Why do so few women work in Software?

veryangryman

Lads i only do black box testing. Keep that code away from me! :eek:

jellie

Naikon wrote: »

Managing good programmers can be similar to herding cats:pac:
I am not implying that you are a tyrant, but coders hate micromanagement.

For all my coding projects, well commented code is the best form
of documentation. Flowcharts/UML ect really only apply to large systems.

yes. if people would comment code it would make their (& my) life a lot easier. and would save me from dealing with the chaos that happens when i get an angry developer going "my code has been changed, WTF :mad:"

fergalr wrote: »

Its like the difference between playing Poker and playing Chess. Sure, in a long number of games, the better poker players will end up with more money - but a very bad poker player can beat a very good poker player in any given tournament - whereas a very good chess player will almost always beat a very bad chess player in each game.

I'm saying that software development, specifically coding, is very much more like Chess.

There are certainly soft skills that are important, and harder to test for - but there are also a core set of skills and competencies that are easily examinable and verifiable.

...

You can't ask a civil engineer out of college to show you a working bridge they've built, or a recently qualified barrister to tell you about cases they've done. But you can ask a software engineer to show you a working piece of software they've wrote.

Before I even got an interview for my job we were screened with a short quiz/test. Stuff like those "if XYZ is on 1 side of the river and wants to get to the other side but X cant be left with Z" etc etc.

I thought it was an interesting way to see who has a maths/logic brain. If you cant get through the simple problems you probably cant get through a programming task

I had written a response to the rest of your post, but figured i was getting a bit too into my own work situation and serious for an AH thread :P However, i appreciate the advice & will try have a look out for the stuff mentioned. & I wont shoot you, i have no problem admitted i have feck all experience

veryangryman

Oh if i was a mod there would be so many dead bodies now for the lack of "on topic" posts

:mad:

TheZohanS

veryangryman wrote: »

Oh if i was a mod there would be so many dead bodies now for the lack of "on topic" posts

:mad:

If you have a problem with a post Report it.

Thanks.

doubtfir3

Turd Ferguson wrote: »

Because you cant cook or wash software

maybe not, but you _can_ burn it..

Sheeps

I think the problem starts in secondary school. The problem is the method in which subjects are taught. If I had have known that trigonometry or matrices and vectors were standard in computer graphics I'd have payed more attention back when I was learning them for the Junior Cert. The problem is that when learning in school, these ideas are just abstract concepts that you can't really put context on. If you were to learn giving a practical example or use for the things you were learning then people may have more initiative to learn or become interested in a certain subject. It probably applies more to girls, because it might be harder for them to draw an association with something they would typically have no interest or knowledge of (IT and computing).

Kernel

women != logical

Procasinator

man != logical either.

Should be expressed as similar to:

woman.characteristics.contains("logic"); // if a woman does not contain logic, returns false

However, it should not be assumed that every implementation of a woman does not necessarily lack logic. It varies per implementation.

Sorry for the pedantic nerd post

fergalr

sar84 wrote: »

Before I even got an interview for my job we were screened with a short quiz/test. Stuff like those "if XYZ is on 1 side of the river and wants to get to the other side but X cant be left with Z" etc etc.

I had to solve that puzzle (a fox, a duck, and some corn) in an adventure race last year, on the corrib, using kayaks.

And, in case anyone thinks this is off topic...
My teammate was a woman and she was just as good as it as me...

Gyalist

I'd like to know why most of the female software engineers that I know seem to have an abnormal interest in rock climbing and BDSM.

jellie

Kernel wrote: »

women != logical

if (Kernel == single)
{
women = logical;
}
else
{
women[] = !logical;
women[] = crazy;
}

:pac:

(i havent predefined my variables so i dont care if women is different in the if and the else before you go correcting me. you can do crazy variable crap in php anyway)

Procasinator

sar84 wrote: »

(i havent predefined my variables so i dont care if women is different in the if and the else before you go correcting me. you can do crazy variable crap in php anyway)

You can indeed, but that doesn't look like PHP. In PHP, variables always have a $ beforehand.

Just saying..
:P

limericklassy

Couldnt do the programming all day. it would do my head in. I am in networks.
I can read a map but "do not" do the rock climbing. I like the scuba diving tho.

Procasinator

class Woman {
	public void giveALogicalResponse(Medium medium, Person person, Question question) throws LogicalResponseRequestedForPartnerException {
		if (person instanceof Partner) {
			throw new LogicalResponseRequestedForPartnerException(this.getRantingAndRaving());
		} else {
			medium.deliverMessage(person, this.getLogicalResponse(question));
		}
	}
}

Other implementation details left out for brevity.

jimmycrackcorm

Women don't work in Software for the same reason that they'd prefer to watch Eastenders than that BBC2 documentary two weeks ago about Sir Clive Sinclair competing with the Atom guys.

Kernel

sar84 wrote: »

if (Kernel == single)
{
women = logical;
}
else
{
women[] = !logical;
women[] = crazy;
}

:pac:

Kernel single, pffft! Quality man doesn't stay on the shelf for long brother! :cool:

jellie

Procasinator wrote: »

You can indeed, but that doesn't look like PHP. In PHP, variables always have a $ beforehand.

Just saying..
:P

i also didnt add the
<?php
?>

bold me :rolleyes:

fergalr

Procasinator wrote: »

class Woman {
	public void giveALogicalResponse(Medium medium, Person person, Question question) throws LogicalResponseRequestedForPartnerException {
		if (person instanceof Partner) {
			throw new LogicalResponseRequestedForPartnerException(this.getRantingAndRaving());
		} else {
			medium.deliverMessage(person, this.getLogicalResponse(question));
		}
	}
}

Other implementation details left out for brevity.

That would throw an exception if the person was an instance of partner, but not necessarily a partner of the object the method was called on. Are you sure that's desired behaviour? Looks like a bug to me.


Also - women always rant and rave at their partners when asked for a logical response?? Sounds more like you need to post this in PI.

TPD

The worst thing about this thread is that I understand it.

Creamy Goodness

The Perfect Drug wrote: »

The worst thing about this thread is that I understand it.

would it not be everyone using java examples?

Procasinator

fergalr wrote: »

That would throw an exception if the person was an instance of partner, but not necessarily a partner of the object the method was called on. Are you sure that's desired behaviour? Looks like a bug to me.


Also - women always rant and rave at their partners when asked for a logical response?? Sounds more like you need to post this in PI.

Very true, it should rather be something along the lines of:

if (person.isPartnerOf(this)) {
    [...]
}

As not everyone would have there own unique Partner instance (although, some do like to believe in soul mates).

Good spot!

As for the ranting and raving.. well, it's hyperbole for the sake of humour. :P

stupidusername

i am female, and have just completed four years in software development, got a 2.1! Now looking to start doing websites for local companies.


And i'm very good at reading maps!

thebman

Ok code jokes aren't funny and even if they were, one would be enough thanks lads.

We don't need the same joke in each language with broken syntax while people are claiming women can't write code in the same thread.

dvpower

Procasinator wrote: »

That won't work, you conditions are all wrong. For starters, the compare operator is == not =. Secondly, this will compare the Object reference rather than the actual contents (bad for strings).

Use burd.equals("yes"), or maybe more appropriately equalsIgnoreCase.

And variable naming: massive? As in large?

You would have been better commenting these variables rather than the start/end of the if and else statements - we can figure out how the language works, thanks.

If it wasn't for the content of the program, the quality would suggest that you were a girl. (I joke, I joke) :P

OP. This post is the answer to your question.

Procasinator

dvpower wrote: »

OP. This post is the answer to your question.

Explain? Women don't like being told their code doesn't work?

veryangryman

Yeah i bumped this

Big woop, wanna fight about it?

stupidusername

Ya, actually I do!