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Comment by rimantas | Hacker News Reader

but have you used MySQL? Maybe I am too nitpicky, but I always get suspicious when people make claims about technology whose name they cannot spell right.

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We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12201577 and marked it off-topic.

That's a bit of a silly complaint – capitalisation in loads of projects is something that lots of people are uncertain about (and, let's be honest, not really that important). Despite having used Mongo for ages, I could not tell you off the top of my head if it's usually rendered as MongoDB, Mongodb, mongodb or something else; that lack of knowledge has no impact on my knowledge of the technology.

He also spelled Postgres "postgres" ;)

In this case, Fabian's CV (linked from his GitHub profile, linked from his HN profile) does claim MySQL experience - correctly capitalized.

But yes, I also get suspicious when people can't spell a technology correctly. For example, anyone who has spent time reading some documentation will know that Lua is capitalized in title case, and not written LUA.

Really? I will claim you will not meet many engineers who know more about Tcl than I do, and I can't remember whether it's TCL or Tcl. The absence of that knowledge has not impeded me from editing the Tcl interpreter itself.

I am not convinced such pedantic measure of spelling is an accurate predictor of knowledge, to me it sounds more like elitism.

Table manners, itsy-bitsy rules for itsy-bitsy people as Robert Pirsig put it.

Or, table stakes to distinguish folks worth spending time on & folks not worth spending time on. Since it's so easy to get the little things right, anyone who doesn't is just a bit suspect.

It's like discarding resumés which arrive with large food stains on them. It's just too easy to print off a clean copy, that anyone who doesn't must be a bit off.

Using insignificant details as hints is probably a valid strategy, especially when you have to make quick decisions with limited information. But they are not primary indicators and are hardly worth their own comment. This entire thread is off topic and of dubious value.

In Lua's case I agree that spelling is a predictor, but only because if you ever type LUA somewhere in the internet there is a 100% chance of someone showing up to correct you :) Its actually a bit funny.

You wouldn't want to work with me, then. I've used lua for years, and couldn't care less about capitalization. What I do care about is the code.

The correct spelling is "MariaDB".

Yes this, it's Xcode not xCode people

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