Titles in companies does not mean anything.

I just had a "Lead Software Engineer" asking me what TLS was

Lead SWE doesn’t mean he/ she is a senior engineer, but a valid point nevertheless.

I sometimes wonder how these people live.

@Demolishun If you don't know the absolute basics of how the web works as a senior software engineer, you are incompetent.

@Demolishun Ah, embedded. Yeah, that's around the only excused field.

@-red And having broad knowledge is a sign of knowing your field.
This discussion can go on forever.

My skip level manager, Sr Director asks me how to use share screen feature on Zoom.

Not necessarily everyone knows everything and we shouldn't tie knowledge to hierarchy or experience.

People might be expert in different areas than you and that's why diversity matters.

While I think that everyone should know what TLS means, I don't think it's "bad" to have to look it up.

Edit: Means is in "crypto connection"...
;)

As long as you are honest, it's ok.

What pisses me off is when people start to fake it to make it.

Aka... sure TLS is very important.

Yeah we need TLS 5.

Yes. Absolutely!

... Except that there is no TLS 5.

Oh... Ehm... Eh.

These are conversations where I really need to keep myself grounded cause I wanna physically harm a person.

Good when you immediately find it out, bad if you realize it only after a few days and have to suddenly clean up a huge mess and reorganize the whole project.

Basically anyone who has used a web browser should have some idea of what TLS relates to.

Not to mention TLS is a new term for SSL.

Mfw I came in to shit about how I helped out a senior-senior C dev resolve a C++ compile error just by looking at the error in chat but then I read the comments and wow.
I'm humbled, you good people.

I don't know how but this place has become more wholesome than what I remember.

@Demolishun By form of passion and education they should know most common acronyms, yes. I already knew all these when I was a kid, lol.

This is not about every acronym, it's about a very common acronym that should be known by any software developer with a basic education. You have to know what TLS is, as much as you have to know what AES or TKIP are. For example, at my previous job I had to already know what DKIM, DMARC and SPF were so I could do secure e-mail transactions between API's and I would have the know-how on advising and reassuring clients their data was safe. We live in modern software development and (in this case) security can't be ignored. Here's another one: OAuth2.

Even if a team lead isn't necessarily a trained software developer, they should know the basic concepts at least at a high level (like my previous manager did) so that they can negotiate between developers what the best approach is and also understand why.

@Demolishun It's not about that, it's about basic knowledge. Security is basic knowledge, as much as networking is. Not knowing that acronym is just strange. It's like a developer who doesn't know what the SDLC is. I'm not stressing on the acronym here but on knowledge of the basic concepts, which knowing the acronym of does help.

It is indeed good knowing how to implement something but it's equally important knowing the fundamentals behind it. People have their preferences but as an engineer I think it's fundamentally wrong to look up things last-minute. It may have its benefits but I don't think people should tinker with things just ad-hoc. They should have a framework of basic and fundamental concepts in their head. This is why they teach Computer Science at educational institutions.. because we aren't implementers, we are thinkers.

@-red It's not fine because it's part of the basic education of being a software developer, no matter what field you are in. I'm not a fan of complacency.

It's like many great professors said: "It's not ok to be mediocre". Per analogy, I wouldn't want a clueless and uneducated holistic practitioner with ad-hoc skills operating on my hurt loved one, I would want a doctor because they know fundamentals strongly and are fully competent.

@AlgoRythm "new".

*cough* *cough*

Elderly home? 😇🤣

@IntrusionCM my 22nd birthday is Friday and you're not helping

@AlgoRythm

TLS 1.0 was released around 2000 xD

Don't worry, I'm sure you're one hell of a handsome guy.

I can't stop laughing, though.

@Demolishun

TLS is essential.

@Demolishun

You defending this dev is hilarious
Even My Mother in law know what TLS/SSL is.

@Demolishun depends if they are a web dev.

Only ones that matter are the 3 letter ones starting with C

May not be his field of engineering, he might have forgotten that particular acronym, maybe he was distracted...a job title should not mark you out as a senior, loudly considering a fellow engineer to be unworthy because they do not know a thing certainly marks you out as a junior.

Nobody knows anything.

The other day someone jokingly told me that the hotkey to something was alt F4. For a second I believed him and said, oh really? Then right before I tried it, I remembered what that combination that I use every day is for. I guess I'm a retard and should go pick up boxes at a warehouse, despite teaching this other programmer half of the stuff he's been using in his job. I committed the sin of not remembering something at some point.

there are way too many acronyms in our industry.
But yes, thread-local storage and thread level speculation should be well-known concepts.

I hate overuse of acronyms.

@Demolishun nope but it is rather unlikely that a senior never encountered that one. It belongs in the list ip, tcp, udp, dns, dhcp, smtp, ssl, http. Kinda hard to miss unless you don't come near networking

@hjk101

Yes, it is one of the basics

Kinda funny looking at this conversation as a “senior software engineer” but I don’t know what TLS is