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by caleblloyd 3540 days ago
Fireable offense? Software Development is a profession, it's not coding school. Junior Devs are expected to have have an education, written code before, and know the basics. If they write something so crazy that it induces a chuckle, it's probably pretty bad. By all means tell them how to fix it, but don't mask the fact that the job they are getting paid to do expects them to know how to do this.

Maybe an analogy would do better. In the Army, Soldiers go through basic training and are taught just that - the basics. Once they show up at a unit, they will have lots of questions and lots to learn. But if they show up with their name patch velcroed upside-down on their uniform, I guarantee their Sergeant is going to chuckle before they tell the Soldier to turn it right-side up.

2 comments

Yeah, there's an obvious lack of details in the story that should preclude judgement of the poster.

I've seen people write things like: if (true == true)

I won't be mean to you about it, but I can't promise I won't chuckle a little before explaining why that's unnecessary. If you've been working in a professional setting for 3 years and are writing code like that, then yeah, I might struggle to be empathetic.

> I've seen people write things like: if (true == true)

Which, if you make that an === in JavaScript, can actually make sense in some situations :)

Can you give an example? I can't think of any situation to literally write if (true === true) rather than just if (true). (If anything.)
Sorry I not only mis-read but mistyped and I can't edit or modify my original post. Please ignore it :(
I've never waded into JavaScript, so I'll take your word for it. I've heard some...surprising...things about JavaScript, so I'm not really taken aback that this might exist.

I'm referencing a time when I was in school, and most everything was taught in Java, where that doesn't make sense. This was written by someone who was almost finished their degree and had already started at their professional job. Definitely junior, but I still feel like that's stretching the acceptable level of noobishness. That said, I have an EE degree, so maybe had to solve / reduce a lot more boolean algebra expressions than a straight CS major?

Your comparison is apple and orange if you think a person's education in software is comparable to an army. in army, the training is real hands on. rigid. while learning how to code is never a real hands on, always partly figuring out on your own, thus each person having more various understanding/competency on how to do the job.