Schlemiel the Painter's algorithm: Difference between revisions

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Spolsky condemned such inefficiencies as typical for programmers who had not been taught basic programming techniques before they began programming using higher level languages: "Generations of graduates are descending on us and creating ''Shlemiel The Painter algorithms'' right and left and they don't even realize it, since they fundamentally have no idea that strings are, at a very deep level, difficult."<ref name="basics" />

Coined in 2001, the term has since becomingbecome part of the vernacular to denote inefficient programming techniques.^''cf.''<ref>{{citation|title=Programming interview questions|last=Cox|first=William|date=November 19, 2005|url=http://discuss.techinterview.org/default.asp?interview.11.246942.7|publisher=techinterview.org}}.</ref>

<ref>{{citation|last=Atwood|first=Jeff|date=September 19, 2007|title=Everything Is Fast For Small n|url=http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000957.html|publisher=codinghorror.com}}.</ref> Spolsky's essays have been cited as examples of good writing "about their insular world in a way that wins the respect of their colleagues and the attention of outsiders."<ref>{{citation|last=Rosenberg|first=Scott|title=The Shlemiel way of software|date=December 9, 2004|url=http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/12/09/spolsky/|publisher=salon.com}}.</ref>