The basic things tend to be what trip up complicated applications and systems. For instance, just the other day one of my colleagues asked me what the last packet sent to close a TCP socket connection was. He was working with a package that seemingly wasn't playing by the normal rules.
"FIN" was my reply - and I was right. That's not the point of the story though.
The developer working on this project is extremely good at what he does. The fact that he found this problem quickly and solved it quickly highlights two important aspects of the way he does things:
1. He looked for a cause, not tried a solution without basis
2. He asked for clarification to speed up the fix
The number of cases that exist where the words and phrases "maybe", "probably" and "what else could it be" appear in response to a problem without having a proper look is worrying.
The most important thing to remember when it comes to solving problems is that you should call on the experience and insight of others. Simple really.
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Computer Science is still considered to be an artform by many - a process of trial, error, elimination and refinement. So often we are left with one plan - plan F. Given the state of play, seeing where others have stepped is most excellent for our industry and our art. This is my contribution - trying to skip over the methodologies designated A through E. This is Methodology F
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About Me
- Null
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Null is a software developer, systems administrator and database administrator working for a company that puts all their skills to use (and does quite a lot to push and develop them). Null has previously worked as a consultant, servicing many different types of clients thoughout many industries and has developed skills across many software packages, engineering techniques and other technical areas. Welcome to the sampling of ramblings and opinions that eminate from Null's work, research, development and personal life.
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