Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently • Hacker News Board

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#31

Post by teh_klev » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:48 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #9

I not only use Google frequently, I use it to search for things I myself have written in the past. I can't count the number of times I've Googled for a programming question where the answer is found on a Stack Overflow page I've written. If it's a particularly old answer that I've completely forgotten, I've even thought to myself, " Wow this genius sounds just like me! "[1]. [1]: ... as well as " This idiot has no cl…

> I use it to search for things I myself have written in the past.

Heh, me too, especially on Stack Overflow. I wish they'd give us a better way to organise our answers rather than having to rely on tags or bookmarks in our browsers.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#32

Post by BinaryIdiot » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:50 PM UTC

It's amazing how much productivity is killed when you have to work in an environment, such as a SCIF, where you have zero internet access nor can you use any devices that could connect to the internet. It's certainly made me more resourceful but I don't think it's something a developer should put themselves through if they don't have to.

I must use Google dozens of times a day :)

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#33

Post by BuckRogers » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:50 PM UTC

No. We use DuckDuckGo. !sp if we want to see Google results.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#34

Post by dasboth » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

ptrincr wrote: post #16

dasboth wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Writing Google queries to quickly find the correct solutions is a skill on its own. This is so true, and yet I haven't ever heard of anyone asking about this in an interview. It would be an interesting skill to try and assess, not sure how it would be done though.

I've been involved in interview processes where candidates were presented with a problem, given a computer and asked to solve it. Usually just by searching for an error message.

Cool. In many cases that sounds like a much more realistic test than a whiteboard exercise.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#35

Post by dsv » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

if you search "1. netty tutorial" i think you arent a experienced programmer, you are a experienced googler

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#36

Post by mlvljr » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:51 PM UTC

Keyframe wrote: post #26

koolba wrote: post #9

I not only use Google frequently, I use it to search for things I myself have written in the past. I can't count the number of times I've Googled for a programming question where the answer is found on a Stack Overflow page I've written. If it's a particularly old answer that I've completely forgotten, I've even thought to myself, " Wow this genius sounds just like me! "[1]. [1]: ... as well as " This idiot has no cl…

That and finding a question you've search for, only to find out that question was also posted by you years ago. Bonus for ones with no answers still.

Extra bonus, if closed as "not a real question", heavily upvoted, at the top of the Google's 1st page of search results, and actually containing a (heavily upvoted as well) solution.

P.S. Recursive bonus: closed with a comment ("you should just google it") and now actually the top result in search output (happens quite frequently) :)

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#37

Post by teh_klev » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:52 PM UTC

jupiter90000 wrote: post #27

For programmers that were coding before good search engines: what did you do when you wanted to look up an error, etc back then? Crack open a tome for the language? Just curious as I can't imagine it was easy.

For me it was Altavista and Usenet and DeJaNews [0] (which indexed usenet). Before that it was hard copy manuals and phone-a-friend.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Groups#Deja_News

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#38

Post by Touche » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:52 PM UTC

curtis wrote: post #6

I often joke that my ability to formulate good Google queries is the single most important part of my software engineering skillset. Except, you know, I'm not really joking.

Related is being good at debugging. There's something about having a certain intuition (in reality probably experience) on what it is that you are looking for that is critical.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#39

Post by makecheck » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:53 PM UTC

Yes, Google is actually crucial.

I didn’t realize how uniquely good Google’s programming results were until I tried Bing or DuckDuckGo and was left confused because their top results didn’t even mention some pretty significant page on a target subject.

I am however noticing a trend that I don’t like in Google results: they are trying to interpret pages more and more instead of just being a proxy. (No thanks, Google, I don’t want your attempt at a pretty summary of a Wikipedia page or StackOverflow post; the link will do nicely. Besides, it is just a little obnoxious to lift content from other sites that may prevent people from visiting those sites entirely.)

Google is not my sole search tool though. I still find it faster to search offline for a lot of things; for instance, if you have a Mac and haven’t tried something like Dash for quick access to API documentation, you are really missing a potential productivity boost. And, offline search helps a lot on airplanes.

Re: Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently

#40

Post by mlvljr » Sat, Apr 30, 2016, 7:54 PM UTC

jupiter90000 wrote: post #27

For programmers that were coding before good search engines: what did you do when you wanted to look up an error, etc back then? Crack open a tome for the language? Just curious as I can't imagine it was easy.

You get MSDN on 3+ CDs, do a full install and make couple searches using the built-in search.