Writer's block

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

markw at mohawksoft.com wrote:
> To anyone who says that writing software is nothing like writing a book
> has never experienced programming writer's block.
> 
> I think it comes from that point where is feels like the project has gone
> on longer than it should or has become so uninteresting that your mind
> seeks any destraction it can in order to avoid actually thinking of the
> problems involved.
> 
> The worst part is when you have things you want to get too, but you need
> to complete the task at hand in order to move on. But you can't move on
> because your brain sits quietly sucking it's thumb, refusing to cooperate
> on any level, or worse yet like a small child screaming "no no no" in a
> quiet restaurant to the chagrin of it's parents.
> 
> Just thought I'd share that with you. Writing software is hard. It's like
> writing books that need to function.


This is one of the reasons agile/extreme programming relies on pair 
programming.  Redundant wetware.

Another technique that may or may not be applicable to your problem is to 
use a mock object: an object you code with the same interface as the real 
object, but it sends fixed, predicable output and has no acutal processing 
or business logic in it.  It's usually used to let you test other objects 
that depend in the one being mocked, but it can also be used to put off 
writing the class being mocked.