How 1C programmers rest

I recently returned from vacation and thought – I need to tell you a little about how we, 1C programmers, relax. Smells kind of dumb, doesn’t it?

There is a feeling that now there will be pictures with barbecue, parachute or dolphins? A story about a hike, a fire and songs with a guitar? Liters of drunk booze and kilometers of TV shows watched?

No, it’s much more complicated. 1C programmers rest their soul and body when they program.

I realized this effect recently, watching the work of programmers from my team. As you have probably heard many times, 1C programmers are engaged in absolutely all sorts of game. Those that are generalists, not developers.

And not a day will pass without having to talk to a user who not only does not understand what he wants, but does not even know that something happened to him. Less often, but harder – to argue and swear with some boss from the client’s camp (often – with a director or owner). It’s great or terrible – as you’re lucky – to take a shit with factory programmers or sysadmins.

A lot of time is spent tinkering with “mother’s” code – the creations of 1C developers. Here is the search for errors, and the explanation of the mysterious behavior, and reverse engineering, be it wrong – drawing up a picture of the world for yourself and the user not according to the documentation, but according to the code. A separate song is to look for “why it stopped working” after the release of a new release. In the flagship product 1C ERP, this is a regular holiday – a kind of “yellow Friday”.

Well, as a cherry on the cake – a game with the conditional name “Puzzle of Uncertainties”. This is when no one knows how it should be and whether it is right now. The state comes up with a change in the methodology, users do not understand it, 1C somehow implemented it, there is no documentation – only code. We poked something and we look from all possible sides – does it look like the truth or not?

Well, so, on the little things. The server has crashed. The cash register or scanner has fallen off. It slows down terribly. Integration lay down.

And then all of a sudden – a vacation! Not on the beach with a cocktail, no! Programming challenge! You just need to write the code – well, with everything that comes with it, like metadata, tables, architecture, testing, interface, etc. Only programming and nothing else!

The face of the 1C programmer at this moment lights up with such a wide smile that the Cheshire cat will envy. If the task is long – for several days, for example – you can safely put on shorts and a T-shirt, stock up on chips or cookies, prepare a playlist, adjust the chair and fall into complete bliss.

Any difficulties that arise in programming are only encouraging. Well, like on a real vacation – which restaurant to go to, where pizza is served here, which cocktail is tastier and where to swim – in the sea or in the pool. Well, it’s not for me or for you to explain how nice it is to program.

Any vacation ends someday, and dreary gray everyday life returns. The 1C programmer submits the task and returns to “work”. Again, users, debugging, errors, servers, and … Languid waiting for the next programming task.

Not so many of them remained in the 1C environment, alas. Especially after the division of labor, when we got clean developers. These are the guys who, roughly speaking, bought an apartment by the sea.

True, programmers do not say that developers are envious. If you live on vacation, where do you rest?