I Code Sooooo Slowly!
One thing I've learned over and over is that a programmer's skill with his preferred editor is no indication of his skill as a programmer. One of the best programmers I know stuck with Pico for years! Certainly many of the programmers mentioned in "Coders at Work" use Emacs without even trying to learn it well.
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I'm obsessed with productivity, especially when it comes to editors. There's a reason why. I'm slow...really slow!
When I was at PyCon, I participated in a coding challenge. The grand prize was a MacBook Air, and there were only 8 participants. I figured I stood a good chance at winning the MacBook Air which I needed since I was leaving Twilio.
The challenge used SingPath:
Anyway, the challenge consisted of 10 questions that you have to write Python code to solve. I finished 6th out of 8! I was the slowest programmer among the professional programmers. It gets worse ;) The guy who won the competition was a Russian guy (I think). He finished all 10 problems in 10 minutes. I only finished 8 problems after 30 minutes. I would have finished the others, but I ran out of time.
It was definitely humbling to realize just how slow I am. What's ironic, though, is that I'm really fast at manipulating text in an editor. (Sometimes I use Vim and sometimes I use NetBeans with the jVi plugin so that it feels like Vim.) I can make text fly, but that doesn't translate into coding faster.
Fortunately, I have other assets as a programmer. For instance, my code is well known for being extremely clean, and I rarely have very many bugs. Nonetheless, it's frustrating that I'm so slow, and I really wish there was something I could do to improve my speed.
Having spent so much time futzing with my editor, I think it's clear that that isn't the problem. I think the problem is that my mind is constantly in "proof mode". I double check everything, code review my own code multiple times, think about all the edge cases, etc. Trying to code fast just doesn't work for me. When I did the programming competition, I was coding as fast as I possibly could. If I had taken my time like normal, I probably would have taken 2-3 times as long (but the code would have had really nice documentation and tests too).
Does anyone have any realistic advice for how I can increase my speed without sacrificing quality?
If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I'm obsessed with productivity, especially when it comes to editors. There's a reason why. I'm slow...really slow!
When I was at PyCon, I participated in a coding challenge. The grand prize was a MacBook Air, and there were only 8 participants. I figured I stood a good chance at winning the MacBook Air which I needed since I was leaving Twilio.
The challenge used SingPath:
SingPath is the most FUN way to practice software languages! SingPath provides a platform to those that want to test their programming skills in a competitive and fun environment.(By the way, did you notice that it's spelled Singpath in the title and SingPath in the introductory paragraph?)
Anyway, the challenge consisted of 10 questions that you have to write Python code to solve. I finished 6th out of 8! I was the slowest programmer among the professional programmers. It gets worse ;) The guy who won the competition was a Russian guy (I think). He finished all 10 problems in 10 minutes. I only finished 8 problems after 30 minutes. I would have finished the others, but I ran out of time.
It was definitely humbling to realize just how slow I am. What's ironic, though, is that I'm really fast at manipulating text in an editor. (Sometimes I use Vim and sometimes I use NetBeans with the jVi plugin so that it feels like Vim.) I can make text fly, but that doesn't translate into coding faster.
Fortunately, I have other assets as a programmer. For instance, my code is well known for being extremely clean, and I rarely have very many bugs. Nonetheless, it's frustrating that I'm so slow, and I really wish there was something I could do to improve my speed.
Having spent so much time futzing with my editor, I think it's clear that that isn't the problem. I think the problem is that my mind is constantly in "proof mode". I double check everything, code review my own code multiple times, think about all the edge cases, etc. Trying to code fast just doesn't work for me. When I did the programming competition, I was coding as fast as I possibly could. If I had taken my time like normal, I probably would have taken 2-3 times as long (but the code would have had really nice documentation and tests too).
Does anyone have any realistic advice for how I can increase my speed without sacrificing quality?
Comments
And for every extra minute I spend thinking, and re-reading my code, I like to think I saved several later on down the road. I've written a lot of things that have run untouched for years, which makes me feel justified in being meticulous.
When doing my own projects, I take things slower, spend more time pondering design/etc. If I have a timer over my head my tactics change somewhat. Generally tackling larger projects more often cause you to spend more time on design, compared to when you're just writing a throwaway script or small app.
The biggest thing that helped me was learning to touch type. If you don't know how, get gtypist and practice it right now.
As for being in proof-mode... not a bad thing. As long as your fingers move fast when they're moving, you're fine. Time spent upfront thinking and testing is time not spent later with a debugger or the issue tracker.
Captcha, interestingly enough, is emaus, which is one letter off from my most used program.
(Anonymous, yes, I do touch type.)
It's a right-tool-for-the-job situation. Some people are slower but produce fewer defects. Some are fast but spend a bunch of time dealing with bugs. Some people know how to do different speeds. But it's OK if you've only got one gear. It's just a problem of management.
Of course, if you're slow and you spend a bunch of time fixing your own bugs, you're not in the right profession.
- As you code, have always pylint or equivalent running in background. I am at least 2x more productive this way.
- From time to time, monitor everything you do in a day. Enumerate the tasks beforehand, make estimations, measure the time spent. This can give you good insights.
- If you procrastinate read the book by Burka and Yuen (a must). The key point is to understand that our activity is ruled by unconscious emotions. We have to learn how to deal with them. Distraction, procrastination, lack of focus, perfectionism, leisure, guiltyness, ambition, frustration are elements to master. For me mastering emotions is by far the most important element to improve productivity.
- Accept you limitations and don't feel guilty but don't say to yourself that there is nothing to be done. Accept expending time reading on the subject, asking for help, and experimenting new techniques.
They try to, well, DRAW a house, not make a box with a chimney. And they are slower.
Let's face it, the real work of a developer is most of the time to fix bugs (with some luck, your own bugs). If you're able to produce code with a reduced number of bugs, I think that's great news.
About using editors, I think the key point is to be confortable with the one you use, not feeling that the editor gets into your way when you have to do something. I try to improve my touch type and shortcuts knowledge a little each day, but without being obsessed. I really couldn't be one of those guys that each few minutes stops, curse and start again, just because the typos...
The problems were things like, "Write a function that given a sentence, returns the 5 most common letters."
I did ask the Russian winner. He said he used iPython to write and test his code. He also said that he mostly writes it perfectly the first time he types it in. Obviously, he really is talented.
Sometimes, if I don't understand the problem well, my very first version only covers the most common use case(s) and no error checking, which I then expand. I find this helps me understand the problem better. The risk is that whenever I notice working this way the code tends to have more bugs than otherwise.
I use an ipython shell to try out things as I code and copy from there to my editor.
I Use Eclipse with the PyDev plugin and pylint enabled to catch typos and other common errors as I type.
* maintainability
* testing
* extensibility
* right algorithms
...golly! seems like every other comment pretty much agrees.