Cantr Needs Help-Job Description of the Technologist Needed?

[Gaboo]

Based on discussions here and over on the IRC channel, the master of Cantr's life has evolved along with the game and does not have as much time to devote to the games innards. I may be wrong but everything I have heard is that he has a life, a job, a family maybe and who knows what else. I can sympathize with that.

What if a job description was posted here as to exactly the skills and platform knowledge needed to assist him in keeping Cantr in top notch shape?

Oracle, UNIX. J2EE, .NET...?

I am sure we have some technologist playing the game and maybe if the community was asked in a more specific way, you might find a rock star developer / Tester / Programmer that is interested in donating some of his or her time to the game.

I know there is a general posting for staff but nothing more specific as to what might be needed to work out some of the bugs we have been up against recently.

Just a thought... why not give it a shot?

[NaruShadow]

This is a good idea. I was actually thinking about applying because I've been planning on taking some computer programming courses in school come fall.

[Tiamo]

What Cantr needs is experienced programmers (PHP/MySql), who don't have to learn the language, but just have to learn about the Cantr software.

Applicants have to fill a form asking about this experience (and more).

I don't know what happens next ...

[psymann]

What Cantr needs is experienced programmers (PHP/MySql), who don't have to learn the language, but just have to learn about the Cantr software.

Applicants have to fill a form asking about this experience (and more).

I do wonder whether we're a bit fussy on that.

Does it really matter if they can't already code in PHP or MySQL? There are various guides on the internet to teach you how to, and some people have a knack for picking that sort of thing up quickly, especially if they've already programmed in other languages. Given that you've not been able to find any experienced PHP programmers who want to spend time on Cantr so far, perhaps someone who is keen and willing to learn is not a bad start? Perhaps all they can do is say "Sorry, I don't know enough PHP to help", but you don't lose anything from trying, do you?

Beggars can't be choosers, and all that.

Bit of a long shot, but it wouldn't make an interesting final-year project for a computer science university student somewhere, would it...

psymann

[Doug R.]

Does it really matter if they can't already code in PHP or MySQL?

I will argue yes. Cantr was written by people that knew what they were doing, and is arguably crippled by design inefficiency. If the #1 goal is to cut the lag caused by this code inefficiency, how can people not experienced in these languages have any hope of helping streamline code?

Writing is a science, but optimizing is an art.

[wichita]

Yes, it is one thing to learn a new language from concise tutorials that have been designed to clearly and efficiently highlight syntax and methods. Trying to wade through something as bulky as the Cantr code is another challenge entirely.


While it isn't impossible, the learning curve is steep. And let's face it, the ProgD department can easily be the most sensitive department in the game in terms of security and potential damage. (Remember when Jur accidentally deleted all projects in the game that one day? )

This means that we need to make sure that our ProgD members are trustworthy and confident. Not to say that we expect half of them to be malicious hackers, but rookies do tend to run a higher risk of creating bugs, especially when they haven't been able to orient themselves with all of the interactions of various variables and files...




Posting a job description is indeed a good suggestion. Thanks.

[Jos Elkink]

A lot of our applicants are beginners in terms of programming - for those it can be a nice ground to learn things, but they can only help on marginal issues. To help really significantly, we need much more experienced programmers.

Language matters slightly less. Solid programmers can learn PHP quite fast. Some experience using databases would definitely help, though.

[Solfius]

To help really significantly, we need much more experienced programmers.

What sort of experience are you looking for?

[marol]

Jos already wrote that - database experience (especially mySQL), web programming involving multiuser code optimization (especially PHP).

[Solfius]

Sorry, when I say what sort of experience, I meant what do you mean by an experienced candidate?

What distinguishes an inexperienced programmer from an experienced programmer?

And also, what is the minimum experience level you are looking for?

[Jos Elkink]

It's hard to say ... somebody who has had programming as a hobby or as a job for, say, a year or two, would probably be fine ... someone who just had a first course in programming or is making his or her first steps in it, not so much.

[saztronic]

Speaking as an erstwhile database programmer -- and before you ask, no I don't have any time to devote to this and I already teased the Prog Department a couple years ago so am not anxious to do it again -- all you really need to know is any kind of programming language well.

If you have experience programming, then you've already learned one language. And just like spoken languages, once you've learned one (apart from your native tongue), it makes learning others much easier. You just "get" the logic of it faster, know what you should be looking for to make sense of it, etc.

So I'd say if someone is completely new to programming, this isn't good. But if someone is a fair hand at Visual Basic or C or Perl or whatever, learning PHP/MySql isn't going to be much of an obstacle.

[Jos Elkink]

I totally agree with Saztronic. The only exception I would make is that someone who just took a college course in programming, and has no experience actually programming anything other than homework exercises, probably does not fall in the category of "knowing a language well". But I do totally agree otherwise.

Well, except that I don't agree that learning a third language is that easy for natural languages ...