This ever happen to you?

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This ever happen to you?

tsisson

4:21 pm on Jul 13, 2012 (gmt 0)

The other day I was trying to get an animation to work with JQuery, it was more complex than just one simple animation, I was able to get it to work just not exactly as I had envisioned it but I kept messing with the code thinking the solution had to be just around the corner.

Five hours later I decided I needed to try something else and was able to achieve a similar effect, using a different approach in about an hour and a half.

I am hoping this has happened to everyone at some point or another, otherwise I've just posted for no reason.

Just curious how long do you spend trying to make a piece of code work before going back to the drawing board and trying something new?

g1smd

6:36 pm on Jul 13, 2012 (gmt 0)

I've spent days on something only to scrap it and do something else. Next time, the solution is worked out much faster.

lorax

8:16 pm on Jul 13, 2012 (gmt 0)

Has happened to me many times. So often in fact that I count on it as part of the development process. I'll go through the same process for my CSS too. Start off just getting it to work (if I can) then work on elegance and efficiency.

lucy24

9:30 pm on Jul 13, 2012 (gmt 0)

The longer you've spent on it, the more you hate to throw in the towel because think of all those hours (days, weeks...) you'll never see again.

Now wait for the part where you realize that one segment of the stuff you threw away is exactly what you need in the new version, and you can't remember whether you backed up the trashed version and, if so, where it is or what you named it, and will it take more time to look for it or to make it up all over again...

Dijkgraaf

5:34 am on Jul 15, 2012 (gmt 0)

Luckily at work we've got a good support structure, if we have spend half an hour with no solution in sight we go and talk to someone else and they can then either suggest a solution or alternatives.

tbear

11:36 am on Jul 15, 2012 (gmt 0)

I am hoping this has happened to everyone at some point or another, otherwise I've just posted for no reason.

Now that has happened to me......

scooterdude

1:38 pm on Jul 15, 2012 (gmt 0)

Tis the nature of coding,

that sick feeling at 3am in the morning when you realise that the last 2 nites of coding have been spent pursuing a technique that either made things worse or was fundamentally flawed :)

Always nice to find the correct way eventually, and sometimes, as has been mentioned above, the wrong path can be part of a new path too

tsisson

2:28 pm on Jul 16, 2012 (gmt 0)

Whew! Thanks everyone for sharing, it makes me feel better knowing I am not the only one this happens too. I guess its just part of the nature of the work we do.

I work for a small firm so I am the only one who knows anything about coding so I don't have anyone to consult with here when I am having trouble with something.

@lorax - good idea I think I will start counting on some time for that as well.

@lucy24 - yes that is the worst! I have done that several times as well, sometimes I get so paranoid I will make a new copy of the page anytime I try something new.

@scooterdude - that is a terrible feeling but does feel good when you finally get the solution

tangor

3:25 pm on Jul 16, 2012 (gmt 0)

Most times we go through this butt head against problems in attempts to put square peg in round hole (jquery is not video specific) and we learn, and next time don't go there as valuable insight has been obtained... and next time, next time, and time after that... animation, in general, if incidental to the presentation (ie, not the end sale) then spending time on that instead of making money... well, that's another lesson to learn, too.

tsisson

1:54 pm on Jul 19, 2012 (gmt 0)

Yes that happens to me too, trying to make something work a different way than it was intended. Guess its all part of the never ending learning experience.

creative craig

3:15 pm on Jul 19, 2012 (gmt 0)

This happens when I am editing photographs - spend ages working on an image then save and view in IrfanView only to realise it looks worse than when I started :) Its a constant learning curve!