Why we don't hire programmers based on puzzles and tricks

Re:Why we don't hire programmers based on puzzles and tricks by steveklabnik on Friday February 22, 2013 @02:41PM (#5266255)

Also, it depends on which language you're using...

    $ irb
    irb(main):001:0> a = 1
    => 1
    irb(main):002:0> b = 2
    => 2
    irb(main):003:0> b, a = a, b
    => [1, 2]
    irb(main):004:0> puts "#{a} #{b}"
    2 1
    => nil

(obviously this has the same flaw you mention, the interpreter is doing stuff for you. It follows the letter of the 'no intermediate variables' only.)

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Re:Why we don't hire programmers based on puzzles and tricks by michaelfairley on Friday February 22, 2013 @03:03PM (#5266422)

You can also follow the letter in C, Java, etc.:

  a ^= b
  b ^= a
  a ^= b

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Re:Why we don't hire programmers based on puzzles and tricks by jervisfm on Friday February 22, 2013 @07:12PM (#5267826)

What does that do?

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Re:Why we don't hire programmers based on puzzles and tricks by steveklabnik on Friday February 22, 2013 @07:37PM (#5267901)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XOR_swap_algorithm

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Re:Why we don't hire programmers based on puzzles and tricks by jervisfm on Friday February 22, 2013 @11:03PM (#5268498)

Thanks for the pointer.

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