r/programmer

I'm on back to back team calls from noon to midnight. Every app has different shortcuts. I never remember which is which under pressure so I grab the mouse, fumble around, and inevitably unmute at the wrong moment. I have lost count the number of times I have felt dumb because of this one stupid thing.

I've looked into macro pads but they all seem built for streamers. Overkill for what I actually need.

Just want one physical button that mutes me regardless of whether I am on the call window or now. Does this exist or am I going to have to duct tape something together.

im still a student so maybe im just overcomplicating things too early lol but lately ive been getting more annoyed w github actions the bigger my projects get. at first it was fine for basic CI and deployments but after adding more tests/workflows i started running into random queue delays, flaky runner stuff, weird marketplace actions breaking, all the usual things people complain about

the annoying part is i dont even know if this is a “real” problem yet or just me going too deep into tooling too early. some people around me are basically like “dude ur still a student just push code and stop caring about infra” which honestly might be valid lol. but ive still been experimenting w different setups lately because i wanted to understand the ecosystem better before internships/jobs. tried some self hosted runner setups, depot for a bit, and recently started messing around w tenki for some workflows just to compare how different approaches feel in practice

ig pretty much if whether i should stick with it or ishould switch up. is this just a skill issue for the most part?

swear every project i touch somehow turns into a CI/debugging session now lol. started out simple enough because everyone says “just use github actions” and at first it actually felt pretty cool seeing tests/deployments automate themselves

then u add more stuff and suddenly ur fighting flaky runners, weird marketplace actions, permissions problems, random queues, broken caches, all while trying to finish assignments on time. feels like i accidentally picked up a second course called “maintaining pipelines nobody understands”

been trying random alternatives lately mostly because i got tired of spending entire nights debugging workflow nonsense instead of coding. self hosted runners for a bit, depot, tenki, random smaller CI tools people casually mention in reddit threads. honestly half the time im not even looking for “better,” just something that feels less glued together

starting to understand why older devs always say tooling complexity creeps up slowly lol

I've been using Claude Opus 4.7 with max thinking enabled and it still ignores clear instructions sometimes. Even after telling it “never do this without asking,” it does it anyway, then admits it ignored the instruction when asked about it. After years of this, it’s hard to fully trust the output.

Guys I code, physics based simulations, the type where it has a lot of math and physics and dynamics. It could be used for aerospace or in entertainment (gaming) sectors. I want to do freelancing but I don't know how to or where to start. I have multiple projects done, some for companies. Is this a good idea? or does anyone have any recommendations?

I am a master's student researching how productivity is understood and measured in software engineering, more specifically the relationship between individual and team productivity.

If you are a Developer or Manager in Software Development context, I would be grateful if you could take 10 minutes to complete this survey!

All responses are anonymous and will be used exclusively for my master's thesis.

Thank you for your time and insights!

CeracChat is a lightweight real-time chat app I’ve been building using JavaScript, firebase and gitHub.

I wanted something fast, minimal, and straightforward instead of the usual bloated messaging apps that consume enough RAM to simulate a small nuclear reactor core meltdown.

Some of the features:

-Real-time chat

-Clean interface

-Lightweight frontend

Still a work in progress, but I’d like to hear what people think.

GitHub/Demo: [Cerac Chat ]

Hi all. I've been in software development since 1996. I'm getting older and have some medical issues that are keeping me from performing the way I used to be able to. I'm looking to make a pivot to something less stressful and with less coding, but being able to use my previous skills to obtain a new job. It was suggested to me to go into QA Automation, but I don't know where to start. I don't have any experience in the area. I'm seeing Selenium, Python, Java, Javascript, etc. I don't have much experience with these. Where do I start, or are there any other jobs that might be good for me. Any suggestions are highly appreciated. Thanks.

I’ve been working on a project for months along with one of my batchmates. In the beginning, when the project was small, everything was going smoothly. But later, without properly understanding Git, I started creating too many branches for every single feature.

Ideally, the workflow should have been:

• Keep a stable working version in the main branch.
• Create separate branches only for bug fixes or new features.

But for some reason, I even started adding fundamental/core changes in separate branches. Because of that, I ended up with 4 local branches and 4 remote branches.

Now the real problem started:
For the last 1.5 months, I’ve been working on a critical part of the project, but I completely forgot to push it to Git. Today, when I finally sat down to push the changes, I realized I don’t even remember which branch this feature belongs to.

So I thought of merging all the branches into main. But after trying that, I started getting errors. I took help from ChatGPT, Google, and YouTube, but instead of fixing things, everything became even more complicated.

At this point, I’m completely stuck. Please help me out. I’ll keep editing this post as people ask for more information in the comments

There's a pattern I've seen where a project appears completely done on my own machine, but the second somebody else tries to run it, a whole new set of problems crops up.

Missing dependencies, environmental differences, version issues, permissions, random setup problems – stuff that never came up during development somehow becomes the main challenge.

At this point it really feels like making software run reliably for other people is a different skill than the writing of the code itself.

I'm interested in seeing how other developers on here handle this part of programming.

Hi all,

I am 38 years old (I know it’s too much) and I am a UI Designer. I am very much interested in learning something backend other than creating UI and I don’t have any coding experience. Need everyone’s honest reply and help. I am looking to change career in 5 or 6 months into any large application building companies. Recently frontend are being build easily with AI that’s why interested in backend. How can I move on without being labelled as a fresher?

Just deployed my first real web app. No idea what to do next. What did you do?

I've been building for a few months and finally pushed my project live yesterday. It's an AI tool for developers — took way longer than expected and I'm honestly a bit lost now that it's actually out there.

I always assumed "going live" was the hard part. Turns out it might be the easy part.

For those of you who've launched something before — what did you actually do in the first week after deployment?

Did you:

- Go straight for a custom domain?

- Start posting on social media?

- Send it to friends first?

- Post on Product Hunt?

- Something else entirely?

I'm specifically confused about the order of things. Like should I get a domain before trying to get users? Or does it not matter at launch?

Also — did you get your first users from posting online or from people you personally knew? I'm curious whether strangers actually try new tools or if it's always word of mouth at the start.

Not looking for a perfect answer, just what actually worked for you vs what you thought would work.

I studied BCA privately. No campus, no seniors, no guidance. I had to figure out everything alone.

I'm building an AI assistant that:

• Gives you a week-by-week roadmap based on your semester
• Automatically sends relevant hackathons and internships
• Tells you exactly what to focus on each week

It works on WhatsApp — no app needed.

Would you have used this in college? What would make it actually useful for you?

Genuinely validating — not selling anything.

hello humans!! i hope everyone is having a great day :)

i’m just going to jump right into it!!
i would like to learn how to code. i currently know absolutely nothing about coding so i have no idea where or how to start. does anyone have an advice for me? what do you think would be the best way for me to go about this?? should i maybe take a short course or is there other ways im able to learn???? ive watched a couple of youtube video to help me understand a bit better but most of them are using AI and i would like to learn without AI but people around me are saying that that’s going to be impossible and im making it harder for myself.

i think my end goal for learning coding would be to potentially make an app down the line but (again) people around me are saying that i’m setting my hopes too high.

what do you guys think?? i would really appreciate any advice or ideas from you guys.
thank you :) <3

I am a 16 year old boy who really likes technology and I want to l learn more about it. Where could I start learn and how? Is there any thing I need for it and where is the best place to start as a noobie.

I’m currently in 6th semester CS and mostly work around n8n automations, APIs, AI workflows, integrations, etc. They reached out to me after reviewing my portfolio and I went through intro + technical interview rounds.

The internship is around 2.5 months, 4 hours/day, 5 days/week. Small team (basically founder + manager). They want me to learn enterprise integration tools and work on automation workflows.

The thing confusing me is that it’s unpaid, but at the same time it seems like genuine learning exposure instead of random busy work. They mentioned mentorship and real workflow exposure.

Part of me feels it could accelerate my career early on, especially since I’m trying to grow in AI automation/integrations. Another part of me feels unsure about spending 2.5 months unpaid while already having freelance/project experience.

Would you take this kind of opportunity at this stage or keep focusing on finding paid work instead?

I want to learn coding because I find it fascinating and I’m not doing anything lol so why not, at the same time idk if I’m smart enough. One time I saw someone say learning coding is like learning a new language and I thought hey I speak 2 languages, if I did that I surely can learn coding. I was researching courses and they are veeeery expensive and I just can’t afford it. I also work 2 jobs as a server and I can barely pay my bills, so if coding is something that in the future will bring more income I’d be very willing to learn.

Any tips on how to learn? Any free courses out there?

Another thing I’m afraid of is the way technology is advancing. Do I have no future in the software engineering world??

I am done with UX/UI, and I have decided to give an opportunity to job dev. I know the basics html, css, react, php, sql.. git. But im bit a pro.. planning on starting a specialized master? But is this all worth it with AI?

Hello everyone, I really need advice from professional programmers. I’m still a beginner, and while I understand the logic and structure of projects, I rely a lot on AI to generate code and explain things to me. I also have a hard time remembering syntax and coding details, so using AI feels faster and easier.

Lately, I feel too dependent on it and worry that I’m not improving as a programmer. How can I start learning and coding more independently without relying too much on AI?