I haven’t used it on a project for money, but I have some tests in shunit2 and that alone encourages me to extract code to functions.

Moreover, once you’re accustomed to thinking in these terms, it becomes safer to start with a boolean, because the refactoring path is clear: replace boolean with 2-value enumeration, then expand from there.

Post a topic such as this in a discussion forum, then monitor the discussions that follow.

That is hard. If the manager is likely to side with her, then that limits your options considerably. In that case, if you truly need this job, then put your head down, persist, and let this delightful woman be wrong.

“Sure.” And then don’t do it. Over and over.

I’m sorry that you’re dealing with this. It’s not you; it’s them. I suspect you’re wonderful and I’m sorry that your employer doesn’t recognize that.

Peace.

If she can report you for being 5 minutes late, what stops you from reporting her when she leaves early? I’m not criticizing you, but rather genuinely asking what’s in the way.

If “Go fuck yourself” is not your style or otherwise inadvisable, then another option is to start with “You will not call me that. You will call me by my name. Thank you.” Say this as calmly and evenly as you can. Keep saying it. Don’t let her rattle you into straying from this.

If she insists, then pick a name to call her and insist on it no matter how much she objects. I doubt I need to suggest such a name, but rather I trust you to engage your creativity.

Even so, I don’t have any objection to “go fuck yourself” if you think that wouldn’t put your job in jeopardy.

Good luck. Peace.

• Rough Translation
• P3 Dystopia
• Madigan’s Pubcast
• Omnibus

P3 Dystopia 👍

I am definitely keeping an eye on my electricity bill right now, since I have Unmanic running full speed and it’s about 3 weeks into a 4-month job that might only save 1 TB.

Careful! I’m not trying to be Ticketmaster!

If you are dissatisfied with the free thing I gave you, then I am happy to send you a refund of your purchase price. 🤷‍♂️

That’s my preferred strategy.

UPDATE: Before any angry cards and letters, let me clarify. When I reply this way, I learn a lot about the person I’m talking to, including whether they are prepared to have a reasonable conversation about this complex matter. The response I’m hoping for is “Well played.”, because that tells me that they recognize how ridiculous we are both being. I can work with them.

If they are merely having a tough time and needed to vent, then they’ll notice that and we can move forward.

If they are truly that entitled, then I don’t mind what happens next, because they would probably never have accepted any help I could offer them, anyway.

I have just recently chosen to revive it. I’m not really sure why. I presume it’s a matter of arbitrary fashion either way.

Collect what you’re owed as soon as you can. Pay what you owe as late as you can.

UPDATE: “Every accusation is a projection” is more universal than some of you would like to admit.

By that part, I was referring to the people establishing the Julian Calendar, not the Gregorian. I’ve edited my comment to clarify that.

Don’t assume you know what is going through their mind, if you want to neutral and polite.

“I believe I’m fulfilling the duties of the job. What am I failing to get done?”

Focus on the requirements of the job and the fact that you’re meeting them.

It wouldn’t surprise me. I’m not sure it could possibly matter to us either way. Presumably we couldn’t break out of the simulation even if we knew about it conclusively. It would be interesting, but practically irrelevant.

Yes.

Years exist. We decide what to call them. You and I agree to call this year 2024, but that’s only an agreement. Some people call this year 5784.

We call the system we use “The Gregorian Calendar”, because of a Pope named Gregory. That system is mostly the same as “The Julian Calendar”, with some important changes to make the calendar match the changing of the seasons better. In the Julian calendar, they decided to count the years starting from when they thought Jesus was born. They chose his birth year to be “The first year of our Lord”. We call that “year 1” for short.

The people who created that system (the Julian Calendar) didn’t understand 0. The year before “The first year of our Lord” was called “The first year before the birth of Christ”. We now call these “AD 1” (“anno domini”, because Latin) and “1 BC” (“before Christ”). Since they didn’t understand 0, they didn’t call any year “0”. We have kept the tradition, because reasons.

Some other systems have relabeled the year before “AD 1” as year 0, but that’s not how the Gregorian Calendar works, and that’s the calendar that you and I have been taught to use.

Computers don’t directly understand the code that humans write. Humans find it extremely difficult to directly write the code that computers understand.

Compiling is how we convert the code that humans write into the code that computers can run. (It’s more complicated than that, but that explanation is probably enough for now.)

Different computers understand different flavors of computer code. Each kind of computer can compile the same human code, but they produce the flavor of computer code specific to that kind of computer. That’s why you sometimes need to compile the human code on your computer: it’s easier for your computer to know how to compile human code than for a human to know how to compile human code for every kind of computer that exists now and might exist in the future. There are some common kinds of computer and many projects pre-compile human code so that you don’t have to, but that’s not always easy. Also, some people insist on compiling the code themself, rather than trust someone else to correctly compile the code for their computer.

As for how to compile, that can be complicated. When you find the human code (“source code”) for a software project, the README often gives you instructions for how to compile that project’s code. Many of the instructions look familiar, because they are similar between projects, but the detail can vary a lot from project to project. Moreover, different human programming languages have very different instructions for how to compile their flavor of human code into computer code.

I don’t have any useful advice on your specific question. I’m replying to say only two things.

You’re probably going to struggle with this and you might feel like you’re doing it wrong because you can’t figure it out easily enough. Let it feel weird. Let it take as long as it takes. Let it be a struggle. Don’t make it worse by telling yourself a story like there’s something wrong with you because you’re struggling to figure it out.

And hug.

Peace.