Many of the programs I write need a way to enter and edit a two-dimensional grid of data in the user interface. Such a grid doesn’t need to be a full-fledged spreadsheet, just provide flexible data entry and editing. Alas, there doesn’t seem to be such a thing and I haven’t created one that I’m satisfied with.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about “spare time” projects – programming projects undertaken to learn something new, try something out, see how something works. These are activities undertaken to improve your skills and, maybe, scratch an itch that’s been bothering you. These projects aren’t typically related to work.
In the past few days, Oren Eini (aka Ayende Rahien) wrote a couple of posts expressing the opinion that if you don’t do such projects, he probably doesn’t want to hire you.
It’s pretty common to see discussions about how to determine if a candidate for a programming job has a “passion” for programming and software. One of the usual pieces of advice is to ask about the projects someone does in their “spare time.”