Working as a coder

I am not a developer, nor a coder, actually I know almost nothing about coding. I would love to know, but I just never had the time to learn. When I was young I started with some programs in C++ and Basic to solve math problems, just for fun.

Anyway, I love some of the tools that coders use, Git is one of them, and for some reason I like to do things the hard way. ¹_. So I use sometimes LaTeX to write small documents, and create Git branches where maybe there is no need to do it.

But, there are times when you really can use these tools to be more productive, and get better results. When this time arrive, you realize that all the time you used learning those tools was not a waste of time.

This week, I needed to write a marketing document with all products and services my company has to offer. I decided to use LaTeX to create that marketing material, and of course I started working on a git repository.

The whole idea was to keep track of the changes, on a git repository, just in case in some of my editing sessions I might mess everything up. If that the case I may only had to roll back to previous version of the work, and not all the job would be lost.

Also working with LaTeX instead of just Libre Office or Microsoft Word, will assure me to get better results for this important document. I am the only one at my office with some LaTeX skills, therefore I am the only one capable to work on this document, but if that were not the case then git might be more useful. Imagine two or three co-workers working on different sections of the document, using different branches (or not) and merging the results at the end to come up with a final document.

Well, I know, I am not going to be a coder in this life, but that does not exclude me from using their tools to do my daily job. I can still dream I am one of those geeks, writing some sub-routing for Linux. Meanwhile tools like git and LaTeX makes me a little more productive, or I like to think that way. (I had to work this weekend, to finish the document on time, maybe doing it using Microsoft Word, would have taken me less time, but I am happier this way.

¹ “You know that we, so called geeks like to create sub-routines, and automatization programs, that usually take more time than actually executing task.”