No, but this one time, at band camp... I once put "Zeno would appreciate this" in a comment for a for loop limited by the halving of an integer counter, or right-shifting it, I can't recall which.

Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

The ability to remember things fades (which is obvious).

But one learns effective note-taking over time. For me, I'm a better programmer than any of my younger colleagues, mainly due to all the code I've seen and written. That's not to say I'm better in every way. As usual, there are people with more programming talent around me.

The future is not desktop or even web apps, it's mobile. Though one might well argue that there's not enough difference between "web" and "mobile," 40 million iPhones with Androids quickly catching up counts as a trend.

I prefer to ignore all formatting arguments. I've given up on trying to enforce tab rules - every editor seems to handle them differently. Most languages have pretty-printers, and/or they're not horribly difficult to create. Here's what I have come up with for our standards (we're primarily C but some C#). Much of it is very subjective. The programmer should be allowed significant flexibility, with the most experienced, even-handed developer having the final say. Commenting: File header blocks Header blocks for functions and substantial data structures Adequate comment frequency and quantity Legible and helpful comments (perfect spelling/grammar not required) Accurate All commented-out code is worth retaining and explained Coding Style: Standard and consistent Braces around single-statement blocks (to eliminate macro-inserted logic bugs) Magic (hard-coded) numbers minimized Constant declarations used where appropriate Meaningful variable names (i is sometimes appropriate) Global and local symbols distinguished Architecture: Efficiency and maintainability tradeoff Encapsulation and cohesion Global and shared data minimized Entry and exit points minimized Non-standard or non-portable techniques avoided, or documented when used KISS Reasonable function length Reasonable nesting depth Exception conditions pre-empted or handled No redundant code No dead code All build warnings eliminated or addressed

I got to this point in my career (just starting to move up the federal government ladder) by paying an awful lot of dues. I put in ten years of hard time in the video game industry, for example. You never know when that crap maintenance work will pay off. I got some good pay in the 90's because my early OJT was FORTRAN-77 and mainframe operating systems. There are still such positions to be had if you're in the right place, etc. I'm starting a Masters (System Engineering) now because it's very big in the government. In this economy, I'd make some lemonade if I were you.

Being the only one to follow your instructions (so far): 4. I get ideas from time to time and get excited enough about them to put off other activities for a while. Not new algorithm ideas, just new applications, and just for a while, not for a long while.

Did you try pointing out that the cell phone in your pocket, or their Wii at home, or the car Daddy drives (or that drives itself, if it's a new Toyota), are all computers, or contain a bunch of computers? I think that would make a difference, but haven't tried it myself.

Ada, the new DOD language and the programming methodology it implemented, OOD, was going to revolutionize defense software development. The rest of the world was starting to realize that C might be worth using. Years later, I taught introductory C/C++ to a group of COBOL programmers from a local bank. They took to it alright, had a little trouble with pointers but caught on quickly. But what really struck me was that they were as arrogant about their COBOL as any programmer is about "their" language. "Oh, you use C? I always thought Real Programmers use COBOL." I was honestly surprised.

Can you just make the file read-only?