In my C# 6 – First look course, I covered how Expression Bodied Function Members were introduced which permit methods, properties and other function members to have bodies that are expressions instead of statement blocks — similar to lambda expressions.

So we can change this…

private string name = "Jerry Seinfeld";
public string Name
{
    get { return name; }
    set { name = value; }
} 

To this…

 
public string Name => "Jerry Seinfeld";

In C# 7.0, we now have constructors, accessors, and finalizers (destructors) to the list of things that can have expression bodies:

Constructors
Let’s first look at Constructors…
Before C# 7, we can write a constructor that takes a parameter which looks like this in a class…

        // Classic Constructor
        public Person(string name)
        {
            Name = name;
        }

But now we can convert it to look like this…

// New C# 7 Constructor
public Person(string name) => Name = name;

This is useful if passing in only one or no parameters. Nothing more complicated than that.

Full Properties
The next thing that was changed was for full properties.

        // Classic Full Property
        private string _name;
        public string Name
        {
            get { return _name; }
            set { _name = value; }
        }

Now can be slightly shortened like this…

        // New C# 7 property
        private string _name;
        public string Name
        {
            get => _name;
            set => _name = value;
        }

Yeah, yeah, you can use auto-implemented properties but for cases you need to write out full properties, this expression body can be done.
Destructors
And lastly, similar to the constructors. Destructors can be shortened.

        // C#6 Destructor
        ~Person()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Descructor was called!");
        }

Can now be this…

~Person() => Console.Error.WriteLine("C# 7 Destructor was called!");

Definitely pay attention to the evolution of these features and practice them because they are time savers. And without practice, it can make it difficult to understand code by others if you’re not use to it.

My full course on C# 7 First look should be out by April 2017 on Lynda.com. You can check out my C# 6 course first for a refresher since several features in the new version builds on version 6.

I don’t know why it’s been hard to find a decent free screen recording program but I finally came across one for the PC.

Microsoft Expression Encoder 4

I wanted something my students can use for my Full Stack Lab boot camp & this works great. If you want to do recordings more than 10 minutes, you’ll need to upgrade but or simply record in parts (i.e. Part 1, Part 2).

Check it out and let me know your thoughts on it or if you have another suggestion.

As I’m launching my fullstack lab online boot camp, I’ll be posting advice I give to student on here for all to share.

The topic of syntax highlighting came up since pasting code in a blog on it’s own look plain/boring… below is some quick steps to accomplishing this goal of having nicely hightlighted code.

Steps to be able to show code in your blog with highlighted syntax that I’d use…

1. Download/install WordPress plugin ‘Syntax Highlighter MT’
2. Test posting code that will be highlighted like this below..

.ulCircle {
list-style-type: circle;
}

.ulSquare {
list-style-type: square;
}

3. Reference these pages for instructions & other languages you may need to highlight respectively.

http://www.megatome.com/syntaxhighlightermt/
http://alexgorbatchev.com/SyntaxHighlighter/manual/brushes/

Note: If you just search ‘Syntax Highlighter’, you’ll have many options. No need to use the one I used – Syntax Highlighter MT. I see it doesn’t have many votes but I think it must be a new version. ‘Crayon Syntax Highlighter’ may be another option as it has high ratings but I haven’t tested it. Below is a screenshot of other options I saw…

Learn more here…

The Disclaimer

My thoughts are from a software engineer’s perspective. I don’t have access to Bumble’s code so this is speculation but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize an apps behavior.

The Question

In case you’re unfamiliar with Bumble, it’s a dating app similar to Tinder. Pictures of potential matches are shown & you swipe right if you like them & may want to have sex or marry them OR swipe left if you want to send them to the dungeons.

The question at had as the title says is: Is Bumble’s Algorithm Filtering Ugly People?

Now I don’t think they’re filtering out the unattractive completely but there seems to be some strong sorting to show them DEAD last and DISPLAY hot people first.

There is a big clue that filtering based on people’s looks is going on with Bumble and it doesn’t take a software engineer to notice it. What do you look for? Simple. Try the app & ask yourself, do most of the candidate look attractive initially to you and then later on, less so. Compare that to random matches on a site like OkCupid. (At least they have an option you need to choose to filter by attractiveness)

The Problem

If this is the case for Bumble & they’re discreetly filtering, it’s a problem. Not because it’s discrimination against the average / below-average looking or that it’s hypocritical for an app that claims to empower women – it’s a problem because it provided a “false” convenience.

You might think it’s convenient that the attractive folks are shown upfront but that’s really false because what ends up happening is everyone sees them too and so those cute profiles are flooded with matches and are less likely to respond to you. That’s bad, sad & frustrating.

Guys are used to the rejection and some unfortunately will indirectly end up with “trigger happy swipe right thumbs”. Swiping right on almost every pic to make it a numbers game in their favor & end up responding to few women that match with them. These guys respond to one’s they actually are attracted to & ignore the excess matches resulting from their happy thumb tic.

Women who aren’t used to as much rejection as guys get all bummed out when they message a super hot guy that showed up early and don’t get responses. Why, most likely, he got lots of matches too due to the sorting algorithm showing his profile to tons of women. And the more women that see him, the more that will swipe right on him.  This applies vice versa / women’s profiles.

A Self-fulfilling prophecy. The rich get richer.

The Solution

Most likely what Bumble’s doing is showing you candidates first that many people swiped right on and organically it will likely be due to them being attractive to the public.

So the solution would be to simply not do this.

While it might seem less exciting not all the initial pics look like models, it’ll be more realistic & the response rate for both attractive & average folks will normalize.

Dating is hard enough. Don’t play games Bumble!

The Last Word

It’s already a challenge to find intellectual attractiveness as well as physical so there’s no need for an app that is mainly focused on the physical to inject algorithm features the heighten the shallowness of it.

Let me know your thoughts on this matter and/or your experience w/ Bumble.

Update!!

The podcast whyohwhy interviewed me on this topic. I’m in episode two! Turns out, my theory wasn’t crazy after all!

http://www.whyohwhyradio.com/hotter-on-bumble-part-1

http://www.whyohwhyradio.com/hotter-on-bumble-part-2

The Author

I help people with no experience become software engineers quickly. Programmers usually start off with salary’s 100k or more.

If you’d like to learn how to code visit: http://reynaldadolphe.com/fullstacklab 

If you have questions, email me at AskReynAld@gmail.com

Subscribe for future posts here.

Don’t Let your company put you in a bubble.

I once got laid off with a company in bankruptcy – The Tribune Company. I loved the people there but what I realized my mistake was that I let love transform into comfort. I got too comfortable. I just did the work they wanted me to and never kept up w/ all the latest technology trends.

When it was time for me to start interviewing, it became clear how far I was behind. And believe me, we worked on some good stacks at Tribune but there was still a lot we didn’t touch. I was in a bubble.

I played catch-up by signing up w/ Pluralsight & going through tons of courses, coding – not just watching. I slowly became fond of some the really good authors & even started communicating w/ them. This experience is what led me to want to become one of them.

I took a year doing just that. Had I always kept learning outside of work, I wouldn’t have had to do that.

On reynaldadolphe.com, I want to facilitate this process for software engineers that want to avoid the bubble. That is, for those individuals who “get” the importance of keeping up with the latest, but might feel slightly overwhelmed on how to go about it or where to focus.

As a developer, you must always be learning and so the sooner you can discover how you can make the process fun for you, the sooner you’ll escape the bubble.

Tell me, how do you keep from being in a bubble? Or are you stuck in one now?