430gj9j

In the examples, 0x3bffffffffffffffff decodes to -18446744073709551616, which doesn't fit into int64_t. Why didn't they switch to bignums after INT64_MIN (-9223372036854775808) instead? Seems a bit asymmetric.

The full text is a little less alarmist: http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2013/world_health_assembly_20...

According to the original paper, 81% of SO users didn't provide their age, so to conclude that older programmers are more knowledgeable from this data seems unwarranted. The paper acknowledges however that SO population may not be a good proxy for the programming community in general:

Research into the nature of the SO population and its relation to the programmer population at large needs to be conducted, in order to support inferences to the programmer population. Further investigation is needed of how SO measures, such as user reputation and question scores translate in to programming knowledge and ability. Research on the relationship between age and knowledge on SO should be related to the existing literatures on aging and on the development of expertise.[1]

[1]: http://people.engr.ncsu.edu/ermurph3/papers/msr13.pdf

The programmer inadvertently used a vendor-specific feature. This is the key difference. Nobody writes perfect, standards-compliant code all the time, so the compiler needs to tell you when you are doing this.

A quote from Stroustrup:

"Use of a supplier's language extensions and non-standard-conforming features limits the portability of your code and can prevent you from choosing a new implementation supplier."

http://www.stroustrup.com/compilers.html

And also here: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/7... And again: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/7...

I'd love to see this with a little more curation. An example (there are more): calling Inmarsat a startup is a bit tenuous when they are LSE listed with a market cap of 2.8 billion.

This would be a great analogy if countries in grey shared a common language.

The article opens by quoting the NYTimes claiming the iPad's keyboard is "abysmal for typing anything over 140 characters", yet fails to address this point anywhere. Is touch as fast and accurate as a keyboard and mouse?

The key is the same length as the data, making this a one-time pad rather than XOR encryption. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad

Presumably you'd have to store the keys somewhere, given that only a savant would be able to memorise them. That somewhere will probably as easy to seize as the encrypted data.

Yes. In a previous version I was trying to bypass string caching to make x==y return false.

All languages have pitfalls. Including the author's beloved Java. For example:

   String x = "foo";
   String y = "foo";
   // Appears to work but compares references
   System.out.println(x[0] == x[1]);

There's no substitute for knowing your tools well.

Bear in mind you can't hover on a tablet.

Ask what isn't in Go that is in Scala. The Go authors deliberately left out certain features to focus on what they call "clarity of design". I don't see them ever adding XML literals for instance!

http://www.pythonect.org/ FTFY

No copying here:

  struct person { int age; };
  std::list<person> people;
  people.push_back(person());
  people.back().age = 42;

Last time I checked corporation tax was payable on profits, not turnover.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/getting-started/intro.htm

This made me think: do browsers assume square pixels? So that an N by N pixel image will appear square when displayed? Or is that the responsibility of the OS?

You're right, Python isn't beautifully minimal. But the Scheme version is boring ;)

Rather than asking the interview candidate to use recursion for a problem that shouldn't be solved using recursion (unless in a language where recursion is the idiomatic iteration method), it would be better to ask about a problem that is best solved using recursion rather than printing "Hello world" -- perhaps something from Project Euler (http://projecteuler.net/).

Python version:

    exec "print 'Hello world'\n" * 100

Bug: line 125 of application.js should read

if (index !== -1) value = value.slice(index + length);