Comments for Technikhil Writing

Comment on Case sensitive matches in MySQL by Sanjay

Sanjay — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:52:53 +0000

Cool just what I was looking for. Thanks a lot.

Comment on mySQL Delimiters by P.G.

P.G. — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:33:45 +0000

I’ve run into this problem before as well. Changing the delimiter to // is useful not only for stored procedures but for any time you want to run a bunch of SQL statements. Say you have to do a one time fix that requires multiple UPDATES and INSERTS… instead of a one at a time approach, just run them all together and change the delimiter.

This works as well if and when you use
phpMyAdmin (very useful tool). If you run code through this web management tool, you can also change the delimiter here as well to run multiple statements.

(my site will be down temporarily today for server maintenance)

Comment on Getting Microsoft SQL Server and mySQL to talk by jerem

jerem — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:43:34 +0000

It seems like if SQL server 2005 can’t insert data in Mysql :
I use MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver to connect to Mysql 5 works fine to select but unable to insert…

Comment on Programmer - Express thyself by technikhil

technikhil — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 14:52:49 +0000

I found this blog post that talks a bit about good programmers that I think illustrates my point in the post above.

Comment on To all who had to experience ‘Performance Reviews’ by Steven Wright

Steven Wright — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:31:31 +0000

I have never had a review in the IT field. I had a few when I was making circuit boards and they were usually designed to make you feel like you achieved some small level of success but you never excelled. Perhaps it was just me that never excelled. Either way, dont like em. No sir!

Comment on Programmer - Express thyself by Mike

Mike — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:36:21 +0000

I would say that to begin to apply your engineering skills, you must understand the problem clearly, but that being able to articulate it definitely helps.

Without communication, engineering skills are useless. Without engineering ability, communication skills are useless (as a programmer). I think that’s fairly self-evident.

But I have seen cases where the ability to communicate (outward) is less important than the ability to solve problems. For example, when I was working for a test controls company, some of the programming interns would be given a very detailed, non-negotiable requirements document and told to get it done, then pretty much left to figure it out themselves after that. I, unfortunately, was one of these interns. That’s an extreme case, but illustrative, I think.

Comment on Programmer - Express thyself by technikhil

technikhil — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:57:48 +0000

My point is that in order to even begin applying your engineering skills on a problem - one must be able to articulate the problem clearly.

This is essential for two reasons -
1) It shows the person providing you with the problem to solve - your customer - that you have understood the problem completely. Often development starts with the customer and the developer having different ideas of what the problem is - like the blind men trying to describe an elephant after having touched different parts - this leads to misunderstanding and chaos.

2) When you articulate the problem to someone you are forced to think of and list out all your assumptions and pre-conceptions regarding the problem. So when you articulate the problem you automatically become aware of the level of your understanding of the problem and you can get validation about whether your understanding is complete and if it isn’t you can go about getting further clarification.

Comment on Programmer - Express thyself by Mike

Mike — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:33:07 +0000

Well, if your point is as general as “to be a good programmer, you have to be able to communicate well,” then it’s pretty hard to disagree with that. Taken to the extreme, you can’t even type into the computer if you have zero ability to communicate. I had thought your point was that creativity and the ability to express yourself are aways more important than engineering (i.e. problem-solving) ability when it comes to programming.

I’m not saying that if you’re totally unable to communicate effectively, you can still be a good programmer. My point is that they’re both necessary, and in some cases the ability to be a good engineer is more important than creative talent (and vice-versa).

Comment on Programmer - Express thyself by technikhil

technikhil — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:02:59 +0000

I disagree Mike - creativity and ability to express oneself is not restricted to any particular form of programming.
To take your example - if I were programming a component I would have to interact with the people designing the user interface - I would have to communicate to them in some form the interfaces that I am building or using…
Whether this is in the form of a UML diagram or in the form of an interface definition - I still need to express in clear terms what I am going to do. Theoretically - it should be possible to use a diagram or the code itself to do this, but you would still need to be able to provide context and assumptions.
In fact, given that I am dealing with other programmers I would argue the ability to express my point of view and back it up with clear logic is even more critical - if I am not to be dismissed out of hand
If I were a building a test suite - God help me if I cant make a clear case about how and why something does not work in the application I am testing- I would be eaten alive by irate developers
I submit that problem solving and algorithms are just the price of entry - a good programmer needs to be able to express himself or herself.

Comment on Programmer - Express thyself by Mike

Mike — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:36:09 +0000

I’d say it depends a lot on exactly what you’re programming, too. If you’re designing an application from the ground up, I’d definitely agree that creativity and the ability to express yourself are key. But not so much in cases where you’re programming a component, and your code never interfaces with the end user.

For example, maybe you’re on a small team working on some testing equipment. Someone else is doing all of the user interface work — your job is just to make the program interface with the testing equipment, take realtime readings and feed the data out. Or maybe you’re programming/modifying a 3D graphics engine, image compression algorithm, or something else that doesn’t involve directly communicating with the end user.

In the end, I think that being a good programmer requires a mix of skill solving problems through algorithms, as well as creativity and the ability to clearly communicate with the user. Different projects require different amounts of each, so unless you’re very specialized, you need to be good at all of them.