6 ms·

The 5 Stages of Programmer Incompetence

63 points by skorks 17y ago

ilkhd2 17y ago
And then... A moment of Zen.. He/she realizes - the real programming is lack of it... And buys FPGA board.
- nzmsv 17y ago
  Then sees the horrible mess that the FPGA dev tools are, and quits programming forever :) Sorry, I've just been in a small personal version of hell for the last few weeks courtesy of Altera.
  - ramidarigaz 17y ago
    Do you have any recommendations for an FPGA newbie? I've been looking around at boards, but I'm not sure which ones are the good ones.
    - nzmsv 17y ago
      I'm finishing up my final project for university (which is FPGA based), and I'm stuck with the supplied tools, so I can't really compare different vendors. All the FPGA tools are closed-source though, and the free versions treat you as a criminal. I'm using Quartus II Web Edition. Altera finally came out with a Linux version, which is nice of them, but the list of annoyances is long: 1. Incremental compilation is disabled. You'll wait at least 5 minutes to try each change. 2. The signal analyzer is disabled. Debugging is a pain. 3. The source code for the supplied Altera components is encrypted. 4. Your design is on a timer, and stops working 1 hour after being programmed into the board. There goes that hobby project. This is for the trial version, which I supposedly would use to learn. Yet they make learning about as painful as possible. I simply don't have 3 grand for the full version of Quartus. I can't comment on Xilinx or Lattice, but I suspect the story is similar. FPGAs are hostile to hobbyists. Oh yeah, boards :) Get a full-featured dev board. Sparkfun has simple breakout boards, but you have to add your own power, clock source and flash for storing the FPGA config, at least, before you can do any work.
      - ramidarigaz 17y ago
        Thanks for the recommendations. I love Sparkfun.
        nzmsv 17y ago
        Oops, I didn't mean to recommend their boards :) I meant they are not the best choice for starting with. You'll want something that works out of the box, so that you know the bugs are in your code, not your soldering.
        ramidarigaz 17y ago
        Ahh. Gotcha. Thanks again.
danbmil99 17y ago
ha that is so me: Distinguishing code features: Only writes in dynamically-typed languages with a strong functional component. At first glance her code looks remarkably similar to the newbie’s, except there’s less of it and the variable names make sense.
- eru 17y ago
  You could try strong typing--in the sense of ML and Haskell--for a while.
  - Miky 17y ago
    Strong typing and dynamic typing aren't mutually exclusive. Most dynamically typed languages are strongly typed, and C, a statically typed language, is weakly typed. But good suggestion. :)
    - eru 17y ago
      Indeed. I meant to say (sane) static typing.
- WalkingDead 17y ago
  > Only writes in dynamically-typed languages with a strong functional component aka, javascript.
hristov 17y ago
Here is a writing tip: if you talk about a hypothetical person of undefined sex, choose "he" or "she" and stick with it. Some writing teachers say one should always use "she" to avoid sexism, but that is obviously not followed. As long as you do not actively reinforce stereotypes (i.e., you call all hypothetical flight attendants "she" and all hypothetical lawyers "he"), I think using "he" is fine. But if you mix "he" or "she" up then you just raise questions in the reader's mind. Here the author has half "he's" and half "she's" which opens him (or her!) to bunch of accusations of sexism. Why was the newbie a "she"?
- rue 17y ago
  "They."
  - pmichaud 17y ago
    They is plural.
    - barrkel 17y ago
      They has been used as a neutral generic singular in English for a very long time. I believe there are extant examples in Shakespeare, for example.
    - jackfoxy 17y ago
      ..but colloquially "they" has been used as the 3rd person unisex singular for a long time. Still don't understand how "she" avoids sexism. The article is missing the stage where you get into management, fall hopelessly behind on current technologies, and forget how to code.
- sorbits 17y ago
  In this article it would have been fine to use singular ‘they’ especially since each fictive person is really a group of people, so even read as plural ‘they’ works. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
harshpotatoes 17y ago
In the poll at the end, there are plenty of people who have been through the early stages, but significantly fewer who claim to have been through the guru/veteren stage. I presume that means they are still in the guru/veteren stage? :D
- j_baker 17y ago
  Either that or there are more young programmers than there are older programmers.
marknutter 17y ago
Pretty accurate except for the pronoun "she" (unfortunately).
- zacharydanger 17y ago
  I'm all for adopting 'they' as the genderless pronoun of choice.
Silhouette 17y ago
I have a lot of empathy with those levels, but I'd sum up my own programming career to date in just three: 1. Under-engineers everything. 2. Over-engineers everything. 3. Tries to find a balance (with maybe a 75% success rate today). Or, to put it another way: 1. Writes simple but over-specific things. 2. Writes general but over-complicated things. 3. Aims for simplicity and generality.

63 points by skorks 17y ago

ilkhd2 17y ago

And then... A moment of Zen.. He/she realizes - the real programming is lack of it... And buys FPGA board.

nzmsv 17y ago
Then sees the horrible mess that the FPGA dev tools are, and quits programming forever :) Sorry, I've just been in a small personal version of hell for the last few weeks courtesy of Altera.
- ramidarigaz 17y ago
  Do you have any recommendations for an FPGA newbie? I've been looking around at boards, but I'm not sure which ones are the good ones.
  - nzmsv 17y ago
    I'm finishing up my final project for university (which is FPGA based), and I'm stuck with the supplied tools, so I can't really compare different vendors. All the FPGA tools are closed-source though, and the free versions treat you as a criminal. I'm using Quartus II Web Edition. Altera finally came out with a Linux version, which is nice of them, but the list of annoyances is long: 1. Incremental compilation is disabled. You'll wait at least 5 minutes to try each change. 2. The signal analyzer is disabled. Debugging is a pain. 3. The source code for the supplied Altera components is encrypted. 4. Your design is on a timer, and stops working 1 hour after being programmed into the board. There goes that hobby project. This is for the trial version, which I supposedly would use to learn. Yet they make learning about as painful as possible. I simply don't have 3 grand for the full version of Quartus. I can't comment on Xilinx or Lattice, but I suspect the story is similar. FPGAs are hostile to hobbyists. Oh yeah, boards :) Get a full-featured dev board. Sparkfun has simple breakout boards, but you have to add your own power, clock source and flash for storing the FPGA config, at least, before you can do any work.
    - ramidarigaz 17y ago
      Thanks for the recommendations. I love Sparkfun.
      - nzmsv 17y ago
        Oops, I didn't mean to recommend their boards :) I meant they are not the best choice for starting with. You'll want something that works out of the box, so that you know the bugs are in your code, not your soldering.
        ramidarigaz 17y ago
        Ahh. Gotcha. Thanks again.

danbmil99 17y ago

ha that is so me: Distinguishing code features: Only writes in dynamically-typed languages with a strong functional component. At first glance her code looks remarkably similar to the newbie’s, except there’s less of it and the variable names make sense.

eru 17y ago
You could try strong typing--in the sense of ML and Haskell--for a while.
- Miky 17y ago
  Strong typing and dynamic typing aren't mutually exclusive. Most dynamically typed languages are strongly typed, and C, a statically typed language, is weakly typed. But good suggestion. :)
  - eru 17y ago
    Indeed. I meant to say (sane) static typing.
WalkingDead 17y ago
> Only writes in dynamically-typed languages with a strong functional component aka, javascript.

hristov 17y ago

Here is a writing tip: if you talk about a hypothetical person of undefined sex, choose "he" or "she" and stick with it. Some writing teachers say one should always use "she" to avoid sexism, but that is obviously not followed. As long as you do not actively reinforce stereotypes (i.e., you call all hypothetical flight attendants "she" and all hypothetical lawyers "he"), I think using "he" is fine. But if you mix "he" or "she" up then you just raise questions in the reader's mind. Here the author has half "he's" and half "she's" which opens him (or her!) to bunch of accusations of sexism. Why was the newbie a "she"?

rue 17y ago
"They."
- pmichaud 17y ago
  They is plural.
  - barrkel 17y ago
    They has been used as a neutral generic singular in English for a very long time. I believe there are extant examples in Shakespeare, for example.
  - jackfoxy 17y ago
    ..but colloquially "they" has been used as the 3rd person unisex singular for a long time. Still don't understand how "she" avoids sexism. The article is missing the stage where you get into management, fall hopelessly behind on current technologies, and forget how to code.
sorbits 17y ago
In this article it would have been fine to use singular ‘they’ especially since each fictive person is really a group of people, so even read as plural ‘they’ works. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

harshpotatoes 17y ago

In the poll at the end, there are plenty of people who have been through the early stages, but significantly fewer who claim to have been through the guru/veteren stage. I presume that means they are still in the guru/veteren stage? :D

j_baker 17y ago
Either that or there are more young programmers than there are older programmers.

marknutter 17y ago

Pretty accurate except for the pronoun "she" (unfortunately).

zacharydanger 17y ago
I'm all for adopting 'they' as the genderless pronoun of choice.

Silhouette 17y ago

I have a lot of empathy with those levels, but I'd sum up my own programming career to date in just three: 1. Under-engineers everything. 2. Over-engineers everything. 3. Tries to find a balance (with maybe a 75% success rate today). Or, to put it another way: 1. Writes simple but over-specific things. 2. Writes general but over-complicated things. 3. Aims for simplicity and generality.