Another tale from the pixel mines

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

    • Another tale from the pixel mines

      A friend of mine told me a hilarious story that I just had to share. He worked at a company a number of years ago as an engineer. One day, the lead engineer checked in a code file with all the comments deleted. This wasn't a small file, it was one of their core classes used to manage actors. My friend walks up to the lead and asks him why he did that; surely he must have a good reason!

      He removed the comments because his IDE colored them yellow, and all the bright text was hurting his eyes.

      I'll let that sink in for a moment.

      The moral of the story? Learn how to use your IDE. ;)

      -Rez
    • The graphics programmer at Super-Ego Games (who was later the Mac programmer at PlayFirst) would do just that. He always wore his matrix-style shades. Aside from the hair and trench coat, he definitely had a Morpheus look going. ;)

      -Rez
    • Other people's IDE color choices always give me headaches! Especially the black background ones.
      Mr.Mike
      Author, Programmer, Brewer, Patriot
    • Originally posted by mrmike
      Other people's IDE color choices always give me headaches! Especially the black background ones.


      Oh man, the first thing I do after installing Visual Studio is change the color scheme to dark-grey/black.

      I was actually getting some bad eye-strain related headaches before doing this. After the change, they have completely gone away!
    • Originally posted by mrmike
      Other people's IDE color choices always give me headaches! Especially the black background ones.


      Dude, really? I can't work without a black background! The constant bright neon-white is WAY more painful.

      I don't even KNOW you anymore, man. ;)

      -Rez
    • Originally posted by Kl1X
      Originally posted by mrmike
      Other people's IDE color choices always give me headaches! Especially the black background ones.


      Oh man, the first thing I do after installing Visual Studio is change the color scheme to dark-grey/black.

      I was actually getting some bad eye-strain related headaches before doing this. After the change, they have completely gone away!


      I do the same thing and also had really bad eye strain. I purchased a pair of those gunnar glasses and the eye strain went POOF!
    • Hah I wonder if this is a regional thing - at Red Fly almost everyone uses a bright background...
      Mr.Mike
      Author, Programmer, Brewer, Patriot
    • I think it's a laziness thing. Here at EA, the people who care change their background color to something dark. The people who don't leave it as the default, which is a bright white background. I'd be interested to see what happened if VS started defaulting to a dark background.

      -Rez
    • Laziness? Bah!

      Xcode I think defaults to a white background too....at least it is white on the Hackintosh I've been dorking with.

      It could also be office environment - at Red Fly the programmers are all by a north window overlooking the State Capitol (yes, I'm bragging), and it lets in a ton of natural light.

      Call me crazy but I think a dark background would be harder to see than a light one.
      Mr.Mike
      Author, Programmer, Brewer, Patriot
    • Originally posted by rickvanprim
      You mean there are people that don't work in bright, naturally lit rooms? That sounds horrible... *shudder*

      James


      Yep. They're called programmers. ;)

      I'm a night owl and prefer dimly lit areas. I tend to game in complete darkness when possible.

      But that's just me.

      -Rez
    • Xcode does default to a white background.
      Not everything Apple does is right :P I use a grey background full black does bother my eyes too. Did you want me to attach my grey theme file of Xcode? You may say yeah, they're right.

      gb
    • Originally posted by rezination
      I'd be interested to see what happened if VS started defaulting to a dark background.

      -Rez


      VS11 has a "dark" option. Its pretty slick. Its dark for just about every file type (which is amazing since most templates you find on the interwebs are only good for the basic C# or C++ files)!
    • Originally posted by rezination
      Originally posted by rickvanprim
      You mean there are people that don't work in bright, naturally lit rooms? That sounds horrible... *shudder*

      James


      Yep. They're called programmers. ;)

      I'm a night owl and prefer dimly lit areas. I tend to game in complete darkness when possible.

      But that's just me.

      -Rez


      I think you might be my long lost brother Rez lol!
      You may call me char 71 97 100 100 97 109.
    • I have always used the white background, and have found the same thing that my eyes get strained after a while. I never got around to changing it but just did and wow, I think I am in love
      PC - Custom Built
      CPU: 3rd Gen. Intel i7 3770 3.4Ghz
      GPU: ATI Radeon HD 7959 3GB
      RAM: 16GB

      Laptop - Alienware M17x
      CPU: 3rd Gen. Intel i7 - Ivy Bridge
      GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M - 2GB GDDR5
      RAM: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 1600mhz
    • Have you guys tried using F.lux? Its a program that filters the color output of your screen. The blue color is supposed to cause the most strain into your eyes and it filters it out or something from what i remembered. Then it makes your screen look yellow and weird. It takes some time to get used to but i've gotten used to it. Disabling F.Lux makes my eyes squint and made me realize how unnecessarily bright my computer screen was.

      stereopsis.com/flux/

      The post was edited 1 time, last by BrentChua ().

    • I've heard of this, yes. There are also shades you can wear that do something similar (we sell them at the EA store). I've never tried it but maybe I should.

      -Rez
    • I think evolution is the solution! In high school I went through a phase for probably 6 months where I got horrible eye strain for overusing computer monitors. Then it went away and never came back. I recommend this solution to everyone :P

      Or maybe that's around the time I started drinking, and my body realized its headaches were better spent discouraging that activity instead ;)

      James