Typing speed? Not sure how much code people here write per hour, but I doubt typing speed is a real issue (the ratio of my staring at the screen thinking versus coding is probably 10:1).
These things aren't really enough. They're more of "things you need to know be a computer hobbyist". I did put together a quick list once -- for an HN post asking what should someone learn as undergrad if they wish to be a web developer -- of things I'd prefer a back-end developer that I would hire to know:<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=499880" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=499880</a><p>Of course, knowing these things (or really, knowing <i>anything</i>) doesn't make you a hacker quite yet, it's a title one earns within a community by contributing to it. As cliche as it is, "how to become a hacker" covers this part:<p><a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#status" rel="nofollow">http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#status</a>
Visual Studio is a very powerful editor. Everything that you can do in Visual Studio through menus you can do through the keyboard. In fact you can setup visual studio to use emacs shortcuts ( <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165509(VS.80).aspx" rel="nofollow">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms165509(VS.80).aspx</a> ) and I'm sure it exists for Vim and etc.<p>People who believe the tools make the hacker are naive at best and would probably think the person with the best shoes wins the race. Not true when it comes down to it, the person driving those tools, whether they can type 60 wpm or use Emacs, is the one who is responsible for the creativity and output.<p>I think the author needs to step back and see if his priorities are in the right spot.
One of my early mentors taught me that "it's not how fast you type but what you type" that matters.<p>I think his lengthy career as a journalist, designer, photographer, M$ engineer, Apple engineer and Google Engineer have proven him correct.<p>The analogy with understanding/familiarity with your tools is weak. The only important tool for an engineer is his brain.<p>(PS I abhor the term hacker)
Well. I type 100-120 wpm, use Emacs, use primarily FAR or cmd.exe (bash in *nix), and prefer not to debug. I suck though.<p>Apparently, these four things are not enough to be a great hacker. What I seem to lack is the mental capacity to clearly see problem out of the box as my friends (great hackers) do so I have to use all the tools I can to keep up.<p>it's the kind of sober, relaxed look at a problem that I think separates great from mediocre. The relaxedness and calmness with which hackers attack problems -- most people I know and myself would be anxious and pissed off about a problem. Hackers on the other hand are comfortable and relaxed with problems, seeing them as something, that is fun to solve. They are like cats who play with the mice before they catch the prey; they are confident in their ability to solve the problem, and completely free of tension or stress.<p>I have that some of the time but very very rarely and I can say, no editor can even come to the performance-enhancive qualities of Zen-like centering.
"We haven't met a single great hacker that relied on an IDE, although we hear they exist. " -- fcuk you. Really. Just an over generalization/stereotyping at its worst.<p>I am a good hacker, and yes I use an IDE (eclipse to be exact). I have to code java for living (mobile), and I think I am one of the earliest developers in java, and i used to use Textpad, and Vim at my early days. I guess, in your eyes that makes me a "better developer", but the truth is that some IDEs really make your life easier. Much easier.<p>In mobile you have to re-invent the wheel over and over again. From UI, to basic things as a string tokenizer, and it is impossible to memorize everything (some of your team memebers implement different functionalities). IDE's auto completions are very very useful. Also the refactoring facilities and debuging tools are really useful.<p>I do use Vim for programming in LUA (does it make me cool?), and I really miss a lot of these tools. Simple things like variable highlighting, jump to definition are missing, and it makes the code a pain to read (especially if it s not yours). If you decide to change a variable name, good luck, you have to do string search/replace, and the potential for errors is huge.<p>While a good programmer HAS to be comfortable and good in command line, just because they use an IDE doesn't make them less of a people.<p>And the best programmers I have had the chance to work with used IDEs. These guys implemented a LUA VM in J2ME from scratch, in a couple of months.<p>I have noticed that this really shallow and douchebag-y attitude comes from people that use mostly Ruby. It seems that in their eyes, if you don't use Ruby and textmate, you suck.<p>But really, fcuk you.
This should just be titled "Tools used by people with great hacker egos but may or may not actually be great hackers", because these are <i>not</i> predictors of great hackers.
I confess I just didn't read this - 'core competencies' came up on my watch list as almost surely spam.<p>And if typing speed is more relevant than thinking depth then I probably made the right decision in that Gladwell blink moment.<p>In another recent HN post, several people had a similar reaction to "shop" as in 'work for a great ruby shop'...<p>Heres a partial list of non-sequiturs -
six sigma
isoN000{0}
skillset
core competencies
coder
java [ contentious, I know, C++ is borderline ]
loc - lines of code
metrics / kpis
candidate
coordinate
role
leadership
deliverables<p>Competency is particularly insidious - being merely competent rules out any kind of real craftsmanship, or "Xen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance" connection to the thing your doing. If your competent, you've checked a box, and thats the wrong reason to do anything.<p>Am I overreacting?
I don't want to start a war but I'd say that this list is about the differences between a Windows VS Linux developer. The thing behind what is said is "get your eyes off of the nice UI. Look and type code".
In fact you could condense all of these into "know your tools extremely well", and you can take it further to "optimize yourself/your environment relentlessly".<p>I've known great hackers who used Eclipse, sam, acme, Brief, UltraEdit and everything under the sun.<p>Working with someone who doesn't know their chosen tools (people who use menus to work their editor, hand edit things instead of using sed/awk/perl, etc) is extremely painful, and seeing someone profess to use a tool but not operate it well is a huge warning sign to me. Same with slow typists: pair programming with such sucks.
Great hackers create great works from within, not from their tools or their environment. Their core competencies are things like relentless self-improvement, not the use of a particular editor or a particular OS.<p>The author's list of core competencies (fast typing, command line, vim, Linux) sounds more like a list of cultural traits.
The point about text editors is absurd. One because comparing TextMate to vim or emacs is almost apples and oranges. And secondly because writing something Java without completions is going to be horrendously slow just because of all the arcane function and property names.
I feel that this article is the sort I would not like to see on HN, because it can't teach anything to hackers. As seen by the discussion it elicited, it's just starting a write-only conversation with many elements of a flame war.
"Let's not pick editor fights: the only 3 editors we know to be used by great hackers are TextMate, vim and emacs. The most productive hackers will often customize their editor heavily."<p>I think this is rather ignorant... eclipse >> vim or emacs. What's a hacker anyway? Presumably, they are talking about someone who writes code and IDEs make writing code easier.
I completely disagree with all four points. A hacker can only use TextMate, vim, or emacs? You kidding me? And who writes code at more than 60 wpm -- writing code is a thinking sport, not a race to the finish.<p>Diving into a large codebase can be important for certain hackers, but honestly this sounds like a skill moreso needed for corporate programmers ...
So if I learn these things, will I miraculously be transformed into a great hacker? Or will I have wasted my time, while others spent the same time launching several profitable web sites with Ruby on Rails?
I'd take problem solving ability and creativity over typing speed any day, but one area where typing speed seems to help is for live coding or instructing others...
well coding is not part of being a 'great hacker' according to this list... but the text editor you are using is part of it... Im not convinced to say the least, the word 'poser' comes to my mind, not sure why
Think the article should have been titled<p>"Core Competencies of Coders"<p>I expected something that would include, at the very least,
Algorithms and Data Structures.<p>Software Construction is not the sole realm of the Hacker.<p>coder!=hacker<p>Coding is not the sole realm of Software Construction.<p>It is too bad that so many people totally mix concepts up like that, playing fast and loose with synonyms in that manner is like wearing a sign saying "I am an ignorant two bit tech person in a hurry"<p>Say, what about Cray, when he toggled an entire OS (that he designed) into a machine (that he designed) through the front panel switches, in Octal? AND IT WORKED.<p>Crappy programmer, can't type x number of wpm.<p>ROFLMAO<p>EDIT (now that I paused for breath)<p>Worse programmer even, for not USING A KEYBOARD<p>ROFLMAO