The Third Bit

I had a lot of interesting conversations while at SIGCSE last week, but the best talk I attended was given by Microsoft’s Andrew Begel, who spent a year studying the problems new college graduates face in their first software development job. The takeaway:

New developers’ problems are mainly due to poor communication, not technical skills.

What do new developers do?

• Programming (reading >> writing, commenting, proofreading)
• Working on bugs ((repro, reporting, triage) >> debugging)
• Testing (writing, running)
• Revision Control (check in, check out, revert)
• Documentation (reading >> writing, search)
• Specifications (reading >> writing)
• Tools (discovering, finding, installing, using, building)
• Communication (asking questions, persuasion, coordination, email, meetings, meeting prep, finding people, managers, teaching, learning, mentoring)

New developers are good at:

• Programming
• Design
• Peer mentoring
• Using many strategies when debugging

They are bad at:

• Engaging a large, legacy codebase without using written docs
• Reproducing bugs
• Using new tools
• Reflecting on their own progress (knowing when they are stuck)

They interact naively with other team members when:

• Asking questions
• Triaging and resolving bugs
• Attending meetings

Beliefs of new developers:

I think this is really valuable work; it’d be great to see it repeated with new grad students…

Research, Teaching

Dr Dobb’s Journal has launched a new site called Dobbs Code Talk (apparently apostrophes are out of fashion .  Interesting collection of bloggers, with interesting things to say…

Uncategorized

There’s another Craft and DJ night at the Gladstone Hotel on Thursday, March 20.  Cover is only $7; see this Facebook page for details.

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0540: Awake. The city is still outside my window.

0615: Yup, I’m still sick

0730: Bumped into Stephanie Ludi on my way to the conference center. I’ve borrowed a lot from her Student Survival Guide for my software engineering classes; nice to finally meet her in person.

0830: Half of the final exam for CSC301 has been written.

0900: Stephanie’s talk on a robotics camp for the visually impaired—looks like it was a lot of fun (and very noisy).

0930: Sam Kamin (author of my favorite book on programming languages) talking about extensible software for tablet PCs. Every day, I’m more impressed with the quality and passion of the people who’ve chosen to come to this conference.

1200: The session was called “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time”, and it was pretty funny. Lunch/reception, then it’s all over—wish I didn’t feel like crap .

1600: Powell’s is just as big as I remembered, and just as—I dunno. That many books in one place; where do you start?

1930: Killing time at the hotel—flight isn’t for another four hours.

0320 (or 0520, or 0620—take your pick): Why are the TVs in airport waiting lounges so loud? For that matter, why are there TVs there at all?

Teaching

0410: *whimper*

0545: OK, this is silly. Starbuck’s opened half an hour ago, the crazy guy shouting on the street is gone, it isn’t raining, and I have grant proposals to write.

0615: I have found my shoe!

0745: Back from Starbucks; rain has started, but first draft of two-page proposal for follow-on work to Software Carpentry has been written, and I haven’t misplaced any shoes.

1000: Spent an hour and a half with Jennifer and Karen talking to Stephen Edwards about Web-CAT. It’s very cool, and parts of OLM would complement it nicely.

1030: Session on “Learning for Professionals” learning about the professional master’s at Carnegie Mellon West, what new developers learn in their first year on the job (takeaway: most problems arise from inadequate communication skills), and parallel programming.

1200: Good discussion over lunch, followed by an hour of much-needed downtime.

1515: Another good discussion with Ray Bareiss about the Master’s in Software Engineering at Carnegie-Mellon West.

1815: Off to the Rogue Brewery to hook up with Jonathan Schaeffer and others.

2045: Back to the hotel—as good as the beer is (and it’s very good), I need sleep more.

Teaching

0800: Jeff at Documart tells me our 50 pre-prints will arrive at 1000—yay!

0815: Breakfast at Starbucks. It actually does taste better on the Left Coast.

1000: 50 pre-prints of our “CS-1 in Python” book arrive. They’re heavy.

1030: The panel I organized on “CS-1 for Scientists” starts. Room is half full, but people keep coming in, so by 1100 there are 110 (plus or minus), all awake. Christine Alvarado, Jennifer Campbell, Rubin Landau, and Robert Sedgewick do a great job; the audience is very engaged, and my voice doesn’t give out. Much discussion ensues; pre-prints are snapped up.

1200: On the train to go downtown for lunch (pecan-crusted catfish with mashed potatoes, and a pint of very nice amber ale). Much discussion there and back.

1400: The “Nifty Assignments” session is packed, so chat with Valerie Barr, Beth Simon, Bob Sedgewick (again), Mark Guzdial, and others.

1635: Another rendition of “Personal Penguin” via phone for Maddie. Hate being away from family.

1715: Hook up with Bill Griswold and head for the BOFs and reception at the Hilton. Sun is coming out.

1800: BOF on algorithm visualization is a bust.

1900: Web-CAT user group meeting is definitely not — need to talk to these people some more.

2130: Back at the hotel; need sleep.

2215: Sleep… won’t… come…

Teaching

Check out this video from the weMap team — it’s a lot cooler than anything I did as an undergrad. And this one from Christian Muise would have been science fiction back in my day…

Teaching

Funny, but only until you’re in one of these…

Uncategorized

0515: Madeleine wakes up, so we do too.

0516: Discover that the “make louder” control is right next to the “alarm off” control on the clock radio. Sorry, Sadie.

0655: Realize that I left my business cards in the office. Again.

0730: Still in line at Pearson. Paul’s daughter Sage does not want to be made into chili.

0745: Still in line at Tim Horton’s.

0800: Yes, they still charge for wireless at Pearson. Way to be a world-class technology hub, Toronto.

0920: Rewriting an ITCDF funding proposal. Can’t see an unused electrical outlet for recharging my laptop. Way to etc., Toronto.

11130: lunch is a raspberry smoothie and a small pizza at O’Hare in Chicago. I’ve written half the ITCDF proposal, but need to finish the modules chapter for the CS1-in-Python book to print in Portland. Why isn’t wireless free? Why can’t people install electrical outlets for laptop users?

1400 (local time): on the ground in Portland. Modules chapter isn’t finished-finished, but it’s finished enough.

1520: PDF and cover art are on there way to Jeff at Documart; should have 50 copies to hand out at SIGCSE tomorrow. Hungry. Sky is gray, but there are blossoms on the cherry trees, and no snow.

1730: Get in line for on-site registration.

1750: The guy in front of me who’s angry about being told that it wouldn’t cost more to register on site, but jeez, he’s not sure he kept the email to forward to the guy behind the desk who’s sure that no one would have told him that, and hey, you’re using HTTPS for conference registration, right, because he doesn’t want his credit card information flying around through the air for anyone to read, is still angry.

1800: Still in line.

1810: Registered—but yup, the guy keying in the data from the paper form I had to fill out forgot to key in that I wanted a printed copy of the proceedings to read. Not getting back in line for it.

1815: It has started to rain. Jennifer and I will collect Michele and then find something to eat.

1930: Freckled lemonade… mmm…

2010: It takes two minutes and ten seconds to sing all four verses of “Personal Penguin” to my daughter over the phone. Time for bed.

0215: Why am I awake? *sigh*

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Toronto’s second StartupCamp will be held at the Carlu on Tuesday, April 29.  I might even be able to make it to this one!

DemoCamp