Weird coding phase I'm going through [closed]

Question

Lately, I've been going through a pretty weird phase. I feel the need to write/rewrite all the tools I use ( text editors,IDE's,libraries/modules ) and I don't know why .
Even though this can be seen as a good thing ( because I learn alot of things in the process , and my software design skills are improving constantly ) , the weirdest part is that I throw away all the code after I'm done, so I kinda work in vain. I'm never satisfied with the code I write. Have you been experimenting this too? How did you get over it?

Answer 1

It sounds like you're driven by one of a couple different possible "syndromes" (or maybe more than one).

1. Not invented here syndrome (NIHS). This is where nobody's code is good enough, or does things in the way you want them done. So you think you can do it better.
2. How Does It Work? Syndrome (HDIWS). This where you are fascinated by a program and want to understand how it works, so you basically get down to writing it yourself.
3. Biting off more than you can chew syndrome (BOMTYCCS). This is where you think "That can't be too hard to do, so i'll just write it myself then I know what it's doing". Then, you get partway done with it, enough to make it kind of work, and you realize that your code sucks and that you made too many compromises to get it done quickly, so you throw it away.
4. Too cheap to buy it so you figure you can build it cheaper syndrome (TCTBISYFYCBICS). The name speaks for itself. The problem is that you get partway done, then you realize you've fallin into #3 above and think your time is worth more than whatever it is.

I have suffered from all of these, and more.. (Like the classic "Need to create an acroynm for everything syndrome (NTCAAFES)" ;)

Answer 2

I do this all the time (well, except for the throwing away part). Personally, I started to do this early in my programming learning (when I was a student); it got the point where I would examine the Java core source code and if I didn't like it, I would make my own/extend it. It got to the point where the running class joke was that I was going to reinvent Java.

Personally, I never got over it... Instead I found new ways to use the to my benefit. For example, rather than simply reinventing things, I found that there were things that I wanted that were/are not available anywhere else, so I would make them for myself. My first such project was a chat program. Sure many existed, but this was the only one my teacher didn't know about (hehe). Sure learned a lot about networking protocols through it, but once it was "done", my first action was to send it to all my buddies and we would chat while the teacher was lecturing... Soon enough he found out about it and has since then forced all his students to turn their monitors off while he is talking, but it was fun while it lasted.

Since then, I have been continuing to come up with my own projects that are useful to me, have at least one aspect that I will need to learn along the way, and one or more aspects of there not being a current program that solves the problem for me for free.

So in all, I recommend that rather than trying to reinvent the IDE and then throwing your code away, try to find some project or problem that you would like to solve on your own and use again. I believe that dogfooding (using your own programs) is the best any programmer can hope to achieve.