. I think I still somewhat remember what it was about.
OK, I agree that there is a difference between a shorter work and one on which you spend years. It's not so bad to spend one day and redo a picture, but it would be awful to spend few months redoing something. But basically it's the same with drawings too. If I notice some mistake in the lineart when a drawing is half-finished, there's no way to fix it, I can only throw it out and start again. At least with traditional art (that's why I love photoshop). Actually I have been using photoshop to fix such mistakes in my traditional works, which I can't fix on paper.
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Ouh... Unexpected
Well its even worse... Its not only about size of product, its also about more then one person working on it, its about dependencies. I guess that it is encountered in design world too. I just doubt you encountered it yet because its about teamwork mostly or building peaces for something larger.
Example from drawings world would be lead designer picking slightly wrong general style for some large project. And as a lead designer various subordinates would be working to stay in "tune" with this main design vision. And then turns out that lead designer left some unpolished "kinks" in design, like made it too mature for core auditory, or too childish. And now later not only his work must be redone, it also effects all other related works that were depending on it. That's why its called dependency.
Soo... I may be wrong but it seems to me its a lot less of an issue in visual design world while in software development its every day reality for all projects. Even for those projects where there is only one developer, because still he depends on frameworks, tools, libraries etc built by others.
Actually this brings me to another good example. File formats. Imagine that Photoshop creators made a mistake(or were just lazy to do good job) in PSD file format, and after years problem grew unnoticed.
And now it got uncovered and stands on the way for improvement of Photoshop.
Can you imagine the consequences? Aether success literally disappears as you can't improve or you make incompatible changes to the format which may make older works not usable...
Of course in reality it does not happen, not as bad at least. You just can't open newer works in older version. But still it I think gives a better picture of what is meant here.
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Yeah, funny, but also reminds of this itching pain, like it healed but still there bothering you
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