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> That is not at all clear from the problem description. Seems like everyone else here thinks it’s perfectly clear.

• akhmatova 5y ago
  It can't possibly be "clear" because it doesn't follow from the problem description. Which, verbatim, was simply this: Our programming challenge: Add a mult command to memcached. Maybe "adding a command" involves "hacking the codebase"; maybe it doesn't. From the problem statement as such, you can't tell.
  • db48x 5y ago
    I confess to being a little confused by that. How can you “add a command to memcached” without altering memcached’s source code?
    • akhmatova 5y ago
      I know nothing about memcached. But in general, out in programmingland: "Adding a command to do X" does not imply (in general) "altering the source". That is, there are plenty of cases where one does not need to hack the source to effectively "add a command" to the running system.
      • db48x 5y ago
        Ok, I guess you’re thinking of your shell where you can “add a command” by dropping a shell script anywhere on the disk? Or your text editor, where you can add commands by editing some config file? I guess that’s fair. Note however that each of these programs has bent over backwards to enable easy extensibility. The average program does not. This is more like adding a command to sed or grep, which have no extensibility (aside from editing their source code).
        • akhmatova 4y ago
          The average program does not. Right -- the average system does not. But that doesn't mean that every system does not. That's all I'm saying.