Re: How to make C look like C++

From: Gary Labowitz (glabowitz_at_comcast.net)
Date: 10/15/03 

Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 09:33:31 -0400

"Gavin Deane" <deane_gavin@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6d8002d0.0310150251.2788904e@posting.google.com...
> "jeffc" <nobody@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:<3f8c957c_3@news1.prserv.net>...
> > And who replies well to abrasive, unhelpful answers to legitimate
questions?
> > To wit:
> >
> > >> I've been asked in a job interview how to make C code look like
C++
> > >> code,
> > >Then I suggest that you look somewhere else for employment.
>
> [Apologies to Mike if I'm misrepresenting him]
>
> How do you read that as abrasive? Given Mike's interpretation of the
> question, his reply looks as if he is strongly warning the OP against
> working for a company that asks such questions.
>
> Whether Mike's interpretation is valid has been discussed elsewhere in
> the thread and isn't relevant to how you read his answer. Mike got the
> impression that the company doesn't know what it's talking about and
> warned the OP to stay away from them. How is that anything other than
> helpful?

Are you sure that the request isn't really: "We would like to upgrade from C
to C++. What do we have to do to continue using our C applications during
the conversion?"

This would be a reasonable question to see if the programmer could identify
the differences and what sort of steps need to be taken. Of course, it
requires a couple of months of study and time to produce a working
conversion plan, but that's what comes of asking HUGE questions in a little
interview.

After being out of work for many months I would think to myself, "These guys
don't understand what they are asking," make some response and decide
whether or not I could do the job and take it if offered. You can always
quit -- but getting the work is the important step. (I'll assume he wanted
to work there in the first place or he wouldn't have gone to an interview.)

My son was aksed "How do you sort a collection in VB?" in an interview.
While he didn't have the foggiest, he did eventually get the job and has
done quite well with them. Note: I don't think he has ever had to sort a
collection. But he does a lot of SQL work and building of interactive tools
to use the databases. 

-- 
Gary

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