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Men Write Code from Mars, Women Write More Helpful Code from Venus



  3. rodbegbie
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Female software engineers tend to write code that is more considerate to future engineers. Any more ladies wanna come join the Current.com team?
rodbegbie

2 responses // Men Write Code from Mars, Women Write More Helpful Code from Venus

  • That actually...sounds about right to me! Well, that's only judging from one data point in column B, myself - and a few guys. I think I do write code that's easy to follow, and try to make variable names that are explanatory. I could probably use more comments, but I prefer to strive for code that explains itself. I've worked in the same code base as other women, but not overlapping enough to be able to gauge this myself. I've only directly inherited code from another woman once, and it was horrible - but she wasn't an engineer by trade. I'm not surprised that women are better at code documentation than men are, since women supposedly have better communication skills.

    I find it highly interesting, however, that men deliberately "try to obfuscate things in the code." What are they trying to hide, hmmmm?

    And I second the call for more female developers on the Current.com team! Nerdy ladies, join us!
    fountaingoats
  • I think this is a red herring, but not in the way you might think. Writing maintainable code is one characteristic of a good programmer. I think you could measure a lot of other indicators with similar results.

    I think that a number of factors both inside and outside of the field cause the women that stay in programming to be much better at it than the average male. So pick a statistic, odds are the women will look better. Not necessarily because women in general are better by nature, but because in a boy's club it's much easier to suck and find work if you're a boy.
    mcfunley

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