Please critique my program design

[JonnyG]

I appreciate all of the advice everyone in this thread has given me. Thank you all very much!

 

[jedishrfu]

To be clear, I wasn't encouraging subterranean lagomorphic voids. I was encouraging him to think about what he wants this to do before jumping into coding. A simple electronic equivalent index card might be fine. Or it might not. But you don't want to be in the middle of writing and discover you missed a requirement that would cause you to redesign.

I did suggest that it is better to design data structures before leaping into coding. I think this is a good idea, and my experience is that much grief can be avoided by thinking data structures before leaping into coding.

@Vanadium 50 I wasn’t attacking you or your suggestions, merely pointing how design can go wild to the point of failure. I myself am guilty of this sometimes. I will design something with a lot of potential features and then look at the core features I need and place the others in quarantine to be evaluated later on.

In general, it’s a better approach than designing a toy version and then extending it beyond its original capabilities only have you go through a thorough redesign and refactoring of code. But I guess that's what time pressure and programmers do all the time.

 

[sbrothy]

[...] My advice to you is find something that you REALLY LOVE, don't look at programming just because of good pay. You literally marry to the job, you better love it. [...]

Wise words indeed. Getting stuck programming something you know is never gonna get used (and yes that happens in industry, I've tried - for the military even) or is boring is not even remotely funny.

 

[PeterDonis]

First, I would try and understand the data structures you want.

As an add-on to this good advice, if your wife is going to be the primary user of the program, it helps a lot if the program's data model matches her mental model. For example, what is her mental model of a recipe? Finding that out will require taking some time to ask her questions.

For a language, since it looks like C++ is what you are most familiar with, I don't see any major issue with using it. My personal language of choice for something like this would be Python, but I have done a lot more coding in Python than I have in C++. If you haven't done any coding in Python, I would say this is at the upper end of difficulty for a "learning project" where you're trying to learn the language as well as produce a working application.

 

[PeterDonis]

my experience is that much grief can be avoided by thinking data structures before leaping into coding

This is my experience as well. With well-designed data structures, much of the code will more or less write itself. But with a tangle of code that isn't backed by well-designed data structures, it can take forever to find your way out.

 

[DaveC426913]

Finding that out will require taking some time to ask her questions.

But maybe not two years ...

 

[JonnyG]

This thread just got raised from the dead...

I appreciate everybody that helped me out. I start full time as a software developer in May :) (finally)

 

[berkeman]

I start full time as a software developer in May :)

Congrats! Enjoy the ride

 

[sbrothy]

This thread just got raised from the dead...

I appreciate everybody that helped me out. I start full time as a software developer in May :) (finally)

Yeah, enjoy the ride. In another thread the OP seemed to be lacking some self-confidence. Don't make that mistake. Demand what you and your work are worth (and what your education entitles you to of course).

(Or was it the same thread? Still a valid point though.)

 

[Vanadium 50]

But maybe not two years ..

All time spent with the wife is happy time.

 

[DaveC426913]

All time spent with the wife is happy time.

Some of you have never been on a big lake in a small sailboat with my wife and it shows.

 

[Tom.G]

Some of you have never been on a big lake in a small sailboat with my wife and it shows.

I REALLY[/size] hope she does not have access to your account here!