What's Your Programmer Personality Type?

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91 comments, last by Thygrrr 17 years, 10 months ago
I've been working in the games industry for a few years and have noticed some definate trends in programmer personalities. I decided to put together a simple quiz which tells you your programming personality. It's based Myers-Briggs Personality Test giving you a 4 letter acronym describing your personality. Programmers Personality Test Post your personality type here and let me know accurate you think it is. Doolwind
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Quote:Your programmer personality type is:

PLTB

You're a Planner.
You may be slow, but you'll usually find the best solution. If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right.


You like coding at a Low level.
You're from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don't mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.


You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it's parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.


You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.

That seems about right (except that I'm only "slow" when I'm skiving off ;)).
Quote:
DLSB

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.


You like coding at a Low level.
You're from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don't mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.


You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.


You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.


It's not too far off I think.

Nice test :)

Some questions can maybe be biased, I think you shouldn't use the names of programming languages in the questions (like someone could dislike .net for other reasons than the intention of the question is), but that's just my opinion.


If you want the last example to be even more extreme you could go for this style, this snippet is taken straight from a piece of work I had to make for a course called "Information And Program Structures / Object Oriented Programming"

    /**     * Initialize a new file with given name.      *      * @param  name     *         The name of the new file.     * @post   If the new file can have the given name as name,     *         the name of the new file will be equal to the given     *         name.      *         Otherwise the new file will have getDefaultName() as name.     *         | if (new.canHaveAsName(name))     *         |   then new.getName().equals(name)     *         |   else new.hasProperName()     * @post   The new file is empty.     *         | new.getSize() == 0     * @post   The new file is writable.     *         | new.getWritability() == true     * @post   The creation time is initialized to some time during      *         constructor execution.     *         | (new.getCreationTime().getTime() >      *         |             System.currentTimeMillis() - 1000) &&     *         | (new.getCreationTime().getTime() <=     *         |             (new System).currentTimeMillis())     * @post   The new file has no time of last modification.     *         | new.getModificationTime() == null     */    public File(String name) {        this(name,0,true);     }
Quote:
DHTC

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.


You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.


You work best in a Team.
A good group is better than the sum of it's parts. The only thing better than a genius programmer is a cohesive group of genius programmers.


You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.

Richard "Superpig" Fine - saving pigs from untimely fates - Microsoft DirectX MVP 2006/2007/2008/2009
"Shaders are not meant to do everything. Of course you can try to use it for everything, but it's like playing football using cabbage." - MickeyMouse

Quote:Your programmer personality type is:

PHSB

You're a Planner.
You may be slow, but you'll usually find the best solution. If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right.


You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.


You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.


You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.
Richard 'ViLiO' Thomasv.net | Twitter | YouTube
Quote: PHSB

You're a Planner.
You may be slow, but you'll usually find the best solution. If something's worth doing, it's worth doing right.


You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.


You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.


You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.


Personally, I think the questions reflect your programming environment more than your intrinsic programming style. In most cases, I couldn't answer these questions either way. For example:
Quote: Which is the 'best' way to program?
-In assembly or straight C. I'm in complete control of what the program's going to do.
-Java or any .net language. Why waste valuable time on memory management and re-inventing the wheel when someone's handled it for you!
Any programmer worth his salt knows that the "best" way to program is the one that gets the job done most efficiently. If I'm building a sexy GUI, I ain't gonna use C. If I'm building a real time OS, I ain't gonna use .NET.

That said, I think I am like the test says I am. I may not be a high level programmer a lot of times though, simply because my task isn't high level, so I need to work at a much lower level.
______________________________"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" - J.J. Rousseau
Quote:
Your programmer personality type is:

DHSC

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.


You like coding at a High level.
The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way.


You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.


You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.


It seems about right, with the exception of "Solo". I think team work is better, it's just that apart from school projects I haven't been able to work in a proper team environment yet, that's why I gave the answers I did.
Quote:Original post by Cold_Steel
Personally, I think the questions reflect your programming environment more than your intrinsic programming style. In most cases, I couldn't answer these questions either way.


Thanks for your input Cold_Steel. I did have trouble making the questions generic enough. However, as I said in the intro to the test I have given the questions with little context as your perception of the question often gives away your true feelings.

In any case, thanks for the feedback, I'll listen to everyone's thoughts and might make a second version in the future.


Doolwind
Quote:
DLSC

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.


You like coding at a Low level.
You're from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don't mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.


You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.


You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.
Quote:DLSB

You're a Doer.
You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money.


You like coding at a Low level.
You're from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don't mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.


You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.


You are a liBeral programmer.
Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.
Seems to be quite right! :) Happy with the results!

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