EPT
).Note : the people I list in each category as examples are because of personal experience. I do not know the entire community fo SC programmers so if you feel "forgotten" then it's because I don't know you or your skills enough to put your name in here. Do not take it personnally
I - The Good
![[image loading]](http://img261.imageshack.us/my.php?image=100420jim20nerdho3.gif)
This is the kind of programmer you encounter sometimes. To me, they are not rare or but they aren't common as well. I have been lucky to have 2 of them in my team (out of 4-5 people back then) at work and it was quite a relief because they both have 2 different areas of expertise.
This kind of programmer is considered "good at what he does" because he has a great knowledge of what he is talking about but is also humble enough to admit when he makes a mistake. He generally knows where to find information and is not afraid to try lots of things that can potentially damage his system just for test purpose
And most of the time his system remains healthy.The main problem with that kind of people is that sometimes they have social issues like being unable to work in a team or go ask people for advice. Of course, this is not true 100% of the time but that happens. Another problem is that he won't be very excited when told to do something he doesn't think is appropriate (because "it's not the way it should be done").
Therefore, having to manage such kind of programmer can be tricky ; you have to take care of him because of his expertise and knowledge but sometimes it is necessary to push him a bit because of the constraints of the project (the customer wants that, the company wants that, etc...).
In the SC community : Ashur, Ilintar, JCA.
II - The Bad
![[image loading]](http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5946/tauntah8.jpg)
The Bad can take many forms. In my opinion, the worst is the scornful one that not only despise other people's work but think that their way of doing is the best. It is really a pain to have to work with this kind of guys because 2-hour-long arguments are not enough to prove them wrong -_-; And if something fails when going their way, then it's other people's fault. Again, that kind of people is quite uncommon but each time I've had to work with it was painful.
In the SC community :
![[image loading]](http://www.street.fighter.free.fr/sagat/tigerhigh_b.jpg)
III - The Ugly
![[image loading]](http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/8679/reunionreunion207525491yg2.jpg)
Now here's the common type of programmer
Ugly programmers produce ugly code which can be "slightly weird" to "totally incomprehensible". You have to understand that programming is like politics : there are very little people that think exactly the same as you. In programming, not only the logic can be different but also the syntax as well ; mix that with some misconceptions, differences in the knowledge level and design flaws and you have the main reasons why every code can look ugly to any programmer that didn't write it But of course, there are some programmers who can reasonably be called "objectively ugly" as their code is almost unanimously judged ugly by other coders. You can find some examples at The Daily WTF where ugly code is posted every day. Worth a look for some laugh if you have a small grasp at basic programming languages and basic algorithm notions
That kind of people generally has no clue why he programmed something the way he did and doesn't really care if it's good or not. He probably will redo the same mistakes again and again, just because he isn't much interested in it. He just wants to see a result and doesn't care the way it was done. Too bad.
In the SC community : JCA :D (slightly) and "The guy that wrote that unpack.cpp code in bwreplib" -_-;
IV - The Gem
![[image loading]](http://brysonburke.com/gem_red_diamond.jpg)
(yeah, easy one)
And there's this final un-announced category, the guy you meet once or twice in a lifetime that combines the qualities of the Good without having any flaw of the Bad or the Ugly and who is nice and humble. I have for myself seen that kind only once and it was chrisbk. For those who don't know about him, I will soon make a post.
Sometimes you can encounter someone very good but also full of himself. In that case, I'll put him into the "Good" category and not here because humility is maybe what makes that kind of people so admirable.
There isn't much more to say about this category except that if you are a programmer and are lucky enough to meet a Gem, then you surely have to learn a lot from him.
