C expert criteria

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <12280 at well.UUCP> tmh at well.UUCP (Todd M. Hoff) writes:
>      1. When hiring someone how do you know they are qualified?
>         By asking questions, right? Which questions? This relates
>         to my question.

At previous employers, we used to give a programming examination to
applicants for programming positions.  Part of the test were short-
answer questions, e.g. "What is a sentinel?", and part consisted of
a couple of practical exercises for which we were more concerned
with how the applicant approached problem solving than with arrival
at a solution.  For example, one such problem may be how to clip a
line segment (given as endpoint coords.) to a 2-D H/V rectangle.

>      3. When doing code reveiws, how do you judge the competence
>         of the code with no definition of what "good" code is?

I'm moderating a series of code reviews now, and we have definite
criteria.  I think it's a waste of time to wander aimlessly through
code.

>I'm asking about the essence of C programming.

I don't think you should emphasize the "C" so much.  C expertise is
not commensurate with programming expertise.  More importantly,
programming is only one aspect of software engineering; there are
other equally important skills needed besides those for writing
programs.