3 ms·

Answer: Google is killing many kinds of Trivia. For example, I always have to look up how to link external CSS. Google is also teaching people more than ever

by ljlolel 17y ago

Answer: Google is killing many kinds of Trivia. For example, I always have to look up how to link external CSS. Google is also teaching people more than ever (e.g. I know many more definitions of words than I ever would have looked up without Google). Google (more Wikipedia) gives me instant summaries of complex topics or figures or events, which I remember.

tocomment 17y ago
I wish job interviewers would catch up with this. They always seem to expect you to have this kind of triva memorized :-(
- sfphotoarts 17y ago
  there's some truth to that, but if you're interviewing for a job where you'll be doing a lot of CSS and claim you've been doing a lot of CSS, its also pretty reasonable to assume you can remember the things you do every day. I always think its really lame when an interview candidate claims they can't possible show me an example of iterating over a collection in the language they use every day because they don't have intellisense, autocomplete or google.
- lacker 17y ago
  As a somewhat frequent job interviewer I keep seeing the opposite side. me: "Let's write some code, what's your favorite language?" them: "My favorite? I guess C++" me: "So how about, write a function to find the most common string in a vector of strings." They write something like int MostCommonString(vector v) { for (int s = v[0]; s < n; s++) { int count = s count++ } return count } me: "I see. Well for one, in C++ you need to end each line with a semicolon." them: "Jeez! Interviewers always expect you to have all this trivia memorized!!!"
  - jpeterson 17y ago
    Not sure what point you're making here. It doesn't really say anything about a programmer if he/she forgets the semicolons when writing out a C++ function by hand. Especially if this person is constantly juggling many different language syntaxes, some of which have line terminators and some not. The function logic is wrong; yes, that's a problem. But forgetting the semicolons has no significance whatsoever.
    - lacker 17y ago
      Take another look at that code. If someone makes that many mistakes in a short space, then even if any one of those mistakes is forgivable, it reveals that they are not a good programmer.
  - jacquesm 17y ago
    I don't think C++ allows you to return variables outside of the scope in which their declarations are active...
RyanMcGreal 17y ago
I always have to look up how to link external CSS. Your framework doesn't just do that for you? Edit to downmodders: I'm not being flip or sarcastic. In all seriousness, if you're writing repetitive boilerplate - and particularly if you have to look that repetitive boilerplate up - you should be using some kind of templating system that does the repetitive (and hence programmable) stuff for you. It could be as simple as a text file web page template with the proper doctype and generic css / javascript imports already typed out. You'll save yourself time and aggravation and reduce the incidence of silly mistakes.
- ljlolel 17y ago
  You're right and you're wrong. I don't know if on balance you should be downmodded. Yes, your framework should have a shortcut for boilerplate like that, so you don't have to type it every time. I have worked with numerous frameworks, and I am in fact building one myself: jperla webify. Please notice that to include this feature in my framework I had to look it up using Google because I didn't know! I have to look it up every time precisely because my framework usually does it for me. But also, what is your framework's magical shortcut function to link the external CSS? I don't know because 1. it's not standardized across frameworks like html is, 2. it's often coded in automatically (e.g. rails asset-packager) so I practice it little and never learn it. Like I said, I know a number of frameworks intimately, but not this trivia. I have to look it up. Google does, however, teach me the high-level concepts about the benefits of using a web framework and asset packager. Finally, sometimes I just bang out a quick 1 page of static html with 1 statically linked CSS file (for debugging or mocking or random wanton fun) for which a framework would be wasteful overhead.

by ljlolel 17y ago

tocomment 17y ago

I wish job interviewers would catch up with this. They always seem to expect you to have this kind of triva memorized :-(

sfphotoarts 17y ago
there's some truth to that, but if you're interviewing for a job where you'll be doing a lot of CSS and claim you've been doing a lot of CSS, its also pretty reasonable to assume you can remember the things you do every day. I always think its really lame when an interview candidate claims they can't possible show me an example of iterating over a collection in the language they use every day because they don't have intellisense, autocomplete or google.
lacker 17y ago
As a somewhat frequent job interviewer I keep seeing the opposite side. me: "Let's write some code, what's your favorite language?" them: "My favorite? I guess C++" me: "So how about, write a function to find the most common string in a vector of strings." They write something like int MostCommonString(vector v) { for (int s = v[0]; s < n; s++) { int count = s count++ } return count } me: "I see. Well for one, in C++ you need to end each line with a semicolon." them: "Jeez! Interviewers always expect you to have all this trivia memorized!!!"
- jpeterson 17y ago
  Not sure what point you're making here. It doesn't really say anything about a programmer if he/she forgets the semicolons when writing out a C++ function by hand. Especially if this person is constantly juggling many different language syntaxes, some of which have line terminators and some not. The function logic is wrong; yes, that's a problem. But forgetting the semicolons has no significance whatsoever.
  - lacker 17y ago
    Take another look at that code. If someone makes that many mistakes in a short space, then even if any one of those mistakes is forgivable, it reveals that they are not a good programmer.
- jacquesm 17y ago
  I don't think C++ allows you to return variables outside of the scope in which their declarations are active...

RyanMcGreal 17y ago

I always have to look up how to link external CSS. Your framework doesn't just do that for you? Edit to downmodders: I'm not being flip or sarcastic. In all seriousness, if you're writing repetitive boilerplate - and particularly if you have to look that repetitive boilerplate up - you should be using some kind of templating system that does the repetitive (and hence programmable) stuff for you. It could be as simple as a text file web page template with the proper doctype and generic css / javascript imports already typed out. You'll save yourself time and aggravation and reduce the incidence of silly mistakes.

ljlolel 17y ago
You're right and you're wrong. I don't know if on balance you should be downmodded. Yes, your framework should have a shortcut for boilerplate like that, so you don't have to type it every time. I have worked with numerous frameworks, and I am in fact building one myself: jperla webify. Please notice that to include this feature in my framework I had to look it up using Google because I didn't know! I have to look it up every time precisely because my framework usually does it for me. But also, what is your framework's magical shortcut function to link the external CSS? I don't know because 1. it's not standardized across frameworks like html is, 2. it's often coded in automatically (e.g. rails asset-packager) so I practice it little and never learn it. Like I said, I know a number of frameworks intimately, but not this trivia. I have to look it up. Google does, however, teach me the high-level concepts about the benefits of using a web framework and asset packager. Finally, sometimes I just bang out a quick 1 page of static html with 1 statically linked CSS file (for debugging or mocking or random wanton fun) for which a framework would be wasteful overhead.