/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Programming Thread
Programming Thread replies
376 days old
last post: Sep 28, 2020
Return

Programming Thread

1 Name: Anonymous : 2019-10-29 17:33
General programming thread, what have you been making recently?
Not a thread for arguing about which language is best.
2 Name: Anonymous : 2019-10-30 14:33
I can do some simple Python and Bash stuff. I'm not very good, but I know the basics and want to get better. It doesn't help that I don't practice very often, though.
3 Name: Anonymous : 2019-10-30 21:28
If you know some Python, you can try automating some of your daily computer tasks for extra experience
4 Name: Anonymous : 2019-11-07 17:10
>>3
Speaking of which, the second edition of "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" was released not too long ago for free under the Creative Commons license. I'm hoping going through that will help my general understanding of the language a bit.

Here's the site for anyone who's interested in the book: https://automatetheboringstuff.com/
5 Name: Anonymous : 2019-11-07 18:35
I’ve been jumping between languages trying to find my favorite for some small arcade games. I did game dev as a hobby for a while but then larger projects and life got in the way so I fell more into the demoscene crowd. I’m trying to get back into it for fun and recently found processing which is fun to use.
6 Name: Anonymous : 2019-11-08 00:17
About 5 minutes ago, I wrote a unix one-liner to print a cute image every week to make sure my printer head doesn't dry out. (Turns out ink-jet printers need to be used or the head dries out and they break.)

find /path/to/cuteness/dir/ -type f -print0 | egrep -z -i "(jpg|jpeg|png)$" | sort -z -R | head -z -n 1 | xargs -0 lp

I haven't tested it yet but if it works, I'll turn it into a cronjob.

Can we get more one-liners?
7 Name: Anonymous : 2019-11-08 02:41
Here's one to get an AI generated motivational(?) image to pop up. Requires feh, but a lot of popular Linux distros have it. (Sorry it's not pure unix)

feh https://inspirobot.me/api?generate=true
8 Name: Anonymous : 2019-11-08 02:44
>>7
Whoops, messed it up, my bad.

feh $( curl 'https://inspirobot.me/api?generate=true' )
9 Name: Anonymous : 2019-11-09 13:43
>>8
feh $( curl 'https://inspirobot.me/api?generate=true' )
This is great! I'd love to be able to make something like this some day.
10 Name: Anonymous : 2019-11-09 17:24
It probably uses something like TensorFlow. I'd like to get into that someday, but I've never had a use for it in any practical project.
11 Name: Anonymous : 2020-08-25 04:31
I've been working on a couple of IRC bots lately for a server myself and a couple of friends hang out in. One of them is a jukebox for playing songs to an Icecast stream, which has been pretty cool to have around. It's pretty much entirely built around copying PCM from an ffmpeg process decoding a file to another ffmpeg process encoding and streaming, and handling bot commands in between each block. Raw PCM can be concatenated without any ceremony, so queue progression is just a matter of starting a new decoder and carrying on as normal.

Also a bot to announce manga releases in our main channel, but that's not as interesting.
12 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-06 19:51
Over the past 6 months or so I've started using clojure in my day job, and I'm really enjoying it. It's very clean and expressive, although I still have some trouble wrapping my head around some of the concepts like juxt.

I have found that over the past few years though I've done less and less stuff outside of work, which is a shame, but I just don't feel like programming outside of work any more. Does anyone else feel the same?
13 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-07 02:16
I didn't do anything outside work for the longest time, but recently I've been able to do some programming things to help my friends with some things. It's made me a little more enthusiastic.
14 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-07 08:12
I haven't done anything programming related outside work, because my current workplace makes me miserable. I can go weeks without writing a single line of code, my skills have deteriorated. The workplace makes me so miserable the only thing I want to do after work is to play games and go to sleep.
I'm stuck. Can't just quit now, though.
15 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-07 16:41
>>14
My first job was like that and I worked there for a year and a half, I didn't have a proper coding project until I was on probation and about to get fired.
I'm sorry you're in that sort of situation, mine really was one of the hardest parts of my life. Please keep going, it'll get better one way or another eventually.
16 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-07 17:06
>>15
I didn't have a proper coding project
Did they put you on the bench for a long time? What happened?

My first job was very demanding, on the other hand. The users of the application I worked on sat right next to me, so if things didn't work (at all, or just didn't provide a pleasant experience) they would (obviously) be kind of mad.
I've been called after hours even though it wasn't on my contract.
I can't decide which experience was worse...

Please keep going, it'll get better one way or another eventually.

I'm trying my hardest. Prepared some dev environment yesterday, I hope not to give up... although there's not much that'd make me keep going. Thanks for the encouragement, kind anon!
17 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-07 17:40
>>16
I was at a massive corporation that could afford to put whole teams of software engineers on a set of buttons. My teammates were in the same boat. Normal progression was content monkey stuff day in day out until you get promoted like 4 years down the line, with lots of business overhead to make things extra confusing. One teammate who had just been promoted got legitimately worried that he had forgotten how to code entirely once he got his first real project. In that respect, the jobs I've had since then are excellent, but with other downsides.

After hours is rough, especially on contract work, it always throws me off for a few days.

The best thing to keep in mind is that even if this place doesn't work out, we are extraordinarily lucky to be in the industry we are in. It's work to get a new job, but the worst case scenario is always starting somewhere fresh.
18 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-08 01:44
>>17

content monkey stuff day in day out
Was this on some CMS? I swear to God, CMSes make everyone miserable.

One teammate who had just been promoted got legitimately worried that he had forgotten how to code entirely once he got his first real project.

Ouch, yeah. When I get benched for too long, I forget all the stuff I learned specifically for this company's needs, let alone whatever I knew prior to joining it.

The best thing to keep in mind is that even if this place doesn't work out, we are extraordinarily lucky to be in the industry we are in. It's work to get a new job, but the worst case scenario is always starting somewhere fresh.

That's why I rarely vent about it, since I'd feel stupid. So many people are worse out, so many have lost jobs nowadays.
If anything, burnout will be the end of me. The moment I'll be unable to learn anything new because of my bad experiences.
I'd really use a break, but I don't think I could afford one...
19 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-08 12:56
>>18

Ha, I can do you better. It wasn't just some CMS, it was a proprietary CMS that just barely worked and never had the features that business wanted (not that I could put them in myself even if they asked). My life was setting up bylines in that day in day out and then revising them whenever a typo was found (because the damn thing didn't check syntax or have a preview).

I was in the same boat as my coworker after I got fired, it took me a good bit to get any confidence in myself back. I flubbed a bunch of interviews but eventually I got back in a small contract role that let me keep my head down and code, which helped a lot on that front. It might take a bit of time to get back on track, but it's totally doable.

It's totally fine to vent, I meant it more in a "don't fall to total despair" capacity. You really have to make sure to take care of yourself. If that means letting off steam by complaining about stuff it's totally fine, we gotta do what we can. I took a long weekend this past weekend to try and get myself back on track since I could feel it creeping in, not sure how much it helped though since there isn't much to do and I had to deal with personal issues, but hopefully this week will be a little better. I hope it goes a bit better for you too.
20 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-10 13:25
>>19
It wasn't just some CMS, it was a proprietary CMS that just barely worked

Same here. Ours works, but is a mashup of something that came out in the 90s with some "modern" code written somewhere in India, all that in Java sauce.

after I got fired, it took me a good bit to get any confidence in myself back
I'm really sorry to hear that.
Part of me wishes they could fire me already so that I wouldn't have any option other than to look for something better, then again I still need the money and would hate to have a record of being fired somewhere in my job history.

contract role that let me keep my head down and code
I can see that working on a contract role can definitely help in things. They're seeing you as someone proficient and capable then... a lot of freedom comes along with that.
I worked with a contractor some time ago, he would force us to use the communication software he liked and we had no choice but to adapt. Dude was offline like most of the time, too. He delivered, though, and that's what mattered.

I had to deal with personal issues, but hopefully this week will be a little better. I hope it goes a bit better for you too.
I finally finished a messy task today, wasn't tasked with anything yet, using that time up to reduce some of my life overhead and hopefully force myself to work on IT stuff. Can't believe it's almost the weekend already...
I hope things work out for you as well, kind anon.
21 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-10 14:29
You ever wonder what happens in the future when all of these modern langs die? You can already see big problems with some langs like Rust having giant frameworks dying, and having some niche langs like Dart, or maybe even Kotlin. Languages like that I can easy see becoming legacy code that's hard to maintain in a few decades because nobody knows them. Just a thought. That said, I still use Kotlin for most everything I do for web backends now. At least it works with the JVM so it can't age *too* poorly
22 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-15 00:09
>>20

I feel for you, I hope that one day we can escape from CMS hell (at least now I'm not doing content on one).

The firing isn't so bad if its from the right place. The company had a big layoff that coincided and I just say that I was part of that, but really people don't pry too much, and its a company that consistently burns people out anyways so no one really bats an eye. Honestly I thought it'd be way worse, but it really isn't that bad.

Well, I was with what was more of a temp agency than someone as mercenary as the guy you worked with, but man if that isn't the dream to get to that point someday. I just worry that you end up spending a lot of energy worrying about what your next gig is going to be in your off time if you don't set it up right. The other worry is being the sort of person it takes to deliver a product in the kind of timespans and constraints contractors like that work on, it'd be so nice, but I just don't know if I'm that kind of person after the jobs I've worked.

I'm glad that you were able to take off some of that stress, I totally feel the same way about how much effort it is just to get going with work, especially when everyone wants to take up time with meetings.. Time is going way too fast lately, especially when everything seems like its the same.
My personal issues landed about as well as they could have, but I can feel the encroachment of burnout in myself, I think I really need some time away too. I hope you're doing what you can to bear with things.

>>21
It really depends on the company, but I see a lot of (smarter) places having a built-in expiration date for code so it doesn't end up being too legacy in newer companies. Patterns like microservices let you cut your losses and slot in something new with less pain that looking at a massive decade(s)-old codebase that no one on the team ever fully understood. Of course, I know some people that are in the public sector that are working on code older than their parents, so it goes both ways.
23 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-15 23:34
>>22
Being fired as a part of a bigger layoff doesn't look that bad in the papers. Things like that get some publicity as well, if it's a big layoff in some recognizable IT company (e.g. Mozilla, speaking of recent situations), odds are the people laid off will be getting back on their feet fast.
Things look way different if you're the only person to get fired, as I don't think that happens often.
I'm glad your to hear your layoff didn't affect you that much.

I just worry that you end up spending a lot of energy worrying about what your next gig is going to be in your off time if you don't set it up right. The other worry is being the sort of person it takes to deliver a product in the kind of timespans and constraints contractors like that work on, it'd be so nice, but I just don't know if I'm that kind of person after the jobs I've worked.

Sounds like this line of work when you just keep getting contracted sounds a little stressful. You have to have a lot of confidence for sure, both to convince yourself you'll be able to keep getting the gigs to do since you're good enough for that, and also the confidence required to convince yourself and the client you'll deliver on time.

I'm glad that you were able to take off some of that stress, I totally feel the same way about how much effort it is just to get going with work, especially when everyone wants to take up time with meetings.. Time is going way too fast lately, especially when everything seems like its the same.

Oh man, the meetings. There's so much overhead these days I really feel like I work for 2 hours a day maybe. There isn't that much stress, but time passes in a blur. I blinked, and I'm both halfway through the month and the current week without achieving *anything*.
I was planning to do something in my spare time to learn some new tech and get hired somewhere else, but I'm way too burned out for that it seems.
I feel like I need like a month of vacation where I'd be doing nothing, then at least a month to find my love for programming again.
I could even afford that, since I've got enough savings, but it sounds pretty crazy...

>>21
I can't see Kotlin going away anytime soon since there's a big market for phone apps.
I can't see Golang going away either, it fits a specific niche.
If anything, Elixir doesn't look like it's used much. I know it's used as the backend for Discord, but apart from that...
24 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-28 11:39
well, this was fun to write. would you believe me if i told you isaac newton wrote this upon discovering gravitational attraction in 2020?

@@@@
%!! @(°〇°)@ egads, the programming !! <- sir apple newton

0 298 moveto
/Times-Roman findfont 39 scalefont setfont
<404040206772617669747920> show
/gravity 9.81 def
/apples 0 def
<657175616c7320> show
3 3 add
/apples exch def
apples
/gravity exch def
<6170706c6573212120404040> show
showpage
25 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-28 12:04
>>24
as part of a secret code, i mean.
26 Name: Anonymous : 2020-09-28 13:10
>>24
>>25
(granted, it doesn't make use of public key cryptography. but i still thought it was pretty clever.)

Return

Name:
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /