'Reverse' Engineering ?

A central repository with version control and file comparison tools, A state-of-the-art IDE to work in, a near-to-perfect modular code structure and, above them all, a wonderful team ! That was my first project in TCS. Little wonder that I passionately rejected any ideas of quitting the 'govt. company' for a relatively lucrative offer.

But good things did more harm than good to me. For one thing, it did not equip me to deal with all kinds of ppl.... ok do hell with diplomacy... with ppl who r not so competitive (arrogance, huh !? :P naah, jst being honestly forthcoming :P)... For another, I never realized the true worth of the IDE, nor the modularity that the first project offered. Want to add a new element on the web-site ! Whoops! Its done... Want to change this, remove that... Whoops whoops ! Its done again !! It was all so easy on my mind, that I became a lazy chum.. finding enough time to write a few stupid blogs even ! As if that wasn't enough, my stupid project was written so well that it hardly needed any maintenance - all of us were thrown out of work (And then it struck me - I kicked myself out of work !!!)

My current project rocks ! For one thing, it carries the legacy and antiquity of processes that stone-age software developers must have overthrown at the very first experience with them !!! I am no more lazy - I work 10 hours to accomplish what I would have accomplished in 1 hour in my first project! I get the freedom to 'enjoy' keeping track of versions of files myself due to lack of a version control software. I now have stories to tell to my friends which I never had before - each one could contest for 'height of stupidity in IT projects these days' award. To top it all, the system still behaves in ways unfathomable to my lesser mind ! Wow ! Seems like the system has a mind of its own, as it chooses to remain unpredictable, mimicking humans, hoping to keep the 'zing' of our system-developer relationship 'warm' and 'cozy' just as in case of humans ;-)

It really is worth noting that while the software engineers of the yesteryear experienced something like my second project first and then went on to make our lives easier, I seem to be moving in exactly the opposite direction !!! By that logic, next project would be like............ naaahhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii :P :P :P ;-)

Voilaaaaaa !!!! As I write this post, I came to know of my NITIE call convert ! - My first convert of the year... but hopefully not the last ;-)