A Day in the Life

[CoolGamer48]

Hey.

I've never worked in industry, and I was just curious as to how exactly things work in the real world (as a C++ programmer). To be a bit more specific, what kind of things do you do in a day? If you're working on a program, how many people are working with you? How exactly does working with other people on a single program work? What kind of "assignments" (sorry if that's the wrong word, I'm still in school) do you get? Around how much work do you get done in a day?

I'm not necessarily looking for concrete answers to all those questions - just some input from people who do work in industry.

[ff4930]

I think about this too. I really want to experience work related programming and not school related.

Ive found this to get a picture
http://nytimes.vault.com/cb/content_main.jsp?cb_page=12&ht_type=1&name=A+Day+in+the+Life&parrefer=806

This to be more exact
http://nytimes.vault.com/cb/content_main.jsp?cb_page=3&article_id=28332068

[CoolGamer48]

I was looking for something a bit more programmer-oriented.

edit: well, I guess aspiring programmer oriented

[Alex Edwards]

This thread reminds me of http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread129415.html

[swaira umar]

hi
hmmm ....we got assignments as teacher assigns us it depends totally on teachers mood, abilities and qualification.Me and my friend use to sit together and work on assigned task but it depends on task type too as some tasks are indivually graded but if its some group type we both work together and yah working in group is quite useful but for those students who really wants to learn somthing otherwise some lathergic students get benefits without any hardwork.

But one suggestion Girls can't study in Group they waste their time in gossips.And working together is useful as from this you get more innovative ideas, but only if you have good understanding otherwise it will create mess.i think its quite enough.

[CoolGamer48]

I meant in a job - not in school.

[pritaeas]

In my case I get my assignments from my supervisor. It's either a change in an existing program, or e.g. creating a new interface from scratch. In the first instance, you can change a lot of small things in a day. The latter will require more in depth study and communications with suppliers and such.

I work with four other colleagues and the source of all applications is in CVS. This enables multiple programmers to work concurrently on the same project.

[William Hemsworth]

Haven't you been to work experience yet ?
When I went to work experience, We (me and another friend) ended up getting a placement at Juiced Games for 2 weeks. That gave me a big experience of what programming can be like in a job. To be totally honest, it was a very relaxed environment, the only thing you had to watch out for is something called sprints. A sprint is a deadline to complete a task, and if you fall behind then I guess you have a problem. We also got to see a few of the programmers at work, and it looks like a lot of fun. Every 30-60 mins they would compile their new project and test for bugs. Some programmers would be developing the game itself, while others would be producing tools for the Artists to use.

I hope this answers abit of your question :)

[Alex Edwards]

Haven't you been to work experience yet ? When I went to work experience, We (me and another friend) ended up getting a placement at Juiced Games for 2 weeks. That gave me a big experience of what programming can be like in a job. To be totally honest, it was a very relaxed environment, the only thing you had to watch out for is something called sprints. A sprint is a deadline to complete a task, and if you fall behind then I guess you have a problem. We also got to see a few of the programmers at work, and it looks like a lot of fun. Every 30-60 mins they would compile their new project and test for bugs. Some programmers would be developing the game itself, while others would be producing tools for the Artists to use.

I hope this answers abit of your question :)

Except you didn't say how long compile times can be for massive projects! O_O

I recall my professors saying that compiling can take a very long time... so it's best to get things right the first time X_X

[Alex Edwards]

Your professor may have last compiled a "massive project" in 1970. :) My workstation compiles and jars a Java project of 869 class files in ~20 seconds. Incremental background compiles while editing are near enough real-time.

Oh, and what about the Metaprogram compiles for languages that support templates?

Would that not be longer if there are a lot of template algorithms used? >_>

[Ezzaral]

Your professor may have last compiled a "massive project" in 1970. :)
My workstation compiles and jars a Java project of 869 source files in ~20 seconds. Incremental background compiles while editing are near enough real-time.

[sciwizeh]

i am about to enter college, going to the field, and i was wondering the same thing...

posts 10 and 11 are in a weird order :D

[Ezzaral]

Oh, and what about the Metaprogram compiles for languages that support templates?

Would that not be longer if there are a lot of template algorithms used? >_>

I am kidding a bit:)
Obviously I can't speak for many platforms that I've never used and "massive project" could encompass many builds that do perhaps take a long time ("long time" not really being quantified either).
The statement did remind me however of a co-worker's story of some training class he had to take years ago in which the "instructor" (using the term loosely, since he pretty much just read the Powerpoint slides to them) told them that it was more efficient to have all of their code read by someone else (yes, read, line by line) before compiling it - and no, he was not referring to logical code reviews. When they asked him to clarify that a little, since most of the people in the class were sure he couldn't really mean what he was implying, he said syntax errors could waste a lot of compile time that could be avoided by carefully checking the code first. :-/

[William Hemsworth]

Except you didn't say how long compile times can be for massive projects! O_O

I recall my professors saying that compiling can take a very long time... so it's best to get things right the first time X_X

It took them 10+ minutes to compile the average of about 10 millions lines of C++ code that goes into one of their games. ;)