“Google” programmers. How one idiot hired a couple more idiots

Re:“Google” programmers. How one idiot hired a couple more i... by frickinLasers on Sunday June 19, 2022 @02:33PM (#31802022)

I think I would identify as a jiggle programmer. I was raised on a REPL, and in that case I find it pretty efficient, time-wise, to scribble something in the terminal, jiggle things around it until it works, and insert the working prototype into the program I'm working on.

Programming isn't my day job, but I do frequently write code from scratch (and refactor it, heh). I interviewed for one entry-level programming position; they did not appreciate my technique.

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Re:“Google” programmers. How one idiot hired a couple more i... by dexwiz on Sunday June 19, 2022 @02:58PM (#31802271)

I think this approach is really common for programmers who aren't programmers first. REPL and Excel both really encourage this style due to their near instant feedback loops.

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Re:“Google” programmers. How one idiot hired a couple more i... by sn9 on Sunday June 19, 2022 @07:24PM (#31804517)

On the other hand, a generation of world-class programmers were raised on the REPL and interactivity (e.g., Lisp and Smalltalk programmers from the 70s-80s).

And interactivity can be an extremely effective way of experimenting and learning how things work and fit together so that you can rapidly develop a mental model of your core primitives and how to put them together in different ways.

It's also part of the appeal of TDD. Small iterative loops with rapid feedback.

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