How long did it take y'all to get your head around the product you work on?

Asking because I've been at my current job for 7 months and I still find myself surprised on a daily basis and feeling like "wow that's basic, how have I not picked that up yet?"

it depends on the project(s) size and complexity of shittiness it has. I grasped what I need to know in 3-4 months w/ a lot of asking b/c nobody explains a thing without it... here is the code, do this and that now...

@We3D I'm trying damnedest to catch on but it's taking quite a toll.

The software is confusing, menus upon menus upon menus. Tons of little per client customizations. It's also apache wicket which is a hassle on its own. Oh and the main guy I need to extract info from not only has a very cryptic way of speaking but also sounds like a dial up connection

There's 1 project I have to maintain - as in keep it on life support, but I have never dived into it. so 8 years and counting 😅

@TheBeardedOne ask him only in chat, even better in an official channel, so he will be 'forced' to be more clear. plus a bonus u don't need to memorize all, u have it in the history ( only need to remember specific keywords to find what u need fast ;] )

@We3D Brilliant suggestions. Thank you

@C0D4 can I ask what it does?

Mine is in the fruit industry, scanning barcodes on pallets and stuff. Whole thing was written long before I could code. The other day we found a bug in an 11 year old file

@TheBeardedOne it can happen to any project, no code is protected from bugs, some of which live in symbiosis with the source ;}

@TheBeardedOne careful! That bug actually makes another feature somehow work. If you fix it, you will run into a phantom bug that only shows itself every third day when the skies are clear.

@TheBeardedOne it's a in-house built erp / crm / e-commerce / you name it this thing had it built in.

It's the most offensive codebase I have ever seen, so I don't do anything for it, there's some automated processes the business still use from it still today, but for the most part it's just running in the background now and we are almost on the 3rd generation of this thing being rebuilt.

One day I'll be able to pull the plug on it..... one day! I'll resign the next day with that life goal checked off.

Maintaining some legacy software. I had 1 week to learn most of it from a Czech person.

I got around it, but after 8y I still see some code who blow my mind.

I only need one question answered - What does the product do ?

After I get the answer I make assumptions that the product must have this or that .. and keep exploring from that point until I am wrong in which case I try to remember how the product gets around the scenario I made up.

Another way you can speed up ur learning is try to take on customer support tickets, which will enable you to dive deeper into the codebase and you will know it's quirks.

About a year ish - to get intimately familiar with ancient legacy

Well, it's been five years... I'll let you know when I figure it out.

These answers are definitely making me feel better