• JokerPokerUberSmoker (unregistered)

    Also, UK keyboards have the £ sign as Shift+3, US keyboards have the # sign for the same key stroke ...

    Maybe he was using a UK keyboard with a US locale ...

    Although let's be honest, that doesn't excuse the rest of his 'knowledge'

  • (cs)

    When did MS move Character Map into "System Tools" and not install it by default? That's a separate WTF itself.

  • (cs)

    I don't really think simply not knowing that it's called C-sharp is that bad; it's almost always typed C#, even by Microsoft, so unless you've heard someone talking about it (which you might well not have, when it was new) you would surely just assume that it was a hash? (/pound/number/octothorp, depending on dialect.)

    I know a few people who are perfectly competent using SQL, but insist on pronouncing it 'Sequel', and also one who pronounces it 'Squirrel', though I think he just does that to annoy. Similarly, some people pronounce 'Linux' with 'lie' as the first syllable.

    Obviously, though, this particular candidate was horribly incompetent.

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to rsynnott

    If anyone is mildly interested, google for just intonation or equal temperament to see why C# != Db

    ^_^

  • Anon (unregistered)

    You guys all must be real youngsters. Al Stevens developed a language called D-Flat for Dr. Dobb's Journal and ran a long series of articles that ran from about 1989 to 1991. A few of them are archived on the DDJ site. Ignore the date at the top of the article and instead note the references to the new book published in 1991 and the instructions to get the source code: The D-Flat source code is on CompuServe in Library 0 of the DDJ Forum and on M&T Online. If you cannot use either online service. send a formatted 360K or 72OK diskelle [sic].

  • ThingGuy McGuyThing (unregistered) in reply to Guran

    We went through this last time. I think the end result was - as in most arguments over semantics - "it depends on the context"

    C# == Db C# !== Db

  • (cs) in reply to Bezalel
    Bezalel:
    The correct name should be C-number, C-pound is written as C£.

    But C-number is C№. I vote for C-grid.

    Heh-heh, cultural differences are fun...

  • (cs) in reply to Nathan Taylor
    Nathan Taylor:
    That he considers string concatination to be a nontrivial demonstration of his .NET talents is just about the most hilarious and/or terrible thing I've ever come across.

    ps: CAPTCHA: "ewww" indeed :V

    Dim Slogan as String
Slogan = "J" & "is a good " & "canidate!"

    This creates a variable with "Jis a good canidate!". Besides spelling the last word wrong, he's also suggesting we spill seminal fluid on him.

    Dim Slogan As String
Slogan = String.Concat("", "this is", "simple."

    Does that really compile?

  • Sheik Yerbouti (unregistered) in reply to Andrew

    You are the moron here. The best answer to any question that requires "adding up he first 100 integers then outputting the sum", is indeed "ogle this question and write the answer here." For plus points, Google Gauss and kindergarten and arithmetic progressions.

  • iToad (unregistered)

    Everybody knows that C# is not called C-Pound. It's supposed to be called C-Octothorpe.

  • (cs) in reply to savar
    savar:
    Nathan Taylor:
    That he considers string concatination to be a nontrivial demonstration of his .NET talents is just about the most hilarious and/or terrible thing I've ever come across.

    ps: CAPTCHA: "ewww" indeed :V

    Dim Slogan as String
Slogan = "J" & "is a good " & "canidate!"

    This creates a variable with "Jis a good canidate!". Besides spelling the last word wrong, he's also suggesting we spill seminal fluid on him.

    Dim Slogan As String
Slogan = String.Concat("", "this is", "simple."

    Does that really compile?

    Of course, the REAL WTF(tm) is that the samples given as "C#" aren't even C#, but VB.NET.

  • Hiring manager (unregistered)

    The real WTF is trying to hire a software developer based on experience with ".NET, C#". That's a sure-fire way to end up with mediocre employees. When I interview candidates for development positions I focus on more fundamental issues such as object-oriented analysis and design, structured programming, algorithms, database theory, configuration management, lifecycle models, etc. If a candidate is intelligent and has a solid foundation in fundamental development skills then he should be able to learn a new language and standard library in a matter of days. On the other hand, if someone only knows C#, .NET, and SQL but is weak on the fundamentals then he's going to fail at developing anything large and complex.

    Of course, if you're hiring a contractor for a short-term project rather than a permanent employee, it does make more sense to focus on specific technical skills. You don't want to be paying for contractors to learn.

  • (cs) in reply to Badger

    I just finished working on a system where I was forced to do this. really, really, really annoying

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Theo
    Theo:
    I wonder if he earned many C-Dollars in his new job.

    Er... Canadian Dollars? :)

  • (cs) in reply to Guran
    Guran:
    AssimilatedByBorg:
    Rennie:
    DrkMatter:
    I actually used to refer to C-Sharp as C-Number.

    I always refer to it as "D-flat".

    Sometimes I get snickers, other times I get blank looks.

    Damnation, you beat me to it :-)

    That's my favourite too... lets you spot the musician geeks in an instant. (B-double-sharp is just too many syllables...)

    Though any musician geek worth his salt would know that (C# != Db)

    It depends on the temperment, of course.

    Addendum (2007-05-30 01:31): Alas, beaten to it.

  • sanitarium (unregistered) in reply to rsynnott
    rsynnott:
    I don't really think simply not knowing that it's called C-sharp is that bad; it's almost always typed C#, even by Microsoft, so unless you've heard someone talking about it (which you might well not have, when it was new) you would surely just assume that it was a hash? (/pound/number/octothorp, depending on dialect.)

    I know a few people who are perfectly competent using SQL, but insist on pronouncing it 'Sequel', and also one who pronounces it 'Squirrel', though I think he just does that to annoy. Similarly, some people pronounce 'Linux' with 'lie' as the first syllable.

    Obviously, though, this particular candidate was horribly incompetent.

    According to linus thorvalds, either way of saying it is ok. He himself is more along the lines lf leenux. ;)

  • Tarkeel (unregistered) in reply to rsynnott
    rsynnott:
    I know a few people who are perfectly competent using SQL, but insist on pronouncing it 'Sequel', and also one who pronounces it 'Squirrel', though I think he just does that to annoy.

    Actually, people who pronounce it "Sequel" are either oldies in the game, or pretend to be. The language was originally to be called Sequel, but that option had to be dropped (Wikipedia says it was Trademarked by a British aviation company, my prof at uni said it was because IBM already had a different project named Sequel). Thusly, it was condensed to SQL, and they found a name to fit it.

    Personally, I say SQL, except when refering to MySQL; which i pronounce like "muscle" with an y. Always throws people off.

  • BlueCollarAstronaut (unregistered) in reply to Tarkeel

    I pronounce it "sequel" because that's how I heard it referred to when I first heard of it. I continue to use that pronunciation because it's simpler than saying "es-que-el" (and I'm lazy). I suppose it depends on the audience, but that one seems like it's ubiquitous enough that people know what you're talking about when you say "sequel."

    I had some colleagues, however, that referred to a Multiple Document Interface as "mi-dee", which always made me think of Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

  • AnyMoose (unregistered)

    I've been in database development, report writing and management for eight years in the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast and everbody pronounces SQL as sequel.

  • Mauricio Moura' (unregistered) in reply to Dark

    A funny thing is that one of the words for # in portuguese is "tralha" (pronounced as trah-lee-a), that may also be translated as rubbish... so C-Tralha = C-Rubbish...

  • Enrique (unregistered)

    I've been saying SEQUEL since college; the prof who taught us DBMS said sequel and it just sticked. This was in 1992. A lot of people I know pronounce it sequel; some people say "esse koo elle" (I'm in Mexico, so that's how you say "es que ell" in Spanish) but almost everyone says sequel... mysequel, sequelserver, etc.

    The sad thing is that a lot of people think that SQL = SQLServer so when you start talking about SQL sentences in Oracle, Postgres, etc they get confused because they think you're talking about making the two servers talk to each other or something. Morons...

  • JL (unregistered) in reply to Spectre
    Spectre:
    Bezalel:
    The correct name should be C-number, C-pound is written as C£.

    But C-number is C№. I vote for C-grid.

    Heh-heh, cultural differences are fun...

    Everyone knows the correct pronounciation is "mesh". :)

  • No1 (unregistered) in reply to JL
    JL:
    Everyone knows the correct pronounciation is "mesh". :)

    ... or using "The Pronunciation Guide - version 2.5" copied on 19 Now 1995:

    CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe, hash, (garden) fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden) gate, hak, oof, rake, sink, corridor, unequal, punch mark

    I think that covers all bases :-)

    Well, back to work and "see hak" some more.

  • Annynonny Mouse (unregistered) in reply to No1
    No1:
    JL:
    Everyone knows the correct pronounciation is "mesh". :)

    ... or using "The Pronunciation Guide - version 2.5" copied on 19 Now 1995:

    CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe, hash, (garden) fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden) gate, hak, oof, rake, sink, corridor, unequal, punch mark

    I think that covers all bases :-)

    Well, back to work and "see hak" some more.

    I'm suddenly looking for work and am not sure how I will do compared to the huge numbers of C octothorpe programmers.

    Actually I'm more Perl/Python/C++ but don't worry, there are plenty of "11 on a scale of 1 to 5" types there too, the kind who burn a year and don't have their Hello World application running yet.

  • prof_hobart (unregistered) in reply to ajw
    ajw:
    One question required writing a function that added up the first 100 integers then outputting the sum. His answer was: "Google this question and write the answer here."

    So, something like 'return 100*101/2', then?

    Only if you can't read the question. It doesn't ask you to just calculate the value. It asks you to add them up.

    If you were asked to write a function to calculate the square root of 2 to 5 decimal places, do you think you'd get great marks for "Print 1.41421"?

  • number6 (unregistered) in reply to Rennie

    I say "B double-sharp", but even fewer people get that one.

  • number6 (unregistered) in reply to Guran

    Though any musician geek worth his salt would know that (C# != Db)

    Ah, that depends on the tuning. Are you referring to equal-temperament or well-temperament?

  • tonyb (unregistered)

    I always call it C-Hash as I used to use PRINT-hash in old line numbered basic (and even occasionally in vb6) to write to files. Also # is the double precision type identifier in M$ (M-String) versions of basic before vb.net so maybe it should have been called C-float.

  • (cs) in reply to No1
    No1:
    JL:
    Everyone knows the correct pronounciation is "mesh". :)

    ... or using "The Pronunciation Guide - version 2.5" copied on 19 Now 1995:

    CROSSHATCH, pound, pound sign, number, number sign, sharp, octothorpe, hash, (garden) fence, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, tictactoe, scratch (mark), (garden) gate, hak, oof, rake, sink, corridor, unequal, punch mark

    I think that covers all bases :-)

    Well, back to work and "see hak" some more.

    you missed noughts and crosses

  • Dan S. (unregistered) in reply to rsynnott
    rsynnott:
    I know a few people who are perfectly competent using SQL, but insist on pronouncing it 'Sequel', and also one who pronounces it 'Squirrel', though I think he just does that to annoy.

    Consider the history. Chamberlin and Boyce of IBM named the prototype Structured English Query Language (SEQUEL). See http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/chamberlin/sequel-1974.pdf

    As already mentioned, IBM changed it to SQL because SEQUEL was already a trademark of Hawker Siddeley aircraft company.

    When the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) first ratified SQL as a standard in 1986, their official pronunciation was "Ess Que Ell". Jim Melton, editor of the SQL-86 standard, also says that SQL stands for "SQL Query Language" and notes that this is a recursive acronym.

    I use both pronunciations interchangeably. When I programmed glue code to Informix databases in 1988, everyone I met pronounced it "sequel". In the late 90's I joined a software company who produced middleware that connected to dozens of different databases. Both pronunciations were used.

    When referring to implementations, I try to respect the manufacturer's pronunciation. For example:

    SQLite ("Ess Que Ell Light") http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5160435487953918649

    MySQL ("My Ess Que Ell") http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/what-is-mysql.html

    PostgreSQL ("Post Gres Que Ell") http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs.FAQ.html#item1.1

    Sybase SQL Server / Sybase SQL Anywhere Microsoft SQL Server HP NonStop SQL Pervasive PSQL / Pervasive.SQL DataDirect SequeLink (All use "sequel")

  • (cs) in reply to slavdude
    slavdude:
    Of course, the REAL WTF(tm) is that the samples given as "C#" aren't even C#, but VB.NET.

    Yeah, I had to go look it up to make sure (not a C# guy), but I was pretty certain C# wasn't overloading a unary operator for string concatenation.

  • C-coder (unregistered)

    Thanks for sharing that... priceless. There are some scary people out there!

    Why did someone bring up LISP in conversation today????

  • Arvind (unregistered)

    It is not right for the interviewer to make fun of a candidate just because he/she pronounces something differently. A Japanese would probably call C as "Shi", but that doesn't necessarily mean you are more intelligent than him.

  • Alex (unregistered) in reply to Arvind

    Also, it's really called C-Gartenzaun! What else?

  • chozang (unregistered)

    This sounds eerily familiar. Many things are heavily anonymized or composite, but I suspect that I was J.

    On the one hand, some things don't fit, like I don't think my grammar is all that bad. On the other hand, I clearly remember writing something like: Dim slogan as string = "C is a good canidate." (Spelling error and all.) Many other elements of the story sound very familiar. Although I was taking a C++ course, it was before I had gone back to school full-time. The author says that he was pretty clear about the level of experience required, but how many of you meet every single requirement listed in a job ad before applying? Based on the people I had met up until that time in the corporate world, I believed that I could be up to speed in almost any job in two months. I still sort of think that, assuming I had access to all of the necessary information. (I couldn't be an architect or a singer, though.)

    For many people, all they have to offer their employer is the information they've acquired over the years. Such people require jobs using that specific information.

    For other people, the biggest thing they have to offer is their processing power.

    Typical hiring manager: "I need someone with five years of experience in counting plums! You only have experience counting oranges!"

    Needless to say, this story involved a programming neophyte.

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