Software developers

agent_paul · 12 Jul 2013 at 21:38

I was just wondering how many people on here are software developers and whether you spend any of your spare time learning new stuff and developing.

I'm asking because I find myself spending less time dev'ing in my spare time now and feel as though I may be slipping behind or not picking all the new cool stuff.

Also have you had any software ideas that you thought we're pretty good and what have you done with them? Did you go and attempt to develop them or did ou keep them to yourself and left it.

PooBrain · 12 Jul 2013 at 22:33

I'm working on an iOS game for the iPad in my spare time.

Hades · 12 Jul 2013 at 22:36

I run production support teams now but used to be a mainframe and java developer. Yes did teach myself other languages, patterns, Linux, etc in my spare time. Nowadays I just don't have the time.

I do have aome ideas but realistically I doubt I will do much with them.

peterwalkley · 13 Jul 2013 at 09:02

Continuous learning should be in your game plan if you want to last in the industry. Employer paid training just doesn't happen any more.

Don't worry about the cool new stuff, most of it turns into the old and boring within a couple of years. A broad knowledge of lots of the toys rather than detailed knowledge of a few is wiser. If you suddenly need the details for a new project or a new job then spend the time.

46 year old coder here, still enjoying it in preference to moving up into management.

jamief · 13 Jul 2013 at 09:25

I get a lot of employer paid training so it certainly does happen.

Dickyb0b · 13 Jul 2013 at 12:53

Been teaching my visual studio for a few years now,fluent in c++/DirectX/Winsock,and some reverse engineering applications

,you can always benefit in the long run if you know this stuff,just look at steam greenlight for example,that gives you the opportunity to develop and sell games if you know how to

Theophany · 13 Jul 2013 at 13:34

Randomface74 · 13 Jul 2013 at 13:39

As dev team lead I don't have free time :S

aln · 13 Jul 2013 at 13:43

I just wing it.

Bigsy · 13 Jul 2013 at 13:46

Teach yourself (assuming you don't already use one) a pure functional language it'll open your mind and probably make you a better OO dev.

I come from a Java background but now code in clojure fulltime at work, it's a joy I love it, so expressive and concise, and it motivates me to do things with it in my spare time.... However I now dread the odd occasion I have to dip back into the java world....

peterwalkley · 13 Jul 2013 at 13:56

billysielu said:
As dev team lead I don't have free time :S

You need to delegate more to your ~~minions~~ team - I keep mine busy

aln · 13 Jul 2013 at 14:17

peterwalkley said:
You need to delegate more to your ~~minions~~ team - I keep mine busy

Naw being "too busy" is a disease. He'll either just accept more work or still think he's too busy despite the fact he'll spend all day on reddit posting cat pictures.

davetherave2 · 13 Jul 2013 at 14:28

.Net developer here (professionally full time for the last 4 years)

I am currently going through some reskilling at the moment to learn the likes of EF and MVC throw into that the likes of html 5 and kendo ui plus never hurts to brush up on the fundementals.

Luckily have a really good company that assists with learning and am off on a training course in a couple of weeks for some mvc fundementals

Outside of work I am developing an idea a friend of mine had and so far it is going well has help me to understand MVC and Kendo a lot more. (Still need to get to grips with EF but that is the plan over the next week or so)

I treat my job as a hobby I get paid for and love it, has taken me a long time to get to this position but wouldn't change the journey that I have taken at to get here.

RDM · 13 Jul 2013 at 15:14

davetherave2 said:
(Still need to get to grips with EF but that is the plan over the next week or so)

I really like EF, allows me to pretty much ignore the underlying data structure and just concentrate on developing.

Steedie · 13 Jul 2013 at 15:55

Last thing I feel like doing after work is doing any more coding. Which is a great shame as I always enjoyed doing it initially. Just full time work killed the passion off

Forgotten most of the decent stuff I was working on a long time ago. Like my crowd simulation stuff and my lighting models etc

Evilpaul · 13 Jul 2013 at 18:05

I occasionally do some programming outside work, but not very often. I do embedded programming so the opportunities for learning new technologies are quite limited, and more likely how to use a new bit of hardware more than how to use a new programming language, methodology, etc.

When we need a new tool for a little job then I'd take that as a chance to learn something new and experiment with OO and higher level languages.

The most recent thing I took responsibility for learning outside of work was Git. I've used it for a few years for my own projects, but didn't delve too deeply into it as I was using it in a single developer environment. Due to work still using CVS :eek:

I lobbied for them to change to something less ****. I did force the issue a little by getting everything configured before the decision had been made, but once done everyone could then see the benefits rather than having to imagine what those benefits were.
End result is that as well as being a S/W engineer and occasional H/W engineer (untrained :cool:

), I am now the Git guru and admin. Still trying to work out if this is a good thing or not