Yeah they do. A common one is a function will take a string or an array of strings as an argument. Basically just check if array, and if not wrap the single string in an array.

Another common one is an argument that's a string that turns into a complex object in later versions. Which is why I always prefer just having an arbitrary object if my function takes more than a couple arguments, or I expect it to grow. Destructuring comes in handy here and simulates named parameters.

Number vs. string not so much - as JS will usually just implicitly convert for you (and strongly typed people head for the fainting couches).

Why wouldn't you just format / factory restore?

We're not supposed to do that. I've got 1/4 of my salary as severance on the line, and about the same in a bonus which we're supposed to get next March. Trying to play by the book.

I'm not much of a JS dev, so I have no idea what the general patterns are in large projects. I mainly use it for scripting through unusable UI.

What is your developer setup? I have seen in some shops they seem to have two monitors and then a macbook pro on a stand. Are the monitors running off the macbook pro?

if i go to system pref -> display -> scaled

default is 1440 x 900 and "More Space" is 1920 x 1200??

however, if i click the apple in the left corner I see:

Overview Tab: MacBook Pro Retina Mid-2015
Displays Tab: 15.4 inch 2880 x 1800 Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

The displays tab has a link to Displays Preferences... in the lower right corner.. but that takes me back to the above system preferences menu.

I have a couple of 2008 30" DVI-I monitors with 2560 x 1600 resolution and a 20" 1600 x 1200 monitor from the good old days.

..however, unlike poker I guess resolution might not really matter much to a developer setup.

also, I am wondering how much these beast monitors are costing to run in electricity compared to the newer stuff.

My macbook pro has one HDMI output. I can see that I can get a DVI-I to HDMI adapter.

Also, considering just getting a 27" Imac, that thing is sweet.

I think the only way you can power two monitors off a mac laptop is two thunderbolts. But I could be wrong. I had to get a $100 adaptor to get the correct resolution on my 30" HP monitor from my mac monitor output. HDMI works too but I'm not sure how well.

I have two (27-inch, 2560x1440) monitors for my macbook pro at work, both connected over mini displayport - a little dated now but it works.

these beast monitors used to run down graphic cards like crazy, i even had one catch on fire once. i am kind of scared to attach them to the macbook.

Did this happen on a laptop? If you go back 5+ years, lots of laptops had heat dissipation issues often requiring certain types of surface and fans being easily clogged due to dust build-up. This should not be an issue with modern macbooks.

oh wow, good luck and have fun! do you have an idea of how long this trip will be? is it kind of planned out or more of a spontaneous thing?

6 months to a year. Been planning it for a while. https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/9...-year-1664900/

nice blog post with the diving.

My brother interviewed at my company for Software Engineer. Took us 3 weeks and they somehow are going to throw him an offer for Data Engineer instead.

Anyone know if it's hard to switch back to Software Engineer later down the road? He doesn't have any offers yet, hoping to hear back more soon by mid January. Googling shows a lot of people trying to go from SE to DE, but not vice versa.

I bought an LG ultrafine 5k 27" monitor. Works perfect with new macbook pro. I never keep my laptop open when at work. That screen is beautiful and has enough screen space.

Which company? At Facebook for example, data engineer is a **** position and inferior to software engineer in pay and career growth. Really depends on the company. In general, software engineer positions are less specialized and have more room for career growth and less likely you get type casted into a role.

Yea that’s what I figured

Regarding your second question, no I don't think it will be too hard to switch later if he is early career. Keep working on regular coding stuff and he can easily pass the interview bar for software engineer in 2-3 years.

"Data Engineer" and "Software Engineer" are honestly so vague that its impossible to comment without more details.

In my company "data engineers" are on par with "software engineers" but really a good chunk of the "software engineers" are doing what would be considered "data engineering" at another company and the "data engineers" are still doing quite a bit of "software engineering".

I'm skeptical of a claim like "software engineer positions are less specialized and have more room for career growth" because true generalist software engineering positions are extremely rare. Most positions are just as specialized in that they're dealing with one (or a small number) of languages/tools/frameworks/domains/etc - its just that we don't have as many buzzword job titles that describe those 'specializations'. It's the job and company that matter - not the job title.

Your brother shouldn't turn down a position because he's worried about being overly specialized. First, if he's a new grad there's just so much flexibility in the early years of a career that if he doesn't like the work - its very easy to switch. Second, if he ends up liking the work there's a lot of career potential in being specialized.

Wtf is a data engineer

Is there anywhere that has, like, good software? Or will basically any piece of software that has more than two people working on it always be doomed to end up a steaming pile of poo? Like, besides the simple Linux programs that do one or two things and does them well, are there engineers at google who look at their code base and think, “the horror?”

Asking because I work at a place with bad engineers, as far as I can tell. We have a product that needs fixed and needs features implemented that I feel most competent coders could handle, but I don’t think we’re going to be able to get it done. Not sure how to feel about that.

Not really but its important to note that bad software does not equate to "can't fix bugs/can't implement features". You can do those things with bad software. You can't do those things with bad engineers.

There's something like the Peter principle at work when it comes to commercial software development - assuming you have a profitable product to start with, as long as the code base is well-maintained, it's generally possible to add features to make it even more profitable. Given a relatively fixed level of talent, the more features you add, the harder it becomes to maintain the software. The stable state, then, is always one where it's maximally difficult to add features. This is also the most profitable state that requires most people working on the software, so most people will find themselves somewhere around this point. Should some kind of technical breakthrough or a major refactoring effort allow one to break this barrier, you go on and expand the product until you're stuck at the next stable state.

The other reason why it seems that way is that software development is subjective and it's harder to understand and change code than to write it in the first place, which means two people of equal abilities will tend to regard code written by the other person as subpar.

Obviously major simplifications but I think these two explain the general observation regarding software quality from developers' perspective.

Sadly, I think it’s a case of the latter. Or is it normal for seasoned engineers to not be able to tell the difference between an integer and a string? I feel like it’s not normal.

:eek. Not normal...

They are not "seasoned engineers" and I don't think you could extrapolate much from this experience. What are you doing there?