what are some of the problems that are faced by programmers?

Answer 1

The main problem that programmers face is getting what a user actually wants out of them. This can be done with lots of analysis and questioning the user, gathering examples of what they want. The best way to cover yourself is to document what it is that they have asked for, so that when they say "I actually meant I wanted the screen to be red, even though I might have said blue", you can reffer them to their original request.

Secondly programmers are normally very keen to get on and write the code and get the system finished. The problem is that it's so fresh in their mind that they decide not to document what they've done at all, so when it comes to upgrading the system or handing it over to someone else, it's very difficult.

The last problem is limitataions of programming languages, but that's not too bad a problem as generally users imaginations are more limited so it's not an issue or their imaginations are so far in the future Star Trek style that you can just shrug off the request with a chuckle!

Answer 2

Well I could write a whole book on it, and lots of people have. I think the major ones that come to mind are ridiculous deadlines and schedules, knowing what your users REALLY want, communicating with other programmers (not documenting things well, not sharing information, not commenting code enough), keeping multiple versions of code organized without losing changes, trying to figure out what somebody's code REALLY does.

Answer 3

You could dedicate your lifetime to that question and still never finish your answer.....

The biggest problem I face as a programmer is the challenge of programming... If it wasn't a problem then it wouldn't need solving!!!

Rawlyn.