頂級程式員的心得 –- Coders at Work
說明：這篇文章是我 2010 年的原創，但是發現 csdn 的版本把格式全部搞壞了，原文在這里
我2009年讀了 “Coders at Work”, 這是作者對15 位頂級程式員的采訪， 總共600頁， 從采訪的模式看，有點像“藝術人生”，一般都是音樂起，講小時候的故事，你怎么開始寫程式的? (Brad 同學 5 歲開始寫) ；不過后來并沒有神秘嘉賓上場，也沒有聲淚俱下的宣泄， 無論如何，這些看似冗長的問答中有不少精辟的言論，我摘錄了一些關于挑選，面試程式員，優秀程式員的特點，和程式設計的句子，下面是這些程式員的心得和我的幾句解釋：
| Coder | 他們的心得 | 我的理解 |
|---|---|---|
| Jamie Zawinski, LISP hacker, early Netscape developer, nightclub owner | Stay away from big fan of C++ templates; Ability to argue their point is important. Curiosity is a key skill for programmers. There are people graduating with CS degrees who’d never written C. They started in java and they stayed there. That just seemed bizarre and wrong. | 不喜歡過度崇拜C++ 模板的程式員； 程式員的表達能力，說服能力好奇心很重要； 很多學生拿到了CS 學位，但是從來沒寫過C 程式，他們學了Java，僅此而已， 這是非常奇怪和不對的， |
| Brad Fitzpatrick creator of memcached, Perlbal, MogileFS. | interview question: Write a class to do arbitrary, bigint manipulation with multiplication and division | 寫一個大數的類，可以做乘除法， |
| Douglas Crockford creator of JSON | Good Programmer: They have to read Knuth (TAOCP); they are really literate in whatever language they write to other humans. I invite the candidate to bring in a piece of code he’s really proud of and walk us thru it. | 讀過Knuth 的TAOCP; 有很強的文字表達能力和溝通能力， 請應聘者帶自己最得意的代碼來，給大家看看， |
| Brendan Eich, Creator of JavaScript | Hiring: (rely on referral from team member) Bright people like each other and can judge each other. I don’t give people puzzles to solve. We give them fairly practical problems, Not esoteric puzzles or math-y things. | (他有時通過同事的推薦來招人) 聰明的人會互相欣賞，評價， 我不想通過智力題來判斷程式員，我們給應聘者相當實際的問題，而不是那些奇怪的智力題或者數學題， |
| Joshua Bloch Java Architect, author of “Effective Java” | About programming: The older I get, the more I realize it isn’t just about making it work; it’s about producing an artifact that is readable, maintainable, and efficient. … it’s easier to optimized correct code than to correct optimized code. “do you ever use UML as a design tool?” No. I think it’s nice to be able to make diagrams that other people can understand. But honestly I can’t even remember which components are supposed to be round or square. | 關于編程: 我越來越意識到寫程式不是僅僅把程式寫出來，而是要讓你寫的程式可讀，可維護，并且高效， 優化正確的程式要比改正已優化（但是有錯）的程式要容易， “你曾經用過UML 設計工具么?” 沒有， 能把設計畫成圖，讓別人理解當然很好， 但是說實話我記不起來哪些模塊應該是圓形，哪些是方形， |
| Joe Armstrong creator of Erlang, and OTP. | Interview question: “what was the most fun project you ever wrote; show me the code for this stuff; how would you solve this problem?” I’m not so hung up on what they know about language X or Y. they are either good at all languages or good at none. You have to have a good memory to be a reasonable programmer. | 面試問題: “你寫過的最好玩的專案是什么? 讓我看看代碼， 你是怎么解決這個問題的?” 我并不一味要求他們已經知道某一兩種語言， 好的程式員精通一種語言后，就會觸類旁通，能學好所有語言， 好記性對一個好程式員很重要， |
| Coder | 他們的心得 | 我的理解 |
| Simon Peyton Jones Haskell architect, MSR-Cambridge researcher | Beautiful Code: agrees with Tony Hoare that good code should obviously have no bugs, rather than having no obvious bugs. but “looking at the bare code may not be enough, it’s not a characteristic of beautiful code that you should be able to just look at the bare code and see why it’s right. (AVL tree is one example) | 漂亮的代碼: 像Tony Hoare 說的那樣 – 它們明顯沒有bug; 而不是沒有明顯的bug. 但是“漂亮”并不意味著看著源代碼就能馬上讀懂， 例如 AVL 樹, 光看代碼你不懂為什么這些子樹要轉來轉去，但是如果你理解了它的核心思想，看到它維護了這個不變數 (invariant) 從而保證 log 級的訪問速度，你就會說，”啊，明顯理當如此，” |
| Peter Norvig In charge of Research at Google, NASA. Made fun of PowerPoint AutoContent Wizard | Advice to school: Teach more on team work. “when I was in school, working as a team was called cheating”. Successful programmer: The bravado and willingness to “go ahead” with incomplete but essential info. Interview: I don’t like the trick puzzle questions. It’s important to have someone that you can get along with. More, Can they technically do what they said they can do? You really want to have people write code on the board. XP, pair programming: 10% of the time is to share is important, but if doing it most of the time, it won’t be as effective. UML: I never liked any of these UML-type of tools. If you can’t do it in the language itself that’s a weakness of the language. | 學校教育: 應該教更多的團隊合作，“我上學的時候，團隊合作被認為是作弊” (現在有些學校還是這樣)， 成功的程式員: 他們有勇氣和意愿 “開始干”， “我只要懂得我需要的，就可以開始干活了”， 而不是“我得完全理解某個領域，才能開始”， 面試: 不喜歡用智力題目，要依賴于面對面的問答來判斷這個應聘者是否能夠和團隊合得來，更重要的是，讓他們在黑板上寫代碼，看看他們是否真的能“說到做到”， XP, 結對編程: 10% 的時間用來交流是很重要的，但是如果大部分時間都用來結對，那效率不會太高， UML: 我從來不喜歡這類工具，如果你不能在計算機語言中表達(UML 要表達的東西)， 那這是這種語言的弱點， |
| Guy Steele Help created Common Lisp and Scheme, Emacs | Code writing: When you are writing code you’re writing as much for human readers as for the computer. If efficiency is important, I’ll often resort to a trick. And then I realize that will mislead a human. And you have to comment it or do something to flag that, to make it more readable. | 代碼: 當你寫代碼的時候，你寫給機器看，同時也寫給人看， 如果效率很重要，我會用一些小技巧， 這些技巧會誤導讀代碼的人，你得加上注釋，或者類似的東西標注一下，讓它更可讀， |
插播一個故事:
Peter Norvig 在NASA 作業的時候，參與了NASA 的一個著名事故的調查 ( 1999
年“火星氣候衛星” 因導航出現重大錯誤而墜入火星大氣層)，
從他在這本書的問答中，我們可以看到一個大略的錯誤發生程序:
-
軟體外包公司對于 mission-critical
的軟體模塊有很完備的檢查和測驗，但是對于其他模塊則沒有完備的管理， -
程式員寫了一個不重要的log 功能，其中用英制 (磅* 英尺) 表示力, 但是 NASA
用“牛頓”= 千克*米/(秒*秒) -
外包公司接到一個新的工程，他們進行了軟體重用，log
功能中記錄的力被重用為導航功能的輸入引數，成為 mission-critical 的模塊，
//錯誤: 一個模塊從 non-mission-critical 變成 mission-critical
沒有經歷必要的復審和測驗，
-
這個新的工程由發包公司 Lockheed (洛克希德公司) 交給了客戶 JPL
(噴氣推進實驗室) -
火箭帶著衛星發射了，在10個月的飛行中，JPL
可以每天兩次啟動小推進器，來調整太空船的航向，在這一程序中，有人發現了導航功能的一些不正常現象,
于是 -
a. JPL 發郵件給 Lockheed, 說 – 這個模塊有些引數看起來好像不正常…
b. Lockheed 回郵件…
c. JPL 再發郵件…
d. 最后沒有人再發郵件了
后來, JPL的同志認為， Lockheed 的同志們估計已經搞定了， Lockheed 的同志認為，
JPL 的同志們沒再追問這個問題，可能已經不是問題了，
錯誤: 這個問題從來沒有收錄到NASA 的錯誤跟蹤系統 (Bug tracking
system)，只是在email
中交流，導致最后沒有人對這個問題負責，在錯誤跟蹤系統中，總得有一個人“擁有”這一個bug，這樣可以避免推諉責任，
(MSF 也很重視這一點)
十個月之后， 1999年9月23
日，衛星抵達火星大氣層，錯誤的導航引數造成衛星墜入大氣層啥訓，
單單衛星的造價就高達一億兩千五百萬美元，
| Coder | 他們的心得 | 我的理解 |
|---|---|---|
| Dan Ingalls Guru of Smalltalk; inventor of BitBlt operation, working on Lively Kernel now. | Tips on a good technical leader: 1) clear vision; 2) trust people; get everything figure out, but leave it open to team member to do it. 3) avoid micromanagement. if you’re worried and you’re insecure, and so you’re feeling like you have to nail everything down. Alan Kay is a good example for such great leader. | 技術帶頭人: 1) 清楚的遠景，沒有清楚的遠景，只有強大技術能力的團隊，就像盲人騎瞎馬，還使勁用鞭子抽打，讓馬快跑， 看起來一度非常拉風，但后來免不了人仰馬翻， 2）信任團隊，把大方向弄清楚之后，把其他事情交給團隊成員去搞清楚， 如果帶頭人詳細規定了所有細節，那么團隊成員干得還有什么勁呢？ 3）避免“微觀管理”，當你擔心或者沒有安全感的時候，你當然會希望把所有細節都搞清楚，但是這樣反而會出亂子， |
| L Peter Deutsch veteran of Xerox PARC, author of Ghostscript; now he is into music composition. | Skills of good programmer: intuition – no luck, but experience that had simply gotten internalized so far down that I didn’t have conscious access to the process. programmer – people who feel comfortable swimming around in the world of symbols. Programmer vs. coder: “Coder” is strongly associated with the smallest and most narrowly focused part of that whole software building endeavor. “coder” represents such a small corner of the whole process. a good title should be: software developer. computer science = engineering + applied mathematics. I would’ve thought that the internet was inherently uncontrollable, and I no longer think that. China shows that you can do it pretty effectively. | 優秀程式員： 直覺， 但是Peter 說的不是運氣，而是長期實踐之后成為你思維一部分的東西 - 你不知道推理這些東西出來，正如同你不知道如何推理出直覺， Peter 認為優秀的程式員必須能在抽象思維 (world of symbols) 中得心應手的人， 程式員 vs. 碼農: Peter 認為Coder 把程式員的作業定義得太狹隘了， 就像IT 民工，翻沙，砌墻， 砌墻并不是一個壞作業，但這只是“建筑”這一程序中的一個小部分， “軟體開發者” 應該是一個好名稱， 雖然并不全面， 所謂 “計算機科學” 不過是工程加上應用數學， 我原以為互聯網是根本上無法控制的，，， |
| Ken Thompson creator of Unix. | Talented programmers: it’s just enthusiasm. you ask them what’s the most interesting program they worked on, get them to describe it and its algorithms and what’s going on. if they can’t withstand my questioning on their program, then they are not good. enthusiasm is not something you ask directly, but in the conversation you’ll come with the enthusiasm-ometer. | 優秀程式員的特點: 就是“熱情”， 我們有時也說 “passion for technology”. 但是在面試的時候你不能問 - 你對計算機技術有熱情么? 因為所有回答都是 yes， 你要在場景中， 對話中感覺對方的“熱情”， 如果一個念了5-7年計算機專業的人，不能 “兩眼放光”地給你講他自己最得意，最激動人心的專案或演算法，不能回答你的深入提問，除了老師的作業和實驗室老板叫做的專案之外，沒有別的想法， 你覺得這種人有多少 “熱情”? Ken 還表達了自己對C++ 的意見，幾乎所有這本書采訪的牛人都不太喜歡C++， 很有意思，不過這是另外一個話題了， |
| Coder | 他們的心得 | 我的理解 |
|---|---|---|
| Fran Allen 圖靈獎第一個女性獲得者 | Software process: did software-development process save the IBM/360 project? it’s was absolutely necessary, but it was painful for the software people to [adjust to] design reviews, design specs, all of this stuff. Good programmer: basic threshold: find out what they’re excited about. if they can’t get enthusiastic about something, they’re not going to get charged up in a group. | 軟體流程: 因為IBM/360 專案的軟體部分遇到了很大的困難，那時候還沒有什么成文的 “軟體工程”， Fred Brooks 把管硬體的經理們調來，讓他們來管軟體部門， 因為硬體是一個相對成熟的產業 - 芯片設計，測驗，等等， 這些“不懂軟體”的同志們參考硬體產業， 建立了軟體工程的基本流程， 從一個成熟的產業中學習，是很有效的辦法， 現在我們還可以從軟體工程的一些術語中看到硬體的影子 - 例如 smoke test 冒煙測驗， 好的程式員: 熱情 (前面 Ken 同學也談到了這一點) |
| Bernie Cosell czar of PDP-1 pioneer of APPANET, the core of the later internet | Advice to programmer: write a lot of programs. there is very few inherently hard programs. if the code looks very hard, that’s almost always an indication that it was poorly thought through. if you have complicated code, put it in an encapsulated place. programs are meant to be read. avoid premature optimization Find talented programmers: whether they have the kind of inquiring, curious, precise kind of mind. quickness of learning, interested in lots of different things, and kind of broadly based. [carefully chosen] puzzle can gives you a glimmer as to how they organized something to approach it. | 給程式員的建議: 寫很多程式， 世界上難的問題/程式很少， 如果一個人的代碼看起來很難，這通常意味著程式員沒有想清楚， 如果你必須用很復雜的代碼，把它包裝起來， 程式是用來給人讀的， 避免過早優化， 優秀程式員: 應聘者有沒有刨根問底，好奇心, 準確的思維? 能快速地學習么? 是否對很多東西都有興趣? 是否有很廣泛的基礎? [仔細挑選的] 智力題能讓你看到應聘者是如何組織材料，解決問題的， |
| Donald Knuth (高德納) TAOCP, TeX and METAFONT, literate programming Knuth 在學術界的影響 | How I learn programming – basically taking one program that i made up myself and sitting at a machine over a period of some weeks, and kept getting it to work a little better and a little better. Q: Should every programmer be able to read TAOCP? A: I sometimes wonder if I can read them. but even an algorithm like a balanced tree of AVL tree, I don’t use it in my own programs unless I know that it’s going to be a really big tree. what do you use? I use an ordinary binary search tree with a little trick for randomizing it that I just put it. | … |
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