Software Engineers

[ASmitty]

I write software for a living (and for fun at home sometimes too). I currently work for an online only bank. We have zero physical bank branches. Our US-based software development team works in in Microsoft and .NET for our development. Most of our work is web-based using ASP.NET MVC and WCF web services. We also have some back end processes that utilize console applications.

At home, for my personal development projects, I am using Ruby and Rails. I'm still quite new to these two but I am quickly gaining a strong appreciation for them.

I know there are a few other software developers here, and I was just looking to stir up some discussion about what programming languages and technologies some of you are working in. I've been writing code professionally for about 3.5 years at this point and I've never been happier with what I do for a living.

[The Deacon]

Retired now, but wrote code and did systems analysis for the last 15 years of my work life. Started out working in COBOL and DB2 SQL on a dumb terminal hooked to an IBM mainframe, later worked primarily with Oracle tools, creating Oracle databases with Designer and the front end tools to access them with Forms Developer and Report Builder on a PC platform. Toward the end I did a bit of Java programming as well.

[rodloos]

I'm not technically a software engineer, since I don't have a B.S. nor an Engineering License, but I've been programming full-time for around 24 years. Bought my first computer in 1979. Paid extra money to double the memory to 8KB!

My jobs started out with mostly Turbo Pascal, along the way did C/C++, Delphi, some database, and since around 2000 mostly web development in Java, JSP, PHP, HTML etc.

As a consequence I usually become "tech support" to my family members, but that's OK because they help me out when I need car repairs done etc :) .

[chuckd]

I am not an engineer at all, but I am currently taking classes and learning the trade! I actually took a break from studying C++ to come to the forum. I also am learning Java and Objective C and will be learning android and Ruby in the next few months. I hope to become a developer!

[ASmitty]

I am not an engineer at all, but I am currently taking classes and learning the trade! I actually took a break from studying C++ to come to the forum. I also am learning Java and Objective C and will be learning android and Ruby in the next few months. I hope to become a developer!

Excellent. I use the term "engineer" for software loosely. Technically, my title is application developer. Development is, without a doubt, the best job I've ever had. I'm never bummed about coming back to work on Monday (that's a great feeling). I've experimented a little bit with C++ and Java, but I've never touched Objective-C. I will say that Ruby is fast becoming my favorite programming language. It is highly functional, flexible, and easy and painless to use. So many languages are focused on getting the most efficiency out of the machine, but Ruby is focused on programmer efficiency and satisfaction. In that way, Ruby feels like the Spyderco of programming languages more and more as I delve into it.

[bdblue]

I'm an engineer and I've been interested in computers and programming since before there were personal computers. Most of my programming has been related to my field of engineering but I've also dabbled in other types of programs that I got interested in. I learned Fortran in college, many years ago. When my company got a Unix minicomputer I taught myself C. When I got my own PC I started programming in Turbo C and Turbo Pascal, then later on Borland Delphi. When I got into AutoCAD I started programming little apps for AutoCAD in AutoLISP. I've also dabbled in visual Basic and Objective C.

Unfortunately for the little guy it is much harder these days to program as a hobby that it used to be. Languages and platforms are much more complicated and require a lot more learning in order to just get past the basics.

[chuckd]

I love programming. I got a degree in forestry, graduating in the fall of '12 and after working a seasonal forestry position here in CA, I wanted to get some experience programming. After starting some classes, I quickly realized that it is an awesome skill/trade/profession/interest and now I am going all in and changing directions. I am addicted to mindset of problem solving through code. It is like when you get sharpening an edge and you just get into the groove and time flies by. I love it and hope to reach an employable level soon!

[Paul10]

I'm a software developer and use Java 90% of the time. I work for an insurance company and have worked on several web applications where Java is the primary language. On my personal time, I've done iOS programming using Objective C. I enjoy being a developer and it pays for my knives :)

[Pinetreebbs]

Retired System Administrator, former Database Administrator for an engineering and design application. I have dabbled into programming, automation is cool, nothing like the watching a machine doing my work, but I'm not a programmer, I prefer to rely on a professional for application development/modification. Besides automation I enjoyed building tools for converting, cleaning, moving and analyzing data.

Talking about programmers/developers, there are a lot of guys great with code, but there is nothing more valuable than one that can translate the customers business into code.

[ASmitty]

Talking about programmers/developers, there are a lot of guys great with code, but there is nothing more valuable than one that can translate the customers business into code.

I actually read an article by a guy named Peter Nixey recently about how to be a great developer. It was a good read and it got me thinking about my own ideas about what makes a great developer. This was #1 on my list. A great developer needs to be able to write code, but he also has to understand the business line he is supporting. I work for a bank. I don't have a degree in anything computer related. My college major was actually Liberal Studies (which basically amounts to designing my own major because I amassed too many credit hours of general courses). I took 2 courses in VB.NET programming during my senior year. Right out of college, I got a job supervising credit card fraud and risk agents. Having a background in banking was a big help to me in the beginning of my development career (which I was actually able to start due to nepotism). Even though I had a learning curve in the development arena, I understand the financial industry better than quite a few of our developers who came from other backgrounds or straight out of college.

[Pinetreebbs]

I actually read an article by a guy named Peter Nixey recently about how to be a great developer. It was a good read and it got me thinking about my own ideas about what makes a great developer. This was #1 on my list. A great developer needs to be able to write code, but he also has to understand the business line he is supporting. I work for a bank. I don't have a degree in anything computer related. My college major was actually Liberal Studies (which basically amounts to designing my own major because I amassed too many credit hours of general courses). I took 2 courses in VB.NET programming during my senior year. Right out of college, I got a job supervising credit card fraud and risk agents. Having a background in banking was a big help to me in the beginning of my development career (which I was actually able to start due to nepotism). Even though I had a learning curve in the development arena, I understand the financial industry better than quite a few of our developers who came from other backgrounds or straight out of college.

There you go. We do still need good technical coders that can optimize and streamline applications, still others that can track down problems. Knowing the business and software limitations you can tell the customer when they are asking for something crazy, like insisting on changing primary keys as part of their daily business. Head that one with my own ears. I also knew their legacy system was loaded with invalid and corrupt data. Sometimes the customer does not know better and you need to convince them ever so delicately until it's their idea to do something else. :D

[kbuzbee]

Sorry, before I retired, I was a hardware guy I stayed as far away from coding as I could.

Ken

[defenestrate]

I mostly just script (Bourne Shell) but that has been enough to handle all my needs as a sysadmin. Looking to learn something I can make use of going forward. Considering soke variant of C, or perhaps Java.

[rodloos]

Sorry, before I retired, I was a hardware guy I stayed as far away from coding as I could.

Ken

LOL the advantage of software is that you can make a backup before you make a bunch of changes, easy to revert if your changes don't work! Hardware, not so much.

How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None, it's a hardware problem :) .

[kbuzbee]

LOL the advantage of software is that you can make a backup before you make a bunch of changes, easy to revert if your changes don't work! Hardware, not so much.

How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None, it's a hardware problem :) .

Yeah, that's a common misconception of software guys. We were not there to "make changes" We were there to "rip and replace" Out with the old. In with the new. Move along! Easy peasy.

The lightbulb thing? Nope. Not that either. That's a warrantee issue

Ken

[bakergh]

I'm a software engineer. I like to use a .net stack for the most part but node.js might be changing that soon. I've recently replaced SQL server with Mongodb for use as a data store with MVC backend and knockout.js on the front end on my latest project. It's a refreshing change for me. I've built insurance software, an online document managements system, a payment network and a transportation management system in the (almost) 10 years I've been doing this professionally. I spent a year most recently on the business side of things working as a business analyst and product manager because I agree with Pinetreebbs. There are a lot of great frameworks out there that enable you to do some amazing things that would be impossible only a couple of years ago, but I think it's becoming less about what framework you choose and more about what you do with it once you choose it. Ruby on Rails (I love the 37 signals philosophy of development) is awesome though. Without a doubt software is a great occupation to have right now though.

[bakergh]

If any software guys are going to blade show next month and want to do a lunch let me know. I love talking shop especially with people who like knives.