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If a common question in a job interview is "have you written any OSS projects that are used by others?" and a positive answer is expected, then this is where we
by marcus_holmes 5y ago
If a common question in a job interview is "have you written any OSS projects that are used by others?" and a positive answer is expected, then this is where we end up.
Thousands of new developers, eager to learn Rust and get a job, rewriting anything they can get their hands on and pushing it out for the community to use.
- goodpoint 5y ago...then they get the job and the library or tool goes unmaintained. Endless churn ensues. See the javascript ecosystem.
- goodpoint 5y agoTo clarify: I'm in no way opposed to experimentation, learning and weekend projects. But there current "github-centered" development culture makes it very difficult to tell if authors are invested in their FOSS projects are going to maintain them or not. As the churn keeps increasing we can end up with ecosystems collapsing. In comparison, the library maintained since 2003 by the Nebraska person is less worrying. https://xkcd.com/2347/ https://xkcd.com/2347/
- marcus_holmes 5y agoAlso, the "don't write code, just find a library that does what you want to do and plumb it in" mentality means that people approach a problem by searching Github, find these half-finished experiments, and ship them to prod. I exaggerate, of course, but not by much
- goodpoint 5y agoThis is why FAANGs rewrite a lot of stuff. Having control over a library developed internally VS being at the mercy of random accounts on github.
- pdimitar 5y agoThis is not unique to Rust, it happens with literally every language somebody gets hyped with.
- marcus_holmes 5y agoI agree, I see the same thing happening in Go - there are endless pointless libraries being developed and published for no reason except as filler in people's Github accounts for recruiters to look at. And of course Javascript... shudder
- brailsafe 5y agoUh, is this a common question? I've never been asked anything remotely close.
- lbhdc 5y agoI get it pretty often. I am assuming they want to use this as a means to see code that I have written in collaboration with others.
- nicoburns 5y agoI get it pretty often too. Having said that, I haven't typically had much to show and I've usually been offered the job anyway so I'm not sure it's typically given that much weight.
- blacktriangle 5y agoI've asked that question. I use it as a way to offer an alternative demonstration of work to developers who are early in their careers. It's not about seeing the code as much as it is wanting to see that a person has taken software through the full lifecycle. I'd rather see an app in an App Store or a live site on the web, or even just talk about an in-house project that they've managed over a period of years.
- nicoburns 5y agoThat makes a lot of sense. Most of my github projects are from prior to my first job, which I was quite proud of at the time, but are somewhat less demonstrative of my skill level now over 10 years later.
- pjmlp 5y agoThis is how my github is a mix of almost 30 years old university assignments and unfinished weekend projects. To tick the checkbox of some HR people that insist that I provide something. Total amount of times anyone asked me anything about them on a job interview, zero.