Ladies and coding...

This is for anyone who has a girlfriend, wife etc.

Does your partner respect or even further motivate you to code or being a pain in the back (like mine does) when it comes to coding?

Hmmm, my wife is usually studying for her degree so no probs there! Besides, coding is a damn sight cheaper than some other hobbies.... like going to the pub.

She loves me sitting by the PC so she can do her scrapping with a good conscience :o)

When I was writing games it was "I'm a computer widow!". Now I'm writing business software it's "Work harder!". :P

To be fair, coding anything of quality takes so much time/effort/energy - and that all has to come from somewhere. So relationships do tend to suffer to some extent - especially if your other half isn't into computers at all. So all credit to the wives/partners/girlfriends who stick by us in spite of the eternal "Just few more minutes..." distractedly arising from behind the monitor screen.

Not sure about women, but my dog has ignored me ever since I stopped feeding him 3 months ago when I started playing Company of Heroes, Opposing Fronts - he now just lies there all day ignoring me - he's been keeping up the same act for about 20 weeks.

Not that I code much anymore, but my wife has her own laptop..
This means that she works on her own stuff / hobbies, so she doesn't mind if I code or whatever.. :p

My woman motivates and supports me. I couldn't have it any better.

Are there any female coders? Nowadays you get female physists and doctors and even husbands, but you don't get many female programmers. Why not??

In my longest relationship my better half produced all the 2D graphics and clothes for my characters. -She'd just been looking for a good excuse to do more graphics.
(Damn! So that's why she loved me - until the product was finished. (:o)

My experience working in Physics was that there are very few women. Some, but not many. Same in programming. Female husbands?!

Hm well I've done some physics and there's some females on the course.. not many but some, so maybe in the future ;)

But for computing, most of the ones who are there (not many) don't want to be...

my wife is in med school, so she does not have much time, but she is quite supportive of the time I put into it.

Mine has a whine now and again, still, I work on a longest in, last one out basis... Programming 20 years, Laura 4 1/2 years!

lol, and she knows this! :)

well we go out clubbing, shopping, walking and day trips all the time so the few hours that i do program or even watch football and boxing she doesn't care. Plus i give her money, that normally works :-)

ps when i am the pc though, she always asks me, "are you writing babble again?"

My gf sometimes feels neglected when I'm coding intensely, but she understands that coding is my thing. She isn't much interested in my projects apart from occational peeks, but is very supportive.

BTW, she used to be a professional coder, but after a burn out and one crappy employer she decided to do something completely different. She doesn't code anymore.

LOL @ puki,

my girlfriend plays on her PC quite a lot, and she tends to play RPG's, so long hours on the computer are fine. She even plays casual games, so I can show her prototype games I'm working on and get some feedback from her. Although she does keep asking me to write a new Sims game, and not quite believing me when I say it'd take too long.

Haven't been dating in a while. Last one didn't care one way or another since I wasn't coding all day. Generally, I don't think many significant others, male or female, would care unless you were coding so often that your health declined (unless they're into that 'BBW' thing.. those people scare the crap out of me). If that were the case, then I think you'd have more serious issues than whether or not she respects your insanity.

My ex hated it, but my current girlfriend likes the stuff I create and plays most of the games I like too. So don't have to leave the house in order to play a LAN game :-)

@Digital: that sounds like my girlfriend, except she plays the Sims too, which I hate.

ROFL!!! My girlfriend has Sims too with loads of updates. But she doesn't play it that much anymore, mostly it's Rappelz and TrackMania United Forever now for her. These games I play a lot myself.

My girlfriend beats your girlfriend! She has all the Sims 1 updates, and Sims 2 packs, and even castaway stories. she goes for the PS2 versions 2, so we have castaway stories on the PS along with Sims 2, and Sims 2 pets. It really annoying cause only plays them for a few days then never touches them again. It must have cost her a small fortune to buy them all over the years. She's a prime example of how EA get so rich releasing minor updates on games. "Look! Sims GAP Kids pack, only £9.99 for 50 eatra clothing items!"

Trying to keep this thread still on topic.

Yes my girlfriend is fine with me coding while she's home, she's normally sat playing games anyway. She plays a lot of games off BigFish so I get to know what she likes, and her preferences normally mirror the chart anyway. but she's got no interest at all in coding.

Mine is supportive now I'm making money...before she see-sawed from supportive on good days (because it was my dream) to not so supportive on bad days.

I read this funny thing on Indiegamer once where someone said now he is doing so well he is allowed to take his laptop to family functions etc and no one complains, he said "Now, that's 'arriving'!" :-D

Grey: So are you actually making a descent wage as an indie developer now then? And by that, I mean comparable to a normal job? If so, then big time congrats to you mate, it's been a long time coming and you deserve it.

How I envy those guys who are playing games over LAN with their girlfriends.

My girlfriend hates Sims too. I tried to play a couple of arcade fighting games with her over MAME, even though I got beaten intentionally a few times, she got mad like "I can't play it well damn!"

andy_mc: Thanks. Yes I am. I would say quite a lot more than a "normal" job, but about right for an experienced senior developer. (which is what I used to get paid when I made business software). Don't know how long before the bubble will burst, but it's good now and I aim to ride it and adapt with time as the market changes.

I can't even beat my girlfriend on mario kart wii and i've played and completed all versions on n64 and GC.
Either im getting worse (old age) or she is really good, hang on, maybe it's just that i get suckered by powerups all the time :-(

My girlfriend is amazingly supportive and encouraging. Which is a lot to ask, considering I've been working on this game now for close to two years, spent quite a bit of money on it, and not earned a penny back from it yet.

My wife is supportive most of the time. I just stand my ground when I need to get some work done, and it works out fine.

I learned a long time ago that there needs to be a balance. As long as you spend quality time with your spouse you will be fine. And I don't take a laptop on vacation, which goes a long way.

It's also good to encourage hobbies for them, so they have things to do and don't get bored.

My girlfriend has got really into exercising this year which is a great hobby for her to do on her own.

My girlfriend has been very supportive and interested. I've started to teach her programing upon her request.

My girlfriend is pretty supportive, apart from tugging at your top when she wants attention. Oh, the time i said i paid £100 for a modeller to model and animate a character for me. I'll never forget that look :o)

She's supportive if she thinks I will make money out of it.

And that's the lie i live on ;o)

I'm making my money from coding. My ex motivated me a lot to code (work or not) and was proud of me, while she had to spend time doing her thing too and I was proud of her. My girlfriend before that hated me coding and made it hard for me. Neither of them played videogames or used comptuers very much, it just depends on their attitude.