I'd be interested to hear peoples thoughts about the productivity gains (or lackof) from moving from a dual to triple monitor setup. I find a multi-monitor setup indispensable both in the office and at home (for hobby development). Since I start dividing my time 50/50 between development and management I'm beginning to feel that I'm doi...
My question is somewhat related to this question. What are good ways to set up a reasonably efficient environment for web development? I am using Subversion, and have two servers, a live one, and a dev site that is pretty much a mirror for the code. Up to now, I have been coding directly on the dev site, but I'm now thinking I should pu...
Is it possible to change how ctrl+tab and shift+ctrl+tab work in Visual Studio? I have disabled the popup navigator window because I only want to switch between items in the tab control. My problem is the inconsistency of what switching to the next and previous document do. Every other program that uses a tab control for open document ...
My company is having troubles finding good canidates 'off the streets' so we are looking to pull great programmers from other companies. My question is: What do you look for in a company to decide if you want to take the risk and change jobs? I'm really looking for specifics. I know most programmers look at the environment, culture, and...
Conventional ergonomics guides suggest aligning the top of the monitor to where the operator looks at straight on. It seems doubtful that that still applies to today's 24" and 30" and larger displays. What was the reasoning behind that rule? What's the correct way to position a huge display? Addendum: Would anyone have a link to rese...
We all know that a programmers working environment is vital for productivity. What techniques have you guys used to sway your employer to improve your situation? Improvements include: dual monitors faster computer ergo chair quiet working environment (not by the photocopier, sheesh!) well-lit desk don't block access to gmail/hotmail/...
Almost every day at work for about an hour, I make it a point to stop working on the current project and study something to become a better developer. Read some blogs, or a chapter from a book. My previous boss didn't have a problem with it (because he was doing the same) but my current boss doesn't like it. I feel it makes me more produ...
Obviously this is completely subjective, but what environment do you like to work in? Well lit or dark? Warm or cool? Noisy, quiet or do you listen to music via headphones? Open plan, shared/individual office, cubicle? Do you need a fancy aeron chair or are you happy to slump on a couch in starbucks? Laptop on the lap, or fully ergono...
Even though I've jumped on the Chrome bandwagon, I still wear my blue Firefox golf shirt to work occasionally. Sometimes people ask me about it in the elevator. Sometimes these people are managers in our IT department. I've even had the same manager ask me more than once (given about six months between). I want to know not just how wou...
I intend on hiring 2-3 junior programmers right out of college. Aside from cash, what is the most important perk for a young programmer? Is it games at work? I want to be creative... I want some good ideas ...
For a while now i have been working in a Japanese software development company and one of the things that was really mind-blowing was the difference in the work culture here and in companies in north America. Even though all tools and development is the same, it is the attitude to work, dedication and sheer unity with which people work i...
My site will be moving from a typical project based management system to a matrix organization. I will now be reporting to the project lead, who has been my boss, and a cross-product lead, who I don't know very well and doesn't know me. The troubling part is that the new boss will be doing my formal performance reviews. Have you had...
Work environment vary wildly. Some lucky few have the luxury of private offices while most of us are situated in some version or other of the open office space. I'm looking for hints and tips of what each and every one of us can do, regardless of the details of your office layout, to improve our work environment. I realize there are alw...
With broadband internet being what it is, and tabbed browsing, and the crazy amounts of very entertaining social information sites, and someone down the hall asking for help with the printer (combined with your desire to be useful), and the coder next to you showing everyone clips from comedy central, and the nasty habit of wanting to de...
What would you say is the idea size physical work area per developer? Not the size of the desktop :-) ...
What are people's experiences with osmotic communication (as recommended by Alastair Cockburn as part of Crystal Clear) as opposed to giving developers individual offices with doors (as recommended by lots of people; for instance, Joel Spolsky. Joel comes back to this here ) Has anyone found the learning-by-osmosis approach to work well...
This is a question about your preferred environment for software development. We recently moved into new offices, and before they were planned, we had a little poll among all the developers what their preferred office size was (this is Europe, so no cubicles, we are used to separate offices ;-) ). The result was that, before we moved, m...
A workmate of mine really loves designing for each and every use-case, no matter how unlikely its occurrence will be or if it's even in the scope of the project. As a result, some of us are having some kind of trouble weeding out unused interfaces and finding out what data field of an interface is actually used. Do You know similar cas...
Hi! I am currently setting up a new software development department with my employer. I'm a former programmer, project manager and director of development, so I have an idea of how the environment should be. I would like your opinions on the matter as you are the guys I am actually preparing this for :) My fundamentals: Office space;...
Is mobilizing the implementation team to the client site to do the full cycle of implementation recommended? In other words, what are the pros and cons of working on client site other than in our own offices? If it is recommended, what are the proper environment requirements I may ask the client to provide for my team? ...