Charles E. Grant

8,743 reputation

11742

bio	website
	location	Seattle, WA
	age	56
visits	member for	2 years, 7 months
	seen	55 mins ago
stats	profile views	260

	8,743 reputation	bio	website		visits	member for	2 years, 7 months
11742 badges		location	Seattle, WA		seen	55 mins ago

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Jan 15	awarded	Fanatic
Jan 10	answered	Inline functions in C++. What's the point?
Dec 20	comment	Why does it matter that HTML and CSS are not programming languages? It seems pretty obvious to me: If I need to figure how who to hire, or to who to assign to a particular task I need to know what skills they have. If the assignment involves implementing an algorithm I'm not going to give it to someone who only has a background in HTML/CSS. I'm not going to assign someone who only has a background writing command line C programs to writing a bunch of complex web pages that have to work on multiple browsers. I don't know if you've been in the position of hiring or managing people, but you do run into lot of folks who swear these tasks are interchangeable.
Dec 20	comment	Why does it matter that HTML and CSS are not programming languages? @Lennart Regebro, every standard definition of a programming language (even on Wikipeida) says that a programming language can describe an algorithm. How can you describe an algorithm in HTML and CSS?
Dec 18	comment	Why are there so few female programmers? @Pierre, just to fill out my argument a little bit further: It is a biological fact that male and female brains have different developmental pathways. It is a reasonable hypothesis that men and women might have different average behavioral patterns due to those differences. However, when you jump from that hypothesis to the specific claim that women are less interested/talented than men in programming and math, you are skipping about five steps in the argument. Particularly when it has been demonstrated that social factors DO have a significant effect.
Dec 18	comment	Why are there so few female programmers? @Pierre, but if it's biology than why does the female/male ratio in programming vary so much by culture, and why has the participation of women in math been so changed so much by just changing a few societal rules, like say allowing women to attend the top rated universities? When biology is invoked to support the status quo it is often done in a circular fashion: "Why are there no women in math/programming?" "Because the neurochemistry of the female brain makes them less interested in math/programming." "How do you know that?" "Because there are so few women in math/programming."
Dec 18	comment	Why are there so few female programmers? I remain skeptical. As much as we've learned about brains and neurophysiology in the last few decades, we still can't explain a phenomena as basic as handedness, let alone traits as complex and subtle as talent/interest in math and programming.
Dec 18	comment	Why are there so few female programmers? I started studying math in the early 70s. There would be 1 or 0 women in an upper-division class of about 30. This was explained as a result of the biological differences in how women thought. In 2000 I went back to school for an MS. Women were 20-33% of the classes, and having no more difficulty than I was. Did biology change that much in 30 years? Over and over again, I've seen people invoke biology as an explanation for some social convention. There may be biological influences, but we know for sure that the "biology" will be invoked without evidence to justify the status quo.
Dec 6	comment	Are short identifiers bad? @Maxpm, so why not use 'cap' or even 'c' rather than 'capacity'? Code gets read far more often than it gets written, so I favor writing code that is easy to read and comprehend. Of course I'm mostly working in compiled languages, so the compiler finds almost all of the spelling errors for me. If you are using a dynamically typed language you could use an IDE or editor with autocompletion.
Dec 6	comment	Are short identifiers bad? Sure, but this is a straw man. Your example of a long name adds verbiage but no information. Consider the case where you have multiple variables relating to various forms of capacity. Then you really might want names that distinguish the purposes, like initalCapacity, or finalCapacity.
Dec 6	answered	Are short identifiers bad?
Dec 5	answered	What's so bad about creative coding?
Nov 30	answered	Data structures for bioinformatics
Nov 28	comment	You make websites? So then you must have heard about Web 2.0, right? @Yaakov Ellis, are you sure it was pretension and not honest ignorance? I was a web developer back in 1996, but haven't worked seriously in web development since 2000, I could easily see myself asking a relatively clueless question, and would be grateful for as much time as you wanted to spend, setting me straight. "That's a complicated topic and I really don't feel like talking shop." is also an entirely polite and honest answer.
Nov 28	comment	You make websites? So then you must have heard about Web 2.0, right? I'm not sure I understand the problem. Did you not want to talk to this person? If so, just excuse yourself to get some food or a drink, or say you don't feel up to talking shop. I for one really enjoy talking to programmers in other domains, learning about their domain, and teaching them about mine.
Nov 27	answered	Why do large IT projects tend to fail or have big cost/schedule overruns?
Nov 22	comment	Why is there a decline in CS majors? The numbers I've been giving have been for the US, so clearly Australia may be very different. However, billing rates and wages are apples and oranges. Even an independent tradesman has overhead and expenses for the shop. When I worked for a software consulting firm back in the early 90s my time was billed at $120/hour. I personally was making about $25/hour, but I was getting that whether or not I had any billable hours that week. On top of that my boss was paying the taxes, the lease on our shop, computers, the phones, etc. Someone may bill $200/hour, but their earnings will be much less.
Nov 22	comment	Why is there a decline in CS majors? @Geek, what have you got against plumbers? Good plumbing is as important as good programming. You are also missing the point: the median programmer IS compensated significantly more then the median plumber. In fact software engineers and all the other engineers are about square in the middle between doctors and plumbers. That doesn't seem outrageous to me given relative levels of skill, education, and professional responsibility generally required. Great programmers do hobnob with great doctors and great journalists. Average programmers go to the company XMAS party with everybody else.
Nov 22	comment	Why is there a decline in CS majors? Do all mechanics in your area make $85/hour or just a handful of really trusted ones? Do they take that home or do they have it to split with the owner? The census (same reference) says the median hourly wage for a diesel mechanic is $20/hour, while the median wage of a computer programmer is $34/hour. I'm not trying to tell you that you aren't having a hard time, but it may be a peculiarity of your circumstance. The national numbers say that computer programmers are doing better than 80% of the population.
Nov 22	comment	Why is there a decline in CS majors? Really? The census numbers don't seem to justify that. What are you basing it on? The census (bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#15-0000) says that the average wage for computer programmers is $75k, while the average wage for plumbers/pipefitters/steamfitters for example is $50k.