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Comment by danieltillett | Hacker News Reader

I am also not a “rock star” developer and I would have no chance of answering all the language trivia questions in an interview, but despite this I have managed to solve complex problems that nobody else seemed to be able to.

On the topic of language trivia is there anyone out there that can keep it all in their head? I only spend about 25% of my time writing code and I need to work in 5 languages (C, Java, JavaScript, PHP and ObjC) on 5 different platforms (Linux, Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android). I find it impossible to keep more than a limited amount of all the detail in my brain at any time. How do you geniuses do it?

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I work on a daily basis in javascript (server side jscript and node, and client side browser/extensions), vbscript, php and t-sql (and occasionally golang and ruby).

I mostly handle it by trying to stay in one "mode" for as long as possible. For example, I'll try to get all of my vbscript code done first, then the j(ava)script interop code, which are both server side, then I'll write the needed database code, then move to working in the browser once I have a stable api to work with. I try not to mix them unless I'm doing maintenance that requires slicing through all the layers.

I keep the documentation for all of the systems open so that I can quickly reference the stuff I forget. I just try to keep the major stuff "in cache", and then I remember the broad strokes and look that stuff up when needed. In addition to the official documentation, I have a directory of old code examples that I can lean on when I have to remember how to do some uncommon or rare things.

Even then, I still often use brackets in my vbscript and "end functions" in my javascript/php code. It's just a hazard of working in multiple languages environments that I've learned to live with.

This is pretty much the way I work too, but I find it hard to block in a good amount of time just in one language.

One thing I have found is that having separate monitors and keyboards for the different languages help me. I have a bank of them set up on a long bench and I slide from one to the other as needed. When I use this approach I am able to get back into the swing much faster than switching desktops on the one monitor/keyboard setup. There is something about changing the physical set up that helps me switch mentally.

That's not a bad idea.

I dealt with it by specializing on the C#-Windows platform. Allows me to hold 5x the language trivia I would able to hold if I worked on 5 different languages and platforms :P.

It's easier in the .NET world because a lot of shops for better or worse go pure Microsoft so there is a standard set of technologies and accompanying trivia you can learn. Unfortunately you won't get to work with best of breed products, but the upside is you'll get to familiarize yourself with enough technologies that you can get up and running fairly quickly.

   Language : C#
   Database : Sql Server
   ORM : Entity Framework
   IDE : Visual Studio + Resharper
   Client Side UI : WPF
   Web Server : IIS
   Web : Asp.net MVC/Classic etc...
   Client OS : Windows
   Server OS : Windows
   Development OS : Windows
   Cloud : Azure
   Logging : NLog or Log4Net
   Code Generation : T4   
   Source Control : TFS 
   Build Server : TFS
   Unit Testing : MSTest
   Build language : MSBuild
   Deployment : Wix or ClickOnce
   Mocking Framework : Moq or Fakes
   etc...

(This list is ignoring many of the different technologies that have been discarded by Microsoft such as winforms, COM, VB6, etc..)

Yes I am sure specialisation helps, but as you have rightly pointed out the amount of stuff you need to know even with one language/one platform is enormous.

It's insane. At one point I was fully fluent in C#, Silverlight, all the HTML/CSS/Javascript necessary to successfully embed Silverlight, MVC/MVVM, SQL implementation and design, etc etc etc etc... Being a full stack .NET programmer is just as crazy as being a full stack Javascript.

I was a VB6/winforms expert at one point. Remember ADO? How about RDO? And when I say 'expert' I mean I made VB6 stand up and beg. Full error trapping, NT services, multi-tasking. I've forgotten more than many people know. Never mind all the other languages that have led me up to this point like Pascal and assembly.

That drives me nuts. Too often I put a semicolon in Python or fail to use one in Go.

Why do you want to remember any such details, when you can always look them up?

I wonder the same thing. My code snippet database and the Google references have nearly everything I would need. But that doesn't work in an interview. They want to see you code on the spot with no backup resources including Google. They are looking for savants but they aren't paying the salaries to match the skills.

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