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A comment on Organizing complexity is the most important skill in software development. Parent comment

Re:Organizing complexity is the most important skill in soft... by jfoutz on Monday June 22, 2015 @11:22AM (#9758925)
If the point is looking for organizational skills, i think compilers are legitimate. They're big complicated beasts. Sure, some people in isolation can make amazing things with a few thousand lines of code - I think most people would be happy employing Fabrice Bellard.

Writing a C compiler seems like one of those standard undergrad activities. If a programmer can make that work, they probably have sufficient organizational skills. It seems like real-time, distributed, multi user app development is a separate filter.

I guess it's the distinction between looking for someone who is capable of solving those problems vs looking for someone who has solved those problems.

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Re:Organizing complexity is the most important skill in soft... by dpark on Monday June 22, 2015 @12:55PM (#9759605)
"Tell me about writing a compiler" seems mostly to be a question intended to restrict your hires to fresh grads who took a compiler course or if you're trying to poach compiler writers from another company. You're not likely to get a very useful response from someone who hasn't written one recently or at all. You could just as well ask "Tell me about writing a POSIX shell", or "Tell me about writing a browser", or basically any "Tell me about writing a <FOO>". It's not a useful question unless you're specifically hiring them to write a <FOO>.
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