4 ms·

It is interesting looking at the 'deep' issues of programming languages. This kind of ties in with the "Don't ask me maths questions..." post a few days ago.

It is interesting looking at the 'deep' issues of programming languages. This kind of ties in with the "Don't ask me maths questions..." post a few days ago. There really is a lot more to programming than just algorithms, UI design or syntax.

raverbashing 13y ago
Yes, this worries me. Especially today some people think "great programmers" are the ones who knows all the "fashionable" tools and frameworks, wants to abstract everything (god help him if he install vim in his test environment without a fab file that configures chef) and maybe worships Uncle Bob Knowing how to use Redis is cool, do you know what's even cooler? Being able to write it (or at least knowing how it works more or less)
- dmak 13y ago
  I'll rather pay an artist to paint me a nice piece using store bought paint than making his/her own paint. Each programmer is great in their own right.
  - EliRivers 13y ago
    Each programmer is great in their own right. Some of them, however, are terrible at programming.
  - dagw 13y ago
    I'll rather pay an artist to paint me a nice piece using store bought paint than making his/her own paint. That's fine if you just need a nice picture to hang on your wall, but probably won't work if you want a genre defining piece that that redefines how artists think about the color blue.
- Ygg2 13y ago
  Even better is getting a programmer that knows enough about making X to not attempt to implement it. Anyway the programming is such a multi-dimensional evaluation problem that you're just as wrong as you are right. Think about it - there are so many things programmer SHOULD KNOW it isn't possible to know them all. Let's name them some of them - good architecture style, good API writing skills, good code writing style, good documentation style, company's internal workflow with all its nuances, compiler standards, compiler optimization, non-standard compiler behavior, version control system API, version control innards, database system, file system, low level operating system implementation, kernel innards, non-standard OS behavior, hardware knowledge, driver knowledge, non-standard hardware behavior, hardware compatibility, software-hardware compatibility, etc. (This doesn't cover assembler knowledge, binary represntation of important formats). You simply have to choose to not learn everything about certain system to be good at other things.
dmak 13y ago
I couldn't find that link, could you share it please? Thanks in advance.
- nilliams 13y ago
  Try using hnsearch, it's little publicised but very useful! A search for math (it's the 'Dear Startups... ' link): https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=math&start=0 https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=math&start=0
  - dmak 13y ago
    Thanks, I thought his quote was a string literal so a search with that yielded no results.
    - deckiedan 13y ago
      Sorry dmak - I guess quotes are easily misunderstandable for us programmer types. Maybe we need a comments quoting system: - 'string literal quotes' - "inexact quotes which ${evaluate things}" - `ticked off sarcastic quotes (quoting someone back at themselves)` - << EOF quotes about shell gurus EOF - ''' string literals with 'subquotes' which aren't escaped ''' - > quoted comments by oldschool BBS junkies :-)

raverbashing 13y ago

Yes, this worries me. Especially today some people think "great programmers" are the ones who knows all the "fashionable" tools and frameworks, wants to abstract everything (god help him if he install vim in his test environment without a fab file that configures chef) and maybe worships Uncle Bob Knowing how to use Redis is cool, do you know what's even cooler? Being able to write it (or at least knowing how it works more or less)

dmak 13y ago
I'll rather pay an artist to paint me a nice piece using store bought paint than making his/her own paint. Each programmer is great in their own right.
- EliRivers 13y ago
  Each programmer is great in their own right. Some of them, however, are terrible at programming.
- dagw 13y ago
  I'll rather pay an artist to paint me a nice piece using store bought paint than making his/her own paint. That's fine if you just need a nice picture to hang on your wall, but probably won't work if you want a genre defining piece that that redefines how artists think about the color blue.
Ygg2 13y ago
Even better is getting a programmer that knows enough about making X to not attempt to implement it. Anyway the programming is such a multi-dimensional evaluation problem that you're just as wrong as you are right. Think about it - there are so many things programmer SHOULD KNOW it isn't possible to know them all. Let's name them some of them - good architecture style, good API writing skills, good code writing style, good documentation style, company's internal workflow with all its nuances, compiler standards, compiler optimization, non-standard compiler behavior, version control system API, version control innards, database system, file system, low level operating system implementation, kernel innards, non-standard OS behavior, hardware knowledge, driver knowledge, non-standard hardware behavior, hardware compatibility, software-hardware compatibility, etc. (This doesn't cover assembler knowledge, binary represntation of important formats). You simply have to choose to not learn everything about certain system to be good at other things.

dmak 13y ago

I couldn't find that link, could you share it please? Thanks in advance.

nilliams 13y ago
Try using hnsearch, it's little publicised but very useful! A search for math (it's the 'Dear Startups... ' link): https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=math&start=0 https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=math&start=0
- dmak 13y ago
  Thanks, I thought his quote was a string literal so a search with that yielded no results.
  - deckiedan 13y ago
    Sorry dmak - I guess quotes are easily misunderstandable for us programmer types. Maybe we need a comments quoting system: - 'string literal quotes' - "inexact quotes which ${evaluate things}" - `ticked off sarcastic quotes (quoting someone back at themselves)` - << EOF quotes about shell gurus EOF - ''' string literals with 'subquotes' which aren't escaped ''' - > quoted comments by oldschool BBS junkies :-)