programmer-skills

Does knowledge of statistics make you a better programmer?

Is statistical analysis knowledge required to become a better programmer? How deep do we need it? ...

Study for Problem Solving Tests?

Hi, I am about to apply for a new IT job. As part of the selection process I have to undergo several hours of problem solving tests. I do not know specifically the nature of these tests but was hoping for suggestions on how I could "study" or practice for these types of tests. Any insights as to the typical nature or make up of these ...

How do you coach a slow developer?

What goals and resources can I give to a developer who isn't working at the speed we'd like? We hired three developers at the same time that we considered to be at the same skill level. At this point, about a year in, one of the developers has lagged significantly behind in research & production speed. The projects they complete are do...

Balance of Development Skills within Team

We are trying to build a team of 6 developers for our website and web services with ASP.Net, WCF and DotNetNuke. How should we try to balance the skills between the web site team and web services team? This SO question seems to cover the balance of personalities but what suggestions are there for ensuring sufficient skill balance withi...

What soft skills make a great programmer?

I want to know what people think are the most important soft skills (e.g patience, tenacity, competitiveness) for programmers. I’m not really interested in communication skills, but more the skills you use when you’re hunched over the keyboard. ...

What do you do when your team leader doesn't know something simple?

What do you do when your team leader does not know why the following is wrong: a.SomeProp = a.SomeProp; // no funny side-effects, plain old property He claims 15 years of programming experience, and 7 years of C#/.NET. To me, someone of 3-6 months experience should know this. What I have done: Tried to make him understand why it i...

How does a background in math make you a better programmer?

Possible Duplicate: Is mathematics necessary for programming? Why is the above a duplicate - I academically speaking would like to know HOW mathematics helps one program so some more teaching could be put in to modern CS and engineering degrees NOT if it is necessary. A lot of my colleagues have backgrounds in Mathematics, som...

Interesting Project Ideas for Decent Dev Wanting to Learn More Asp.Net

I want to learn more Asp.Net (and MVC). I would like to say I am a decent developer, but everything I work on seems to be maintenance or enhancements. I want to start a website or web app completely from scratch. I would prefer to use MVC, but whatever the better framework, I would use. I also want to make it for myself (maybe eventu...

Should Intermediate Java Programmer Read Fundemantals Part Of Java Books?

I love reading programming books.But every Java book has first intro part to the language which has chapters about language fundemantals like variables,loops,decision making, etc.I am wondering if you reading these parts of the books or skipping to the parts that intrest you? ...

Advice to improve concentration in noisy office?

Possible Duplicate: How to convince my boss to provide quiet working conditions? I work in a noisy office. I'm forced to listen to music, and I find this hampers my concentration. My best solution so far is to come to work at 6am, but I still have to work until 5:30 so it is a long day, but the first hours are bliss. Does the...

PS3 Cell Programming

Hi I'm currently learning how to program the Cell processor on the PS3 (via the Linux Cell SDK) - including the basics of SIMD, multithreading SPE etc. I hope to create a simple 3D demo app out of all this. My question is, would this be helpful in getting a job in the games industry as a PS3 programmer ? I already have several years of...

How to compare programming skill?

If you are having a childish fight with someone who seriously believes he is the god of programming, are there any fair tests to settle such disputes? (Hopefully, these tests do not involve some kind of physical combat) Specifically, I'm looking for a series of benchmarks in different areas of programming ability. For example programm...

Art of Abstracting

Hi, I understand that the power to think about abstract things is very handy in programming well. Abstraction is usually a mental map, an image that you can refer to in your mind as you are progressing with writing your code. Can you suggest any good technique, book, web link which talks about improving this art? Thanks ...

Programmer trying to figure out a self project using PHP

I have just finished teaching myself a bit about PHP and now I am looking for a self-project to do. Does anyone have any ideas regarding a project that can use the extent of what PHP is primarily used for, ie. including database functionality, or perhaps a more complicated project learning about advanced PHP? I'd rather not create a blog...

Is becoming BCS Chartered IT Professional (CITP) worth it? - UK

Hi, I had a pub debate with a friend about this and I couldn't see the point. From what he said it sounded just like a "qualification" you achieve for working for 10 years in the industry. You have to fill in a lot of forms saying that you are working on harder projects (showing personal development). However your CV and references fr...

Javascript Certification

Is there any proper Certification for Javascript, that covers all the advanced topics of Javascript including the DOM (Document Object Model), BOM (Browser Object Model) and CSS Object Model, that can really evaluate the skills? I've no idea how to scale myself on my JS skills, so any suggestions would be beneficial. ...

What effects does legacy code cause on a developer’s skills?

Edsger Dijkstra once said that "the use of COBOL cripples the mind...". How about working on legacy software? Do you, as a developer, get crippled by that? As an employed programmer, I have spent most of my time maintaining and fixing legacy systems. In my free time I constantly try to learn new techniques, languages or frameworks, but...

A good exercise to test one's ability to code?

I'm wondering if there's any good exercise to test and improve one's ability to code? I'm think specifically about program logic and being able to write good OOP code. I thought about writing a simple HTML parser, but it seems that's more of a challenge then it sounds. Anyone got any idea's of something that would test & improve my ...

Should a web app developer know photoshop?

I have been doing wep application development for some time now. One thing I overlooked was learning Photoshop. For basic web sites or for frontend development, the lack of this skill has slowed me down. Little things matter, and look and feel can be greatly enhanced with some graphics work. How important is for a web developer to ha...

What quality should a developer possess to be considered as a high performer?

Consider a web development company where the team leaders are asked to assess their team members. On what basis or factors should a team leader assess his team member's quality, programming in particular? Suggest me the general qualities too to be considered a high profile programmer. ...