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Just how meaningful are these "reputation points" that make this guy number one? If Visual Basic was the language with the most number of beginners and program

Just how meaningful are these "reputation points" that make this guy number one? If Visual Basic was the language with the most number of beginners and programmers, and I had the best answers to Visual Basic questions, I could be Chuck Norris instead. But I don't find Visual Basic challenging or interesting. Neither C# or Java for that matter.

coldtea 11y ago
>If Visual Basic was the language with the most number of beginners and programmers, and I had the best answers to Visual Basic questions, I could be Chuck Norris instead. But I don't find Visual Basic challenging or interesting. Neither C# or Java for that matter. That's neither here nor there. He does, and he got to be Chuck Norris. Besides, who could have been the Chuck Norris of Haskell or Idris or whatever rocks your boat. Have you answered the most questions in your preferred language?
jonskeet 11y ago
They're not meaningful at all. Hopefully relatively few people really think I'm one of the "top 15 living programmers" or anything like that. I'm good enough to make a living, and good enough to help people on SO. One of the nice things about programming is that what you find interesting, I might not and vice versa - hopefully there will always be enough people who find a variety of topics interesting to hope those who have problems in those topics. But yes, considering rep as a proxy metric for programming awesomeness would be a mistake IMO.
- flashm 11y ago
  Your answers have helped me out many a time on stack overflow. I live in Reading, and would love to get you a beer sometime. Wonder how many other HN readers are in Berkshire
- infodroid 11y ago
  In case it needs stating, your contributions to the programming community are simply remarkable. And it is only right that your efforts should be better appreciated by the tech community and wider society. But there are numerous unsung heroes who, for whatever reason, do not get the recognition they deserve. Like those on Stack Overflow who are investing the same amount of time and effort as some of the top rep contributors, but in areas that are not as reputationally rewarding. But there is also a large group that are not posting on Stack Overflow, who are more likely to be working somewhere across the thousands of forums, git repos and mailing lists that developers inhabit. Out of the limelight, and with no reputation points to show for it.
- mark-r 11y ago
  You're right, rep is not a proxy for programming awesomeness. But it is a proxy for how helpful you've been to the rest of the programming world, and I think that's something worthy too. I've only been 1/5 as helpful as you, and I'm quite proud of it.
kayoone 11y ago
Does it matter ? It is not about who is the best in the world, just who is popular. He knows his stuff and has helped thousands of people with mindblowing accuracy and consistency for almost a decade, which in my book is as valuable as a genius programmer writing great software. Besides, he works for Google, so he is probably still better than >98% of programmers. Super complex software has been written in C# and Java, not sure why you are trying to say that it is not challenging.
ZenoArrow 11y ago
What constitutes good code? I would say it's a combination of these five factors (I'll provide definitions if you want them): Clear, concise, correct, robust, efficient. The strengths and weaknesses of various languages boils down to how easy or hard it is to meet those factors + how good the tooling, library ecosystem and learning resources are. Meeting those five factors with a language like Visual Basic is harder than a language such as Python or F#. Coders who write good code in VB deserve respect. Your view on 'challenging' is too limited. If a language is easy to pick up but hard to master is it challenging or not? The goal should be good code, regardless of the language.

coldtea 11y ago

>If Visual Basic was the language with the most number of beginners and programmers, and I had the best answers to Visual Basic questions, I could be Chuck Norris instead. But I don't find Visual Basic challenging or interesting. Neither C# or Java for that matter. That's neither here nor there. He does, and he got to be Chuck Norris. Besides, who could have been the Chuck Norris of Haskell or Idris or whatever rocks your boat. Have you answered the most questions in your preferred language?

jonskeet 11y ago

They're not meaningful at all. Hopefully relatively few people really think I'm one of the "top 15 living programmers" or anything like that. I'm good enough to make a living, and good enough to help people on SO. One of the nice things about programming is that what you find interesting, I might not and vice versa - hopefully there will always be enough people who find a variety of topics interesting to hope those who have problems in those topics. But yes, considering rep as a proxy metric for programming awesomeness would be a mistake IMO.

flashm 11y ago
Your answers have helped me out many a time on stack overflow. I live in Reading, and would love to get you a beer sometime. Wonder how many other HN readers are in Berkshire
infodroid 11y ago
In case it needs stating, your contributions to the programming community are simply remarkable. And it is only right that your efforts should be better appreciated by the tech community and wider society. But there are numerous unsung heroes who, for whatever reason, do not get the recognition they deserve. Like those on Stack Overflow who are investing the same amount of time and effort as some of the top rep contributors, but in areas that are not as reputationally rewarding. But there is also a large group that are not posting on Stack Overflow, who are more likely to be working somewhere across the thousands of forums, git repos and mailing lists that developers inhabit. Out of the limelight, and with no reputation points to show for it.
mark-r 11y ago
You're right, rep is not a proxy for programming awesomeness. But it is a proxy for how helpful you've been to the rest of the programming world, and I think that's something worthy too. I've only been 1/5 as helpful as you, and I'm quite proud of it.

kayoone 11y ago

Does it matter ? It is not about who is the best in the world, just who is popular. He knows his stuff and has helped thousands of people with mindblowing accuracy and consistency for almost a decade, which in my book is as valuable as a genius programmer writing great software. Besides, he works for Google, so he is probably still better than >98% of programmers. Super complex software has been written in C# and Java, not sure why you are trying to say that it is not challenging.

ZenoArrow 11y ago

What constitutes good code? I would say it's a combination of these five factors (I'll provide definitions if you want them): Clear, concise, correct, robust, efficient. The strengths and weaknesses of various languages boils down to how easy or hard it is to meet those factors + how good the tooling, library ecosystem and learning resources are. Meeting those five factors with a language like Visual Basic is harder than a language such as Python or F#. Coders who write good code in VB deserve respect. Your view on 'challenging' is too limited. If a language is easy to pick up but hard to master is it challenging or not? The goal should be good code, regardless of the language.