Hacker News Reader

K, not Q? nice! if you don't mind me asking, where? i am curious who is using K these days.

I work for an NYC-based company called 1010data which specializes in business analytics products. Most of our backend infrastructure is written in K3. And if anyone's curious, yes, we're hiring.

If you don't mind me asking, how does someone start with Q/Kdb+?

Can you learn it with just the free version or realistically does it require working with it in a professional setting and learning from others who already use it.

Are there any sources you recommend for a someone just starting out?

Thanks.

You can get a kdb/q cookbook here:

http://code.kx.com/wiki/Cookbook

This includes a tutorial with a smartmeter concept which has several queries of increasing complexity:

http://code.kx.com/wsvn/code/cookbook_code/tutorial/

Step through this, look at the function definitions, cross-ref with the kdb reference page. Also read Q for mortals on their site:

http://code.kx.com/wiki/Tutorials

Yes it's not as accessible as other langs with loads of books, but on the plus side it's coherent, unlike c++.

I interviewed at the NYC office a few months ago and had a good experience. The people I met were smart, friendly, and respected my time.

Bank of America uses it to quite an extent - especially in eFX.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com