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From: g-rh@cca.CCA.COM (Richard Harter)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: weird c code/ c test
Message-ID: <18372@cca.CCA.COM>
Date: Thu, 30-Jul-87 01:42:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: cca.18372
Posted: Thu Jul 30 01:42:19 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Aug-87 02:57:29 EDT
References: <1089@gilsys.UUCP>
Reply-To: g-rh@CCA.CCA.COM.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 28
Keywords: test, employment, weird, code, pointers
Xref: mnetor comp.lang.c:3371 misc.jobs.misc:514

In article <1089@gilsys.UUCP> mc68020@gilsys.UUCP (Thomas J Keller) writes:

-    I just had a strange experience today.  I went to see a head hunter about
- an opening she wanted me to consider, and she popped this "C test" on me.
- Most of it was pretty straight forward, but the last question on the test
- was a **BITCH**.  See if you can determine the output of this program 
- without actually compiling it:

	[... weird code deleted ...]


	Speaking as a programmer, my reaction would be very simple -- I do
not write code like this, and I have no desire to deal with code like this,
and no intention of considering the test.  Speaking as an employer [I run
a small software company -- CCA is the machine I am running on] I would not
deal with any employment agency that used this test.

	Now I have no objection to clever and subtle code, in its place --
I've written a fair bit of it myself upon occasion.  And I'm moderately
fond of ingenious puzzles.  But ingenuity and complexity should only be
exercised when needed.  This test represents a conception of programming
that I feel is fundamentally unsound.  How's that for dogmatism?

-- 

In the fields of Hell where the grass grows high
Are the graves of dreams allowed to die.
	Richard Harter, SMDS  Inc.