If so what for? Pros? Cons?

but I ended up just creating something in python faster because I am more proficient in python. I wanted to teach myself something new.

When I work on legacy stuff, I often call myself a "software mechanic" instead of software engineer. :-D

How-Program-10th-Paul-Deitel

The first time I responded to a question I posted a simple one-line solution. Some douchebag copied and pasted my solution added some other irrelevant BS comment, took credit for it, and somehow I ended up with -10 reputation points or some such nonsense. The guy was some kind of know-it-all-douche who must have spent his entire life on that website. I had to plead with the site admin to get me back to zero so I could participate. Then I tried posting a response to someone's question, and something similar happened, but I didn't get the negative points. The third time, some other douche, copied my solution, and modified it to something of lesser quality. The douche's solution got approved by two or three other reviewers, but got the smack down by the last one. The site is full of really bad examples, lots of spaghetti code, and too many dumb comments some of which are "idk... try googling, blah, blah, blah" or comments that digress into something totally irrelevant. About 5 years ago I asked the site admins to try and clean up the site and implement some simple way of eliminating and deleting all the crappy solutions that would likely get you a "C" or below grade in a college CS101 class (at least at the schools I attended). I really wanted them to get rid of the comments and discussions that don't add any value. "... ain't nobody got time..." to read through all the B.S. just to get to a useful nugget. That's my experience with that site.

exactly my experience!

Every time I look for an example their website pops up, so I look at the solutions. It cracks me up that they are unable to remove all the stupid irrelevant comments and discussions AND remove all the kludgy solutions that do get through their review process. Too often I see stuff that doesn't pass the sniff test. I have to scroll through too much spaghetti before, I see one acceptable approach.

Ever tried to contribute and respond to a question on the StackOverflow website? Every time I respond, I get some douche who tries to copy and edit my solution, take credit for my wisdom, and then have me banned from the site by down voting me. I recently had someone try to edit my solution and modify it as her own, only to have it denied by the last reviewer in the chain. Thankfully I didn't lose what little reputation points I had accumulated. What has been your experience?

According to Meyers-Briggs, I am an ISTP personality type. Programmers have likely strong analytical and problem solving personality types. It's all about the personality that keeps people involved in programming, because it's all about solving puzzles. You have to like solving puzzles. There is definitely no real subculture about programmers/programming unless you are focusing on "hackers" and "hacking", otherwise, IMHO most people who have been coding professionally for over 10 years are pretty normal people. Some can appear to have some sort of personality disorder but it's likely they are shy and reserved and are just like everyone else -- only somewhat smarter than average. The only future problem that I can think of is the "dumbing down" or attempt to simplify or automate the code creation process first through "boot camps" and then through software that automates the creation process for "dummies" so that anybody who can fog a mirror can select items from a UI and butta-bing-butta-boom! software is created. Boot camps only have enough time to teach language syntax. Writing code involves much more than syntax and is more complicated than what can be taught in 4, 8, 12, or even 16 weeks. At least the software I maintain. We don't even have newbs or interns working with us. I think you should focus your paper on the personality type and less on the notion of the subculture. What other occupations do software engineers have in common with... Electricians, electronics technicians, mechanics of all kinds, plumbers, millwrights, and even carpenters and steam fitters. Why? because they all involve troubleshooting and solving problems. Capish?

Don't you think your first two assumptions are a bit like click-baiting for a response? One approach is to make your thesis into providing a "novice" or a Java or C# developer the ability to rapidly create a C/C++ application without having to know how to use pointers or code in the language. :cool: Look back at something called "Software through Pictures" STP, and there is another product one of the process control companies makes for modeling potential solutions. Good luck with that.

:java: I am hoping that they don't and more competition helps create more internet security for personal information and privacy.

thank you very much. i had to name something where it was in appropriate to overload, and I couldn't think of an appropriate name. i saw something in microsoft's thread or mutex library that used that naming convention. I should have realized Ex meant "extended", duh. Kind regards, :java:

facebook sucks because it's not anonymous. most people don't want to lose friends over comments made about news articles. besides, our country's voting system was designed to be essentially anonymous... nobody knows how you vote .... so comments become more meaningful when they are anonymous, because they reflect the true inner self.

I noticed in the microsoft windows library they had two versions of what i assumed with similar files. filename.h/filename.cpp and filenameEx.h/filenameEx.cpp Anyone know how this "Ex" suffix is used? and what the relationship if any between the non-Ex and the "Ex" version? Kind regards, David