Best programmer

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droope
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Best programmer

#1 Post by droope »

Hi.

The other day this issue came to me, while travelling.


How would one judge who is the best programmer? By what? Skills, number of programmes, how his programmes are made?

Sounds like an easy-to-answer question, but really, it isn't...

Cheers,
Droope

Oakems
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#2 Post by Oakems »

This is very hard to get a definitive answer, because there are so many variables. Like, how fast they are at programming, how many languages do they know, how accurate are they, how efficient are they, what kind of programming they do, experience, problem solving when things go wrong, etc etc.

I would say it's a mixture of all of these and the examples you give.

I wouldn't say necessarily it has anything to do with how many programs they've written, because they may have written a lot, but they might not be any good. Also some programs are written with more than one programmer. Who would be the best out of those? The one who has written the most? Or the one who worked hardest? (two very different things).

This of course is not taking into account, Style. With programming any one thing can be achieved in many ways, some solutions will seem more elegant to you, where others would disagree (and have their reasons for this).

The best way to explain this would be to pick two similar programs... actually two similar web pages. Look at the source for each and see how they differ. Is one smaller than the other? Does one seem more complex? Is this a good thing? It's hard to say when they both do the same thing. The person writing the simpler web page may get through 10 a day (random number). The person writing the more complex web page maybe only does 5, but what this person is writing is harder to code. What does this mean? Maybe the more complex web page is more secure? But maybe it's a waste of time and with more experience that programmer would know this.

I'll see if I can find any examples of what I'm talking about, actually I have an analogy. Tennis, who's the best player? Okay now take into consideration different court types, some players are better on grass, others, clay. So now the question becomes; who's the best player on such a such a court? (It gets even more complicated if you use football, instead of tennis).

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ecomoney
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#3 Post by ecomoney »

How would one judge who is the best programmer? By what? Skills, number of programmes, how his programmes are made?
A computer program is a tool to do a job

Therefore judge it the same way as any tool....how useful it is, and how much easier it makes a job, and how many people it is of use too.

This makes puppy programmers very good indeed ;-)
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Gorilla no baka
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#4 Post by Gorilla no baka »

ecomoney wrote:
How would one judge who is the best programmer? By what? Skills, number of programmes, how his programmes are made?
A computer program is a tool to do a job

Therefore judge it the same way as any tool....how useful it is, and how much easier it makes a job, and how many people it is of use too.

This makes puppy programmers very good indeed ;-)
And it also makes us very smart for using it...
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big_bass
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#5 Post by big_bass »

that's easy to answer

look at the pictures who is the best
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Oakems
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#6 Post by Oakems »

ecomoney wrote: A computer program is a tool to do a job

Therefore judge it the same way as any tool....how useful it is, and how much easier it makes a job, and how many people it is of use too.

This makes puppy programmers very good indeed ;-)
Agreed one of the most important things, is how the program performs, but How it works is pretty important too, and you don't always get to see that from using the program. To the user that's not important at all, and the fact that it works and works well, is enough.

But there are always good ways and bad ways to do things, even though on the surface they may look and feel exactly the same. I don't mean to sound awkward, but I think it is a little deeper than just how the program performs. There is also the situation of multiple programmers for one application, why is this? To save time? Because some people are better at a certain type of programming than others? If this is the case how do you compare them, how would you choose who is best? We've all heard "two heads are better than one," but is this the same with programming? Not so if you have one person who's made a really bad mistake, causing the program to have major flaws, which would reflect badly on all the programmers, even though it was the fault of just one.

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droope
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#7 Post by droope »

Thank you for your answers! :)

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hillside
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#8 Post by hillside »

How would one judge who is the best programmer?
Maybe the same way you would judge the best author. Let's see. After collecting all the data and doing the calculations, it's either Tom Clancy or Victor Hugo.

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Lobster
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#9 Post by Lobster »

This reminds me of the Sufi story of the best cow in the world
It produced the best milk in the world.
However it also always kicked the pail of best milk over . . .

I would also suggest it is similar to the question of 'how long is a piece of string'. The answer to that is mostly 3 inches.
Anything less than 3 inches is a strand and all string of any length is also 3 inches long . . .

So the answer is can the programmer produce the milk for others to drink?

Producing an incredible program that no one likes or uses is
not uncommon . . .

Why did you ask this?
Last edited by Lobster on Tue 30 Jun 2009, 02:10, edited 1 time in total.
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#10 Post by Bruce B »

Lobster,

That was a most amazing piece of literature. You made a
believer of me. Thanks.

Bruce

Bruce B

#11 Post by Bruce B »

big_bass,

The two pictures communicate very well.

I have a mouse trapping pet cat. She's a good hunter,
carnivore and predator. And like her kind, she brings me
her little gifts. Sometimes dropping them at my feet.

In any event, she likes the game and goes for the slow kill.
Turn it loose and catch it again. But sometimes the rat
gets away.

I don't like the game and I don't appreciate her letting
rats get away in the house.

I understand the kindest way to kill a rat is to drown it. So
I prepare a disposible container with enough water and get
the rat from her and drop it in the container.

Bruce

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trapster
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#12 Post by trapster »

Most of my pests (rodents) die of lead poisoning :)
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Maine, USA

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Currently using full install: DebianDog

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droope
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#13 Post by droope »

Lobster wrote:This reminds me of the Sufi story of the best cow in the world
It produced the best milk in the world.
However it also always kicked the pail of best milk over . . .

I would also suggest it is similar to the question of 'how long is a piece of string'. The answer to that is mostly 3 inches.
Anything less than 3 inches is a strand and all string of any length is also 3 inches long . . .

So the answer is can the programmer produce the milk for others to drink?

Producing an incredible program that no one likes or uses is
not uncommon . . .

Why did you ask this?
Hi, TY for ur answer.

I can't remember now. :| It's been a really long time. Probably some ego-related issue, though :P


EDIT: Aah, no! I remember now. See, it looks like an easy-to-answer question, but in fact, it is hidden from everyone until you compare a program made by someone who really knows how to do what he does and someone who is just learning.

I think it's like art, what the program does is just that, go from here, to there, do that, then this. But how things are done, that's different. Puppy and mandriva are almost the same, on functionality (not really, just an example), but on size, you have 600mb less.

The rat trap is pretty much what I mean.

Cheers,
Droope

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technosaurus
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#14 Post by technosaurus »

If I were voting I would have to say Fabrice Bellard - quite a range and very efficient code

http://bellard.org/
Check out my [url=https://github.com/technosaurus]github repositories[/url]. I may eventually get around to updating my [url=http://bashismal.blogspot.com]blogspot[/url].

amigo
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#15 Post by amigo »

I'll second you technosaurus -quite an amazing talent that Fabrice...

mcalex
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#16 Post by mcalex »

you're on to the answer
droope wrote:I think it's like art

Q) who is the best artist - whether that is painting, music, movies, literature, or whatever?
A) whoever the artist's peers choose as best from amongst their ranks. Note also, that there's a new 'best artist' every year. :-)

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#17 Post by dawg »

Tough one. So many variables to consider :)

muggins
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#18 Post by muggins »

Surely the best programmer is the one who wrote the best program...IE?

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Patriot
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#19 Post by Patriot »

Hmmm .....

"The Tao Of Programming"
take a peek at the simplified online version

In the early years of Win95, I've had the pleasure of reading the book "The Tao of Programming" by Geoffrey James ..... It was an entertaining spoof of the taoist texts ... It's "subtlety" helped me deal with the many different "forms and shapes of programmers" that I've encountered over the years ...

Having being involved with this "art form" for quite a while, I find these movie quotes applicable to many "master programmer" aspirants :

"There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path" - Morpheus, The Matrix

"I don't know exactly. I just see the code in my head, I can't explain it." - Stanley Jobson, Swordfish

I could relate to the character Stanley Jobson as there are times when I couldn't explain it either .....


Rgds

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Aitch
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#20 Post by Aitch »

droope

I would say the answer needs to be akin to the jeep philosophy

just enough essential parts

a program:

it must function

it must be efficient

it must be cost effective

it must be useful

it must be easy to implement

users will adore it

the person who can do this is the best program-mer

therefore the answer is ...

MER

logic is fun, eh? :lol:

PS: when did Barry K change his name to MER...? :lol:

my 2nd contender would be Max Reason of xbasics fame

http://www.maxreason.com/

Aitch :)

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