Path: news.net.uni-c.dk!howland.erols.net!cyclone-sf.pbi.net!64.42.15.2!HSNX.atgi.net!peer1-sjc1.usenetserver.com!usenetserver.com!e3500-atl1.usenetserver.com.POSTED!53ab2750!not-for-mail From: "Christopher Duncan" Subject: OT - Programmer war stories Newsgroups: comp.lang.beta Sender: Christopher Duncan Reply-To: Chris@ShowProgramming.com Organization: Show Programming of Atlanta, Inc. X-Priority: 3 X-Library: Indy 9.0.3-B Lines: 88 Message-ID: X-Complaints-To: abuse@usenetserver.com X-Abuse-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly. NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 02:23:27 EST Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 02:27:59 -0500 Xref: news.net.uni-c.dk comp.lang.beta:13126 Hi, folks. I'm trying to reach as many seasoned programmers as I can, hope you don't mind the off topic post. As part of the research I'm doing for a follow up to my recent book, "The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World" (Apress), I'm compiling a book of war stories from those of you who have been out there dealing with all the insanity that Corporate America has to offer. In The Career Programmer, I talked about overcoming the real world obstacles we run into trying to get decent software out the door (arbitrary deadlines, clueless management, Marketing, fuzzy requirements, never any time for testing, corporate politics - all that stuff they never taught us in school). I've had tremendous feedback to the book, and one of the things that struck me was that as I told stories about the ridiculous situations I've had to cope with in my own career, everyone asked if I was looking over their cubicle walls because they were dealing with the same things in their shop. So, if figured it would be fun to do a follow up book relating the war stories that some of you have been through. None of my books are tied to a particular programming language, operating system or platform, so it doesn't matter what kind of coding you do. We all deal with the same sort of craziness. I'll paraphrase the stories, and of course I won't use any real names (personal or company) - we get enough grief from management as it is, no point inviting any more. I'll be happy to include your name in the Acknowledgements, but of course will omit it if you prefer your story to be anonymous. This book will be in the same, er, conversational style (that's what my publishers told me was the politically correct phrase for being a wise guy) as The Career Programmer was. I try not to take myself too seriously in this business - keeps my antacid bills down. But then, if you've read the last book you probably figured that out about the time you encountered the night watchman's attack Chihuahua... Anyway, if you've got a good war story about programming in Corporate America, I'd love to hear it. I may change the format of how I gather & organize the stories on my web site, so just go to www.ShowProgramming.com/TheCareerProgrammer.asp and look for the link on War Stories. That gives me the flexibility to reorganize the database & data input page whenever I want without leaving dead links. And of course, you know I'll have to rewrite the UI at least a couple of times. There's always one more tweak. Oh, by the way, since I get emails from programmers all over the world, I get teased a little here & there about my use of "Corporate America", since programming is obviously an international community. And from what I've heard, the business world is equally insane in every country. However, America is the only one I have experience with. And besides, it was easier to write than Corporate . Hey, I got lazy, what can I say? Anyway, if you've got a good story about how crazy this business can get and wouldn't mind me sharing it with others, please drop by and add it to the database. Make sure you leave me an email address that will still be good when the book comes out (these things tend to take months to get out the door - sound familiar?). And thanks very much for taking the time, I truly appreciate it. Happy Coding! Christopher Duncan