The Whiteboard

7:38 AM

> We observe that syntax highlighting significantly improves task completion time, and that this effect becomes weaker with an increase in programming experience.

mind blown

7:57 AM

> Sharif and Maletic (2010) used eye tracking to study the impact of identifier naming conventions (e.g. “camelCase” and “under_score”) on visual search. Participants visually searched for a known identifier amongst a word cloud of similar identifiers. Fixation counts and durations were used to measure “visual effort.” The underscore style was found to require lower matching times and visual effort than the camel case style.

oops, I guess I'd better change all our code now

Q: Is it standard to add "please" after a question?

10:04 AM

13

I was in a conversation with a client who asked me, "How are you?" I responded with "I am fine, thank you." I then followed up with, "How are you? Please." My manager asks why I append "please" and says it is not standard. Is she correct or is it OK to use please after my question?

lol

11:05 AM

Out of curiosity, where would you go for an opinion-based discussion regarding programming principles/technologies? programmers.se seems similarly against it. — JᴀʏMᴇᴇ 32 secs ago

11:21 AM

@JᴀʏMᴇᴇ: Not on Stack Exchange, which is a series of Q&As, not a series of discussion forums. The internet's a huge place — I'm sure you can find somewhere appropriate. There's even the Stack Exchange chatrooms (there's one for Programmers.SE!). And, y'know, talking to people in real life. — Lightness Races in Orbit 43 secs ago

2:29 PM

where is everyone

don't say programming

enderland

holiday in usa

> Is there a way, the operation to write short and the warning to suppress?

@enderland that was yesterday

& plenty of non-USA people here

user55340

Many USA people take today off too, even though its not an official holiday. Its "Black Friday" - they're all out shopping.

2:52 PM

@Ixrec makes sense, I don't really struggle to work out bits of code in notepad when I need to do quick fixes and don't want to wait on full tooling to load. I do however remember highlighting (and especially intellisense) seeming absolutely fantastical when I first started using visual studio ages ago.

3:09 PM

oh, fur feck's sake

@MichaelT would have thought they'd all be at home chatting on the internet

3:28 PM

tell me i have to do plz — K.H.Nagaradder 28 mins ago

Q: Is it appropriate to send an email to a professor at the end of the semester thanking them for their teaching?

5:58 PM

57

I'm aware of very similar questions previously asked - all with good answers. These usually pertain to following up with a professor after a recommendation. My question is specifically about sending a thank you letter to a professor at the end of a semester. My current semester is ending in thr...

etiquette professors

more workplace.se lols

how do these people get through life without a hand to hold

Hi @Lightness, nice to see you again

@JohanLarsson I bet

I wrote the most beautiful lib in the world.

@JohanLarsson liblarsson?

Gu.Units, have not merged to master yet

Going back to work to finish the wpf companion lib now

6:13 PM

ok

never returning to the c++ room?

I don't know what happened but then I don't pick up nuances

Your question presumes that @Lightness is single threaded.

I always do

6:39 PM

@JohanLarsson nah

@JohanLarsson nothing really "happened" - I just decided it wasn't worth my time and energy any more

people make decisions all the time

I made a few similar ones in my real life around the same time

negativity has been expunged and now I only bother with worthwhile people :)

I highly recommend it. when you realise you don't actually owe anyone anything everything becomes a lot easier and more stress-free

like the wind

yes

I'm writing parsers with only static methods to squeeze out max of C#

Not because it is needed for anything :)

but it is friday

that sounds dreadful tbh

Because it's Black Friday.

@LightnessRacesinOrbit C# 6 now allows you to specify static methods without the static class name prepended to them. "Free" functions, in other words.

6:53 PM

@LightnessRacesinOrbit a bit but it is small internal things

@RobertHarvey that sounds great!

Not very useful imo, exceptiion being Math and perhaps Assert

Or a matter of getting used to idk.

@LightnessRacesinOrbit I think most all C++ folks would fall in love with C# if they were given much opportunity to really work with it. They would still write horrible code if ex-C++ dev's C# that I've seen is any indicator, but they would all absolutely love it to death.

set only and dollar strings are nice though

@JohanLarsson this has been my thought on it as well, though I'm used to free functions in Haskell in basically the same fashion, so I may actually like the resultant change in readability it provides

6:56 PM

I don't use anything but Dockerfile format now

I hope rust becomes huge, looks so nice.

Would be sweet to be able to write nice code that runs fast.

That's what she said

var format = "{0:F1 mm}";
QuantityFormat<LengthUnit> actual;
var success = StringFormatParser.TryParse(format, out actual);
Assert.AreEqual(true, success);
Assert.AreEqual(null, actual.PrePadding);
Assert.AreEqual("F3", actual.ValueFormat);
Assert.AreEqual(" ", actual.Padding);
Assert.AreEqual("mm", actual.SymbolFormat);
Assert.AreEqual(null, actual.PostPadding);

ew

^ {PrePadding, Padding, PostPadding}

don't love it, gimme some engrish

7:00 PM

o.O

@JohanLarsson the hell is this?

correct

@JimmyHoffa context

flame

@JohanLarsson are you the same person I saw in F# a while back creating an entire units library from T3 templates? Blech, that was such a mess

Yes, the same

Small rewrite now

And it happens to be the most beautiful thing in the world

7:03 PM

yeah, I think when you did that I pointed out how crazy overwrought it was for something that could be done more easily with clearer non-code-generation techniques

*T4

T4 is messy

yes it is

it has a place but where you used it was ... a good learning exercise for the technology, but not a good use for it

@JimmyHoffa the reuse potential is nice

Also nice with types, no more Rotate(double angleInDegrees)

yes I recall, you were quite smitten with it; it could be done using typical polymorphic approaches though and requiring zero code generation which is overly complex and messy

so you're trying to create string formatters for your units?

finished, the tests pass

And they parse/roundtrip

7:09 PM

CR got a site redesign; go post it

Yeah, been thinking about it, was not sure about composite string formats like that

or how many overloads to expose

@JimmyHoffa I had them as generic classes first but that was slow and messy

Rewrote them as generated structs and now they are lightning fast

did you know there's no such thing as lightning

maybe it is so fast you never noticed?

there is only electricity

I am lightness so I think I'd know Johan

7:15 PM

Sounds like a variation on "there is no spoon." There is only that which we give meaning to by virtue of having senses and a brain. Or by writing code.

there is no CPU, it's just a VM in the cloud

posted it, you'll fix them commas right lightness?

your commas are fine though

@RobertHarvey there is no "there is no spoon"

@LightnessRacesinOrbit ty ty

there are only simples arranged spoon-wise

7:26 PM

bbiab

uh-oh, close vote queue is over 20 again

that hasn't happened in weeks

user55340

7:44 PM

sciencefriday.com/segments/…

I think, though not sure, that you can ask it on programmers.stackexchange.com — Jorge Campos 26 secs ago

9:09 PM

This question would me much better fit for Programmers Stack Exchange. I believe it is off topic on SO. — The Law 52 secs ago

A: When should I vote to delete answers that I wouldn't flag?

9:25 PM

"somehow someone introduces us to OOP, and voila, problems are solved." - no. No. No!!! — Doc Brown 33 mins ago

LOL

> I would like to get some objective opinions of Java as a language today.

we are never going to run out of delete-worthy broken windows, are we?

user15026

@Ixrec People will just keep making new windows. :P

user55340

10:03 PM

That was interesting... delete votes vs down votes for answers on various SE sites:

user55340

site           delete    down   total   del/down
Math             1465    7813   756468  18.75%
Code Review        56     326    49733  17.17%
English          1273    7911   158652  16.09%
Gaming            570    5172   102784  11.02%
Programmers       268    3445   126504   7.77%
EnglishLL          78    1148    36889   6.79%
MathOverflow       48     780   105753   6.15%
StackOverflow   11799  281664 17323405   4.18%
ServerFault       237    6279   366173   3.77%
SuperUser         360    9621   444827   3.74%

MetaFight

C# vs Java. Discuss.

(white noise helps me sleep)

user55340

@MetaFight ambient-mixer.com

user55340

10:19 PM

@gnat thank you. Added.

gnat

10:38 PM

@MichaelT FWIW Jeff's emphasis on popular questions seems to be because initially this guidance was targeted to diamond mods who can give sufficient attention only to very few questions. I pondered a bit about this at MSO

user55340

@gnat at many sites, moderators appear to have abdicated the role of curator except with authoritative heavy handiness is required. This is probably unfortunate.

user55340

(context for others)

user55340

4

The general SE guidance is covered in Why and how are some answers deleted? Answers that do not fundamentally answer the question may be removed. This includes answers that are: commentary on the question or other answers asking another, different question “thanks!” or “me too!” r...

user55340

I was personally rather surprised to find Code Review so high in the % of answers with delete votes on them.

did moderators ever have a "curator" role? I've always been told they're "glorified janitors", and it's community voting that distinguishes good content from bad (but not quited nuked-by-the-janitor bad) content

@MichaelT I'm still not sure if the ratios tell us which sites are deleting a lot or which are downvoting very little

user55340

10:44 PM

Its more a "how cohesive is the delete voting culture on the site"

user55340

For example, I don't expect bikes to be deleting much.

user55340

However, since Skeptics is so low, I'm actually suspecting they do delete quite a bit and are very cohesive about it.

user55340

However, that doesn't say if its mods doing the curation role, or trusted users.

"cohesive"?

user55340

There are only three answers on skeptics that have delete votes and aren't deleted.

10:46 PM

oooooh, those are answers not yet deleted

user55340

Yep.

user55340

Given that posts get deleted (I believe they do), they are very consistent about their delete votes.

in our case that's probably just a sign that we don't have enough answer delete voters to be "cohesive"

user55340

RPG is also very cohesive / consistent too. I'll add that one in.

user55340

Maybe.

user55340

10:49 PM

For answers, P.SE is only at 2.72% down voted answers on undeleted questions.

user55340

>
As mentioned above, this is not deleted answers. The reason that this is slightly more useful is because once you go down the 'deleted answers' route you start having to decide if you want to filter out the answers on deleted questions, or answers deleted by mods, or answers converted to comments by mods, or answers that are negatively scoring that were deleted when the user was deleted, and so on. The undeleted answers with delete votes on them probably gives the best view into the current trusted user voting patterns... and things where very few may indicate a more active trusted user d…

11:48 PM

@MichaelT There are some problems with your answer.

user55340

@RobertHarvey certainly a possibility.

Firstly, moderators generally do not evaluate answers based on their technical merit, but not for the reason you suggest.

You state that it's because it bears some relation to the question, when in fact moderators aren't actually presented with the question when evaluating answers.

Hence, there is a strong tendency to evaluate the answer on its own merits, irrespective of the question.

user55340

When presented with the complete text of the question and answer in a meta post, they often still refuse to reconsider the flag.

user55340

Though note that I'm painting with a very wide brush there - all SE moderators. Not just SO.

When people get confused about the "Not an Answer" flag, it's because they think that it's the moderator's job to evaluate the answer within the question context. It is empatically not so.

11:51 PM

I suspect if they thought that UI limitation was a problem it would get changed pretty quickly

Unnecessary. It's not the job of a mod to evaluate answers based on whether they answer the question or not. That's what votes are for.

On the other hand, 20K users can take a much more active role in curation, as you already suggested.

I always assumed that, for moderators, answers have to be evaluated on their own as a matter of principle because you simply can't assume that for any given question there will be a moderator familiar enough with the subject to tell when an answer is totally useless

Exactly right.

A: How many monitors do you use? Why? How they are used?

in theory there are more 20k users than moderators so they're more likely to have a guy who understands any random question with a meh answer

(I'm not sure how true this is outside of SO, but SO is the only site that matters, etc)

user55340

36

This is my current configuration: I continue to recommend a triple monitor setup because it gives you a "center", and it's the practical sweet spot (or limit, if you will) for head turning anyway.

11:54 PM

Users are not bound by the same foundational principles as moderators are. True, they can act as a user rather than a moderator, and many of us do just that. But there's a difference: the moderator vote is binding.

user55340

Whee! Jeff, accepted answer and a wonderful image that is.

Eh, that's a poll question. Can we get a mod to unlock it, so that it can be disposed of properly?

cue a rehash of the "why can't moderators cast non-binding votes" issue

it appears to have been locked by Yannis

The answer to that debate has always been "If you're afraid to use your binding vote in the same places you would use an ordinary vote, you probably shouldn't be a moderator."

But the fact remains that mods are supposed to be blind to the subject matter, for the most part.

I do buy the argument that moderators should not be switching between mod hat and user hat whenever they feel like it, because that inevitably tempts one to use one hat's powers for the other hat's goals, and for that reason moderator non-binding votes would be bad

assuming that's equivalent to what you said, which I think it sort of is