Subj : Re: Software Job Market Myths
To   : comp.programming,comp.software-eng
From : Chris Sonnack
Date : Tue Aug 16 2005 10:41 pm

Richard Heathfield writes:

>> It's a little bit like asking a supposed C programmer about this:
>> 
>> char*  strconcat(char* s1, char* s2)
> 
> This appears to be an attempt to build a new string by concatenating
> two old ones. It has some problems.

[BWG] Ya think?

>>     {
>>         char  buf[256];
>> 
>>         strcpy(buf, s1);
>>         strcat(buf, s2);
>> 
>>         return buf;
>>     }
>  
> Firstly, the name is wrong. (Why?)

Yep.  (Conflicts with authority.)

> Secondly, some qualifiers are missing from the input parameters. (Which?)

Yep.  (I'm constantly wondering about stuff like that.)

> Thirdly, there's a scope problem. (What?)

Yep.  (When you're out, you've stacked the odds against you.)

> Fourthly, there's a robustness problem, which occurs twice. (What?)

Yep.  (Life often overflows our expectations, doesn't it.)

> Fifthly, there's an efficiency problem. (Which stdio.h routine is an 
> appropriate fix?)

Five for five!  (I'd have sprinted for my own solution, but I imagine
theirs others.)


But I'd be floored if you didn't have even more to say...

> I would almost certainly have other things to say,...

Ha!  I knew it.  (No, of course I hadn't read this bit, yet :-)

> ...depending on the interviewer's answers to the above questions. Never
> forget that an interview is a two-way process! :-)
> 
>> If they don't have *something* meaningful to say immediately, they
>> probably aren't the sort of C programmer we'd want.  :-|
>  
> And if the interviewer doesn't have some handy answers to /my/ questions, 
> they probably aren't the sort of client I'd want.

I will admit, your (I assume carefully chosen) phrasing did cause me to
have to think about which (what?) problem you meant.  (& I have a feeling
your answer to five might differ from mine.  If you don't mean the most
obvious choice (or mine, if different), I'm not sure which you mean.)

> At interviews, whenever I remember (which isn't always) I try to ask the 
> techie member of the interview team a simple question about the technology 
> about which he is interviewing me. For example, for a C interview, "what 
> type of value does main return?" If the techie gets it wrong, that's a good 
> sign that I probably want to be elsewhere.

"Main returns a value???"  ;-|

p.s.
I considered spelling 'buf' two different ways, but figured the "out" might
be that 'buff' refered to something global or in file scope.  [shrug]

p.p.s.
No, you're right, no sane programmer would name a non-local, 'buff'.....


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