Article

2016-12-30 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

BBC Finally Admits Its Famous ‘Women Write Better Code’ Story Was Fake News

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Posted by Fred 2016-12-30 00:59|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top

#1 Oh, we knew: kind off.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2016-12-30 04:33|| 2016-12-30 04:33|| Front Page Top

#2 Considering it's sometimes hard to find women who write code at all, I was kind of wondering if they were being kept in a camp somewhere.

Posted by ed in texas 2016-12-30 08:41|| 2016-12-30 08:41|| Front Page Top

#3 So we need to ban the BBC because it does fake news, right? Along with CNN, MSNBC and ABC.

Posted by DarthVader 2016-12-30 09:07|| 2016-12-30 09:07|| Front Page Top

#4 Another FakeBook monitor gets bitten in the @$$ ?

Posted by AlmostAnonymous5839 2016-12-30 09:12|| 2016-12-30 09:12|| Front Page Top

#5 30+ years in all phases of software showed me that women just as well or as poorly as men. However, there are damn few women that want to write code as all the requisite attributes are generally not part of their makeup.

Good coders have to be able to withstand the constant drumbeat of failure inflicted on them by an infallible machine, shrug it off and try again. This is a rare trait in all of humanity but rarer in the female of the species.

They do, however, write great mystery stories.

Posted by AlanC 2016-12-30 10:11|| 2016-12-30 10:11|| Front Page Top

#6 Actually it is a logical extension: for all the guys out there with significant female others; why is it that you can never get a 'yes' or 'no' to a simple yes or no question?

So the coding ability isn't confined to a binary computer operation, its genetic.

Posted by USN, Ret. 2016-12-30 10:19|| 2016-12-30 10:19|| Front Page Top

#7 Granted, I didn't write code as long as AlanC did, but I could count the number of fellow female software engineers on one hand, and I was at six different companies. QA / Test does not count.

Posted by Raj 2016-12-30 11:35|| 2016-12-30 11:35|| Front Page Top

#8 The Grace Hoppers of the world are truly gems: rare and to be treasured

Posted by John Frum 2016-12-30 11:55|| 2016-12-30 11:55|| Front Page Top

#9 to try and attract more wymyns to STEM curricula, they add A for Arts in STEAM. Thereby totally missing the point...

Posted by Frank G 2016-12-30 12:53|| 2016-12-30 12:53|| Front Page Top

#10 John Frum, ain't that the truth.

I met her once while I worked at DEC circa 1980ish. Quite a woman.

She gave a lecture that ended with the "It's easier to ask foregivness than it is to get permission.

Posted by AlanC 2016-12-30 13:30|| 2016-12-30 13:30|| Front Page Top

#11 "It's easier to ask foregivness than it is to get permission."

Easier, but not better when it comes to putting code live...

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2016-12-30 19:33|| 2016-12-30 19:33|| Front Page Top

#12 C'mon BP, not going live but starting the project.

To go live you cancel all that time wasting testing and code reviews and func. spec reviews, right? ;^)

Posted by AlanC 2016-12-30 20:26|| 2016-12-30 20:26|| Front Page Top

#13 "I met her once"

I'm envious, #10 Alan.

Posted by Barbara 2016-12-30 21:05|| 2016-12-30 21:05|| Front Page Top

#14 I'd always thought women were good at multi-tasking and that the best code writers tended to be the opposite and that folks on the autistic spectrum make good coders because often they can fixate in away others cannot which is one reason Silicon valley is filled with aspergers.

Posted by rjschwarz 2016-12-30 21:22|| 2016-12-30 21:22|| Front Page Top

#15 I once got into some minor trouble because I told my programming students that they should write error messages in their programs so that their grandmothers could understand them. I also added, "Unless your grandmother is Grace Murray Hopper. She'll understand whatever error message you produce".

People said I was being sexist. Actually I was being age-ist. Of course, the comment about RADM Hopper would still stand.

Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2016-12-30 23:04|| 2016-12-30 23:04|| Front Page Top

#16 QA don't count. Yes, how most Requirements Phase meetings begin

Posted by Rex Mundi 2016-12-30 23:55|| 2016-12-30 23:55|| Front Page Top

23:55 Rex Mundi
23:15 KBK
23:04 Rambler in Virginia
23:00 Sock Puppet of Doom
22:59 Sock Puppet of Doom
22:55 trailing wife
22:54 trailing wife
22:20 Maggie Ebbineger9957
22:13 Canuckistan sniper
21:22 rjschwarz
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20:58 49 Pan
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19:58 Procopius2k
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