Programming Is For Trains

Having been a night owl since before I can remember, I really liked the suggestion that ProgrammingIsForNighttime. Then I got a new job, where my schedule looks something like the following:

• 6 - 7 a.m.: wake, shower and breakfast and prepare lunch, food for cat, coffee for spouse

• 7 - 9 a.m.: ten minute walk to hour and half train ride to twenty minute walk to office

• 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.: work at office

• 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.: twenty minute walk to hour and half train ride to ten minute walk to home

• 8 - 10 p.m.: eat supper, time with family, household duties

• 10 p.m. - 6 a.m.: ditto 8-10, prepare for bed, read a little, sleep

Nighttime? When's that?

Okay, new pattern: ProgrammingIsForTrains. Lock the programmer in a seat for over an hour, with pencil and paper, maybe a laptop, and nothing else but his or her thoughts. It encourages abstraction, since you usually can't carry your manuals (with a laptop, maybe online). You may be unable to test your programs; that encourages you to linger. Fewer distractions than the office: no phone, no e-mail, no Netnews, no Web. No useless meetings! (But no PairProgramming, either.)

Note: creative thought doesn't come easily after intense aerobic exercise (such as sprinting twelve blocks).

Complementary pattern: Writing Is For Trains. An hour and a half lasts a (single spaced) page or two, and seems to fly by. Don't have time for documentation? Here, here's three hours a day. Maybe you'll get some of that stuff written down. (Where do you think I wrote this?)

--PaulChisholm

P.S.: Thanks to someone at www.ncemt.ctc.com for cleaning up some of my typos!

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