On Sat, 10 Oct 2020 at 06:51, Dave <dfx1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sometimes, particularly when I observe coworkers on their greenscreens, I
wonder if RDi really has made me more productive. A greenscreener doesn't
spend as much time as I do, learning new things and losing lots of time
with bugs (which I am sad to see are still often present with the latest
version of RDi). Rather I wonder if, RDi is just good for morale. What I
lose in development downtime I win in organisation, speed in coding,
understanding, finding, etc. But in the end, everyone gets the job done.
Can we measure or prove that RDi would be worth the investment? If so how?
In my 40+ years at this, I've found that management is happy/unwilling
to spend money to change until they have a cataclysm, and then nothing
can stop the change. With that in mind, I usually suggest that
management buy ME a licence for RDi, and extend the offer to others
who are interested. The justification is two fold:
1) The RDi licence isn't for me personally; like my desk, it stays
with the organisation even after I am gone.
2) Entering code in SEU is no different to entering code in RDi. You
press the keys and the text appears. Same typist, same typing speed.
They don't pay me to be a typist. They pay me to be a thinker. RDi
allows me to think more like a programmer than SEU does.
Can you prove that you're more productive in RDi? That's a wicked hard
problem. Mostly because the definition of 'productive' is very
squishy. Is it production bugs per week? Is it LOC/hour? Is it average
time to close a ticket (ie fix a bug/research a question) - there are
so many possible definitions of 'productive'. In my experience, the
definition my boss applies to me is not only unspoken, but it probably
hasn't been considered at all.
I used to be grumpy about my SEU colleagues, but I have come to
realise that if their code base, their workflow, their job duties can
be satisfied with SEU, then bless them and let them keep using SEU.
But I note that my boss gives me the complicated problems, and my SEU
colleagues are stuck in the oldest code. I further note that you
yourself were using Notepad to edit code, so you must feel on some
level that SEU isn't really up to snuff for your workflow.
Good luck!
--buck
midrange.com
