(Linux, JAVA, SQL, PHP, C++, C, JS) programming quizzes, questions and answers
xquizzes.com
xquizzes.com
E.g.,I decided to base the software for my startup on Windows instead of Linux.
Why Windows? One source for nearly everything in software I need except what I have to write, my favorite editor and scripting language, Knuth's TeX, and Firefox! So, I get Windows XP and now 7, Windows Server of whatever years, old copies of Office and PhotoDraw (good enough for my purposes), SQL Server, IIS (Web site front end), .NET, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, huge on-line Microsoft documentation, in most of the really important ways really well written, lots of books and fora, lots of expert users, and, surprisingly, if have a really good question, then some good on-line support from experts from Microsoft, for free.
For a compiled programming language on Windows it seemed that I had basically just two choices, C# and the .NET version of Visual Basic. So, which one? Well, first-cut, the two are nearly equivalent, that is, offer essentially the same access to the .NET Framework and the common language runtime (CLR). So, really, the main difference is just in syntactic sugar.
Well for the sugar part, C# seems to borrow the sparse, obscure, deliberately idiosyncratic syntax of C, and I don't like that, regard it as inefficient, for coding -- writing, reading, or teaching. Visual Basic has a more traditional flavor of sugar I like much better for writing, reading, and teaching. So, I selected Visual Basic.
For JS, ASP.NET writes a little for me, but so far for my Web pages and everything else I have yet to write a single line of JS.
For C, I've programmed in it and have a little of it from open source in my project and otherwise regard it as walking or riding a bicycle instead of driving a car.
SQL? Sure: I'm using SQL Server. But so far my SQL queries have all been quite simple. So, I've learned what SQL I needed but likely couldn't pass a good test on SQL. I have a plenty good enough background in the theory and intentions of relational database, e.g., from one of Ullman's books, and will dig into more complicated SQL statements as needed.
So, net, my software development is significant and doing just fine, but for that "quiz" I'd be lucky to get 10%. So, the quiz is not a good evaluation of everyone doing serious software!
This does not seem to be a tool to merely judge you as a developer. Rather, it acts as a tool to determine syntax understanding, and to possibly point out new things one may not be aware of. Much more important than assigning a number to a skill.
I didn't start in programming with Windows and Visual Basic .NET. Not nearly. Instead, I've programmed far too many things that with bits and used a wide variety of examples of syntax, BNF, lexical scan, parsing, etc. Lots of it. E.g., I got quite good with PL/I and made contributions to its AI extension KnowledgeTool, and some of the syntax there is advanced stuff. E.g., just the scope of names rules and the difference between dynamic and static descendancy are nice, useful, and a bit intricate.
I've invented and implemented new syntax.
To me the quiz looked like just a test of skills with nothing more of significance to be learned.