

What could you code in four hours? - basicxman

If you were allotted four hours to program anything you wanted in any language and environment, how much could you accomplish? What tips would you give to be productive?<p>Let's say these four hours include planning time, and any test cases/docs that need to be created. I'm talking production work.<p>I've heard about people coding thousands of lines of code in a few hours, how would _you_ accomplish this feat?  Creative ideas and mind hacks welcomed :)
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epnk
I would probably go the highest-level route I could, using tools that I am
familiar with (and won't get caught in nasty workarounds due to my
unfamiliarity with the platform).

In my case right now, I'd probably put together a web mashup using a container
of useful platforms--Like Apache ServiceMix using Camel, ActiveMQ, CXF, etc.
to grab services, munge them, and output something useful.

Then again, going super low-level might be fun too. Go to the depths of the OS
or a compiler and fix an annoying persistent issue.

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michaelhart
I would think the most important thing to do first is to stop and think about
the logic of the code. Plan a small and simple roadmap in your mind, or on
paper if your mental memory is low.

This will save you a lot of the try-and-fail attempts, and even better, before
you write a single line of code, you have a general idea of what it is that
you're doing and how it is that you're going to be doing it.

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mathgladiator
I'd write a programming language that targets OCaml.

