Programmer’s Log Programmers Writing Stuff – Garry Bodsworth

The Evolution Of A Programmer

Sometimes you look at where you are now and think "How did I get here?", currently it is in a good way but certainly in difficult times you think "How the hell did I get here?". Certainly thinking back to when I started working as a developer I would never have predicted I'd be doing what I am now.

Back in 2000 I started out as a C++ developer on Windows for user interface work. The user interface was MFC which will strike fear into the hearts of some programmers, and the source control system was Visual SourceSafe (bear in mind the initial release of Subversion was around the same date I started). This was the initial baptism in commercial realities of development and my first interaction with real talented developers who actually got software out of the door.

In 2002 I experienced my first takeover. My job description didn't really change although I wasn't a graduate any more. The type of development work I was doing was moving out of the original GUI type work into a more generalised area. Even at one point I ended up deploying a bug database company-wide running a custom version of Bugzilla, which was equal parts interesting and a complete nightmare.

In 2005 I went back to my original company, and this was where my development career started to get much more interesting. During that time I worked on the building blocks of the system and dipped into areas that would not have been seen as my comfort area like the serious heavy maths. I ended up trying to learn more and push myself, after all people out there have solved the same problems, so I joined SPA Cambridge and ACCU. During this period at work I moved the company over to Subversion, re-vamped the build system and installer, and got the 64-bit release done.

After another takeover I decided it was time to move on again, and to hopefully continue learning. Unfortunately this move didn't work out, although I did pick up a couple of things during that time, and learnt a bit about what I wanted to do.

This leads me to my current job at Camvine where I am learning lots of new stuff. This means I am having a huge amount of fun. Also, because it is a start-up, the company is of a size and mentality that makes me feel at home. In the space of about ten weeks(ish) I've had to learn Python, new technologies, lots about networking, and (finally) lead an almost Microsoft free lifestyle.

So, since starting my professional career in October 2000, in (almost) October 2008 I am getting to do work I suppose I would have dreamed of if I knew it was what I wanted to do. I think it shows that your career can evolve into unexpected and exciting areas.

In Programming Lies Madness

Sometimes programming makes you feel like you are losing your marbles. Over the past few days I have lost many hours of my spare time attempting to compile a branch of GTK+.

I went down the obvious route of installing the development libraries with apt-get and then attempting to compile the source code. That, needless to say did not work at all.

Next up I tried the suggested method of jhbuild, the package available in the Ubuntu repositories. I just ended up with multiple versions of glib all conflicting with one another.

Next up I tried building jhbuild from its source. Building jhbuild was pretty simple, and then I tried to bootstrap and compile GTK+. The pain then came that hidden deep within the logs it wasn't installing the version of Cairo necessary for Pango, so I attempted to find my way around that which meant I ended up in library hell. It was so damn close though as it was only GTK+ left to build and there was a compilation error because something was missing from Glib to do with emblems - so close and yet so far. It seems to you need some libraries installed on your system as well as the ones that are constructed as part of jhbuild.

I persevered with lots of combinations, time and hard work, and still I didn't manage to get it to compile. It's a bit depressing to be defeated by a build system, but it seems to have grown so massive and baroque that it is a large barrier to entry. The thing was I really wanted to mess around with one of the git branches of GTK+.