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From: cole@farmhand.rtp.dg.com (Bill Cole)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: Re: Object oriented software engineers (Was: Documenting OO Systems)
Message-ID: <1991Apr16.211029.201@dg-rtp.dg.com>
Date: 16 Apr 91 21:10:29 GMT
References: <jls.671247104@rutabaga> <1899:Apr1206:12:4991@kramden.acf.nyu.edu> <1991Apr15.210038.6992@visix.com>
Sender: cole@farmhand (Bill Cole)
Organization: Data General Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
Lines: 25

Amanda Walker writes:
|> sample code is often much more informative
|> than grades or other certifications
|> 
|> Me too.  They are <expletive deleted> hard to find.  You can often take
|> bright people coming out of college and teach them well, but finding
|> already-experienced people is very tough.  You'd think there wasn't
|> any demand for creativity and excellence in the software industry...
|> 
|>    "Well, you know... They're ABSTRACT!"
|> 
|> Many giggles.  Sigh.  One of the people on my team often asks people
|> to write down the algorithm for "binary search."  Amazing how many
|> people this trips up...
|> 

I tend to agree, though it would be damned difficult to get a useful
sample of anyone's code.  I once taught an Intro to Computing class where
the tests all consisted of such bizarre questions as: Write a program to....
Most students didn't like this.  They wanted me to quiz them over parts of
the language.  Nobody is paid in the real world to know what some verb or 
keyword does; we're paid TO WRITE PROGRAMS.  So tests mimicked the real
world.  I changed a lot of majors.

My own views are expressed above,
/Bill