2 Jan
2023
2 Jan
'23
8:36 p.m.
The /bin/sh stuff made me think of an interview question I had for engineers,
that a surprisingly few could pass:
"Tell me about something you wrote that was entirely you, the docs, the
tests, the source, the installer, everything. It doesn't have to be a
big thing, but it has to have been successfully used by at least 10
people who had no contact with you (other than to say thanks)."
Most people fail this. I think the people who pass might look
positively on the v7 sh stuff. But who knows?
2 Jan
2 Jan
8:38 p.m.
Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
The /bin/sh stuff made me think of an interview
question I had for engineers,
that a surprisingly few could pass:
"Tell me about something you wrote that was entirely you, the docs, the
tests, the source, the installer, everything. It doesn't have to be a
big thing, but it has to have been successfully used by at least 10
people who had no contact with you (other than to say thanks)."
Most people fail this. I think the people who pass might look
positively on the v7 sh stuff. But who knows?
How many people who failed this question did you hire anyway?
8:51 p.m.
On Mon, Jan 02, 2023 at 01:38:30PM -0700, arnold(a)skeeve.com wrote:
Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
None that I kept. Miss-hired some who didn't pass and let them go eventually.
Whether that question actually is that good of an indicator in general, I
couldn't say. It was a pretty solid one for what we did.
--
---
Larry McVoy Retired to fishing http://www.mcvoy.com/lm/boat
The /bin/sh stuff made me think of an interview
question I had for engineers,
that a surprisingly few could pass:
"Tell me about something you wrote that was entirely you, the docs, the
tests, the source, the installer, everything. It doesn't have to be a
big thing, but it has to have been successfully used by at least 10
people who had no contact with you (other than to say thanks)."
Most people fail this. I think the people who pass might look
positively on the v7 sh stuff. But who knows?
How many people who failed this question did you hire anyway? 
3 Jan
3 Jan
4:44 a.m.
Nice question, but I don't see the connection.
--
Ori Idan CEO Helicon Books
http://www.heliconbooks.com
On Mon, Jan 2, 2023 at 10:37 PM Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
The /bin/sh stuff made me think of an interview
question I had for
engineers,
that a surprisingly few could pass:
"Tell me about something you wrote that was entirely you, the docs, the
tests, the source, the installer, everything. It doesn't have to be a
big thing, but it has to have been successfully used by at least 10
people who had no contact with you (other than to say thanks)."
Most people fail this. I think the people who pass might look
positively on the v7 sh stuff. But who knows?
5:15 a.m.
Sadly, I can't remember whose USENIX talk it was, but I recall a software maturity
scale that went something like this:
1 - it works in your office
2 - it works in an office down the hall
3 - it works for someone you've never met
4 - you don't have to explain why you use it
5 - you have to explain why you don't use it
-r
On Jan 2, 2023, at 12:36, Larry McVoy
<lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
The /bin/sh stuff made me think of an interview question I had for engineers,
that a surprisingly few could pass:
"Tell me about something you wrote that was entirely you, the docs, the
tests, the source, the installer, everything. It doesn't have to be a
big thing, but it has to have been successfully used by at least 10
people who had no contact with you (other than to say thanks)."
Most people fail this. I think the people who pass might look
positively on the v7 sh stuff. But who knows?
5:32 a.m.
On Tue, 3 Jan 2023 at 10:46, Rich Morin <rdm(a)cfcl.com> wrote:
Sadly, I can't remember whose USENIX talk it was,
but I recall a software
maturity scale that went something like this:
1 - it works in your office
2 - it works in an office down the hall
3 - it works for someone you've never met
4 - you don't have to explain why you use it
5 - you have to explain why you don't use it
Perhaps we can introduce a #6 here:
A successful software tool is one that was used to do something undreamed
of by it's author.
-- S. C. Johnson
--
Ajay Shah
ajayshah(a)mayin.org
http://www.mayin.org/ajayshah
482
days inactive
483
days old
5 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
Ajay Shah -
arnold＠skeeve.com -
Larry McVoy -
Ori Idan -
Rich Morin