April 9, 2009

Programmer Rage

Long time, no post. I'm currently prompted by a comment I saw today - I'd rather not say where - regarding a change-over from a deprecated method to a new one offering greater functionality. I'd mentioned that I'd noticed the change due to the "squiggly" lines - the lines that Visual Studio uses in its text editor to indicate that there's an error or informative message about the code so underlined.

The response? "We don't code by the 'squiggly lines' down here."

You know what? Neither do I, but I listen to what they say. In case of errors, especially - unless I'm expecting the lines and am immediately doing what will correct them. If it says, "Hey, this method is deprecated, go use this other one," I check to see if the new method will work for my purposes (i.e. it replicates or replaces all of the exact functionality of what the method I was using) and if it does I change the code. If it doesn't my reaction depends on where the reference comes from: if I know the developer, I may ask them directly what they plan to do about what I was using the method for; if I don't, or the developer in question is a team at Microsoft, then I may have to resign myself to finding another alternative.

In fact, I might pay too much attention to squiggles, but I only say that because it seriously bugs when I see the lines. It's the perfectionist in me going, "It doesn't think my code's correct - why?"

Anyway, I needed to vent.

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