Job Satisfaction in Programming
Community Forums/Technical Discourse/Job Satisfaction in Programming
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| Hi folks, I thought I'd share this - a mini celebration for a few of us at my workplace relating to some changes that have taken 5 years to implement. It involves blitzplus so is relevant to here. In 2012 we needed to print out barcode labels from our ERP software for our warehouse teams. At that point we didn't know how to do so. So we developed a solution of our own that took a text file from the ERP software, combined with a java and blitzplus program and passed the resulting image via irfanview to a network label printer to print the barcode label. It involved much head scratching every time we changed warehouse setup/acquired a new location and so on. It had config files, mysterious printer setup rules, network paths that needed to be accessible from certain places, a few variations on the blitzplus program and so on. In short - it was horrid to deal with. In 2015 I worked out how to print barcodes from our ERP - actually thanks to some help received from Henri and Dawlane and perhaps a few others on this site regarding CUPS, and a few commands to pass information as raw output to the printer. In 2016 I built a custom barcode system for our ERP software using its built in 4GL code. Today we have finally retired the last of the old locations printer systems that were using the old method. Yay. |
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| Glad you're getting some job satisfaction in there Matty, for me everyday it feels like I'm BlackAdder the 2nd, with most other people acting like Captain Hindsight from South Park. |
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| I feel that I have similar situation as you Matty, as I have also made barcode software (written in BMX) for our warehouse folk. A breakthrough for me was in 2012 when I created a document handling system for important documents that were to be shipped with products to end customer, and made the whole process actually easy. @(tu) ENAY Sorry to hear. I imagine that it's more or less the same in all games/software developing companies that have more than 2 employees. -Henri |
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| @Henri It's a shame that software development isn't like building a tower. You make your plan, you build it. Nothing can be changed in the design once you start. Also, let's build the entire structure piece by piece, first the frame, then the walls and structure, the the interior. Not the entire first floor, furniture, plumbing and electricity and then start the second floor. Finally if you're going to change something, don't except this change to absorbed into the fixed time scale and magically take zero seconds of extra time unless we're developed in a alternate reality or worm hole. |
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| Yes there is nothing like the satisfaction of getting something done that works. @ENAY: I take it that you have never worked in the construction industry. Take it from me that it's nothing like that what so ever. And it's usually the architect, installations designers and the person that's meant to approve the drawings that screw the job up in the first place. It's not so bad if the company does everything in house as those on site will know each other and sort out the mess that those responsible for the design have caused. But as soon there subcontractors involved; then it's a different story as it comes down business politics and the general attitude of those employed by the subcontractor. And then there is the client, whom may want to add changes half way through the build which usually ends up with those on site having to tackle more design screw ups. |
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| I stand corrected. Everywhere is shit then! :o) |
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| Everywhere is shit then! :o) I work in Avionics engineering (went back to it after 12 years of software) after getting (literally) sick of being a software release manager for a big project - in the order of 10s of millions. To be fair though, never had the (advantage) of being in programming - my age and experience lent myself more to managerial roles - which lets face it, a software release manager is akin to a glorified librarian.. Maybe I'll get around to coding for a job one day, its looking less likely though. Even in avionics engineering, I can testify that everywhere (can) be shit - its just the depth that varies ;) |
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| @dawlane>>you forgot to mention the subcontractors/their workers who sometimes start some works and then disappear from the worksite and the others workers must adapt with the mess/incomplete work they have made... And this apparently happens quite frequently, not sure why... Always the difference between theory and practice... @Matty>>good work! so how a bar code is stored ? a line of 0 and 1 datas (black or white)? also i suppose that you have to print the bar code with a high enough definition (ppm or ppi) so that it is detailed enough to be recognized by scanners ? |
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| @RemiD: I think that would come under "business politics and the general attitude of those employed". The reason that many subcontractors disappear depends on a number of factors: They won the contract by putting in too low a bid. They underestimated the required man power for the job and if the bid was too low, they cannot afford to hire additional agency workers. A few companies don't like agency workers as the are expensive and are not always the best in terms of professionalism or are just chancers (a term for someone with no real skills but managed to pass themselves off as someone with skills to get work). They have taken too much work on elsewhere and have to move personal around, reducing the man power on site. This in it self causes problems if it the person running the job gets moved as the replacement usually has to workout what the hell has been going on. How well a subcontractor can cope in such situations depends on how financially stable they are. Many end up going bust because of constant bad contracts. In my entire career in construction, there has only ever been one job where theory and practice came together. |
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| Reading this just reminded me recently of this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/03/29/fresh-doubt-moorside-power-project-toshibas-nuclear-unit-westinghouse/ |
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| The Westinghouse debacle is going to cost Toshiba dearly. I still find it amusing that there are those out there that claim the Nuclear power is "Cheap, clean and an efficient way to produce electricity". It maybe efficient, but it sure isn't clean or cheap. You have the cost of building, maintaining and decommissioning the reactor over it projected lifetime. And then there is the cost of storing the radioactive waste that is so dangerous that it has to be carefully monitored. |
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| @RemiD - i dont know the technical details of how a barcode is stored because i based my work off existing solutions. No need to reinvent the wheel. The tricky part was more communicating between the server and the printer using the setup we have. |
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| > you forgot to mention the subcontractors/their workers who sometimes start some works and then disappear from the worksite and the others workers must adapt with the mess/incomplete work they have made... And this apparently happens quite frequently, not sure why... This happens due to some idiot manager reading a bit of advertising saying that outsourcing is cheaper than having an in-house programming staff. By the time they figure out the truth (after laying off a large portion of the staff) it is too late. Worst time I ever had as a system architect is when a company I was working for brought in an outside consulting firm when the Y2K was going down the crapper (all for reasons that the IT staff had been telling them would happen for over a year). The consulting geniuses just got out a book and said do this, then this, then this... The one I still get a chuckle out of is they said that if there was any error at night requiring some kind of fix the programmer had to call the manager to get approval to put in the fix. Managers and Programmers agreed on that one - do the change and tell the Manager in the morning. And that was the level of genius the consulting team had for everything. |
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