[ale] [SEMI-OT] Skills for programmers/engineers?

[JD]

Highly language specific ...

Effective C++
More Effective C++

Perl Best Practices
Modern Perl

You get the idea.

BTW, I still refer to the Booch OTM book a few times every year (mostly the
inside diagrams at the front/back) and check out the Design Patterns book before
writing any real code.

On 01/27/2014 10:07 AM, leam hall wrote:
> JD,
> 
> Length matters less than "signal to noise" ratio. Your note was great!
> 
> Can you provide a couple of the "Best Practices" and "Effective ??"
> books? I've mostly used O'Reilly books but don't mind having a few
> more.  :)
> 
> Leam
> 
> On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 9:58 AM, JD <jdp at algoloma.com> wrote:
>> Sorry for the length.
>>
>> 1 programmer in a language and/or framework can speak with another for 10
>> minutes and get a fairly accurate idea of their skill level, provided they are
>> the higher skilled person with that language. The issue is when the blind are
>> leading the blind ... which happens a-lot in corporations.
>>
>> Any place that hands me a test or asks me to program on THEIR computer the first
>> time I sit behind it ... well, I've walked out of those places even after the
>> interview went well. They were seeking a different sort of worker and I would
>> not enjoy working in a place like that.
>>
>> Actual coding is a very, very, small part of any programming job, unless you
>> work entirely alone. Knowing the other tools, testing, documentation and just
>> fitting into the group matters 80% or more.
>>
>> Do you use TDD?
>> Which VCS do you use?
>> What editor do you prefer?
>> What was the last design pattern that you used?
>> Which language specific websites do you follow?
>> Who was the best fictional space ship captain ever? Why? Books, movies, tv are
>> fine.  (BTW, there isn't any wrong answer, just want to see some reasoning).
>> Who was the best real space ship commander? (Good for NASA interviewees)
>>
>> The answer to these things tells me much more useful information than some paper
>> test.
>>
>> I guess if writing public websites was my aim, then having a public portfolio
>> might be useful. Never had a job like that.
>>
>> OOD/OOP are extremely useful skills, but the implementation language matters
>> hugely. Most commonly needed design patterns already exist and have been created
>> by people much smarter than me. Learned long ago to use them, not my own.
>> Also a fan of "Best Practices" and the "Effective ??" book lines.  Those changed
>> my life and made me a much, much, much better, more efficient, more elegant
>> coder.  Of course, when just starting out, much of the best practices and
>> effective-whatever books were over my head.
>>
>> The best advice I've ever gotten about coding was to never have any
>> function/method longer than 1 screen, including the comments. Seeing all the
>> code together helps illuminate mistakes.  If it takes too many comments to
>> explain what a method does, it needs to be simplified.
>>
>>
>> On 01/27/2014 09:03 AM, leam hall wrote:
>>> A question has been popping up in a few places and your thoughts would
>>> be welcome.
>>>
>>> If someone applies for a programming job in language "X"; what other
>>> measurable skills and resume bullets should they have? For example:
>>>
>>> 1. Code in a public repository in language X
>>> 2. Skill in version control
>>> 3. If X is a web language, then a framework.
>>> 4. If X is an object oriented language, then OOP skills.
>>>
>>> Not being a real programmer I'm trying to build my goal list and path.
>>> Have also seen others who are  needing the same information.
>>>