mobcode

10 ways to spot a good coder

Some coders are really good. How can you identify them?

• You gotta know how to read a stack trace. I know this is a pathetically low bar, but I have seen countless developers just stare in wonder at a stack trace. So even this low bar will eliminate a bunch of people.

• Know your tools Know your IDE. Know your editor. Know your operating system. Select the right “power” tools and make them serve you. (An interesting corollary is that if you code on Windows then you have to use Cygwin to be a good developer.)

• Know your language If you have things to say in code, then you need to know how to talk. Learn every part of your language syntax. Get a broad understanding of the libraries your language offers.

• You have to be able to download a 3rd party package, get the source code compiling, make some changes to the source and get the hacked library working. Maybe they even have to use a decompiler to get the source.

• Know how to use a debugger.

• Know how to use a profiler. At some point the code is too slow and you need to know why. A good developer can bust out a profiler and get an answer.

• Read a spec. Sure every developer will read the spec before coding. Good developers read the spec when they are done coding… then they code up all the stuff they missed.

• Read code. Writing code is more fun, but a good developer reads someone else’s code, understand it, and make sensible changes to it.

• Work from the command line. Yeah GUIs are great, but you are doing way too much manual work if you don’t drop down to the command line and script out what you need.

• Create the build script It’s easy to find a good developer on a project. Find the guy who made the build script. He is the one who actually knows how the stuff works.

So what is the common theme here? The bad developers are faced with something new and they stare in wonder at all the meaningless symbols in front of them. Whether it be a stack trace or someone else’s code, or the confusion of buttons in our tools, or the build script. The good coders are filled with the same wonder, for a moment, but they apply their brain to gain understanding. They dig in, read, understand, learn. Programming is a knowledge business if there ever was one.