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What could you code in four hours?

3 points by basicxman ↗ HN
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?

Let's say these four hours include planning time, and any test cases/docs that need to be created. I'm talking production work.

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 :)

3 comments

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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.

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.

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