4 ms·

I've been doing C++ full time since 1996, and yet I frequently have intellisense warning me about forgetting something silly - like a missing capture in a lambd

I've been doing C++ full time since 1996, and yet I frequently have intellisense warning me about forgetting something silly - like a missing capture in a lambda, or even forgotten semi-colons. That's because I'm not an f'ing compiler. _Can_ I make sure the code is 100% correct before even compiling? Sure, but I'll spend an hour checking every detail, while intellisense does it while I type.

HWR_14 5y ago
I mean, yes. In a whole program, typos or mistakes happen. No need to try to prevent those. So do spelling or grammar errors when writing in English. We expect a professional writer to have a human editor to catch those and not be perfect. But asking an applicant for a writing job to find the spelling/grammar errors in a paragraph seems reasonable to me.
- agent327 5y ago
  The simple fact that you think so tells me that you aren't a programmer, and that you should stay far away from interviewing or managing programmers. About the only thing the two situations have in common is that both are based around a text-based medium; for the rest there is just no comparison between writing computer code, and writing text for humans. Have you ever noticed how very few people can actually write both good computer code, and good documentation for the users of that code? That's because they are completely different disciplines, requiring a completely different mindset. Let's turn this around: if I were interviewed by someone who flagged down my code for missing a #include or lambda capture (both very easy mistakes to make), I'd know that the people I'm interviewing with are idiots with no understanding of the thing they claim to be testing me on. Would I want to work there? Nope.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    You seem very confused. At first I was worried you misunderstood my text: maybe you have trouble with natural language but not programming (or maybe English but not code). That would certainly explain your claim that they are disjoint skillsets. But as you went on, you committed a logic error, so now I'm just thrown. There is a difference between "find the errors in this provided code" and "write code on a whiteboard with no errors". At no point was I talking about code you wrote. Also, it's an aside, but I find people who can program well write excellent documentation for the users, if what they are writing is an API. Of course, they are not the best at explaining the steps in a GUI, but that probably has less to do with communication skills in general and more to do with the difficulty understanding how they perceive the problem.

HWR_14 5y ago

I mean, yes. In a whole program, typos or mistakes happen. No need to try to prevent those. So do spelling or grammar errors when writing in English. We expect a professional writer to have a human editor to catch those and not be perfect. But asking an applicant for a writing job to find the spelling/grammar errors in a paragraph seems reasonable to me.

agent327 5y ago
The simple fact that you think so tells me that you aren't a programmer, and that you should stay far away from interviewing or managing programmers. About the only thing the two situations have in common is that both are based around a text-based medium; for the rest there is just no comparison between writing computer code, and writing text for humans. Have you ever noticed how very few people can actually write both good computer code, and good documentation for the users of that code? That's because they are completely different disciplines, requiring a completely different mindset. Let's turn this around: if I were interviewed by someone who flagged down my code for missing a #include or lambda capture (both very easy mistakes to make), I'd know that the people I'm interviewing with are idiots with no understanding of the thing they claim to be testing me on. Would I want to work there? Nope.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- HWR_14 5y ago
  You seem very confused. At first I was worried you misunderstood my text: maybe you have trouble with natural language but not programming (or maybe English but not code). That would certainly explain your claim that they are disjoint skillsets. But as you went on, you committed a logic error, so now I'm just thrown. There is a difference between "find the errors in this provided code" and "write code on a whiteboard with no errors". At no point was I talking about code you wrote. Also, it's an aside, but I find people who can program well write excellent documentation for the users, if what they are writing is an API. Of course, they are not the best at explaining the steps in a GUI, but that probably has less to do with communication skills in general and more to do with the difficulty understanding how they perceive the problem.