4 ms·

With all these folks excited by gcc releases (and really the C++11 features) it would seam like there's lots of folks still using C++. However, I have the harde

by mtanski 14y ago

With all these folks excited by gcc releases (and really the C++11 features) it would seam like there's lots of folks still using C++. However, I have the hardest time in the world recruiting good C++ engineers (here in NYC at least).

joelthelion 14y ago
What kind of things are you doing with C++? Also, what do you consider a "good C++ engineer"? I'm pretty sure I would fail a C++ interview requiring me to know trivia about obscure parts of the language, yet I do use C++ successfully almost every day.
- qdog 14y ago
  Yep, our local c++ tough guy figures he's a 6/10 in c++ knowledge, and we're unsure if you can make it to 7/10. Yet, millions of instances of his code are still successfully running as we speak. I once had someone ask me if I was a c++ expert, I said no, did not get an interview. I guess I should have lied and hoped the questions they asked me fell in the realm of c++ I know.
- mtanski 14y ago
  Sorry for being overly vague with the term "good". I guess I would break it down to 3 categories. 1. Solid understanding of CS concepts. You don't have to build a Red-Black tree in the interview (ugh) but you should know properties of self-balancing trees and when to use them. 2. Effective use of C++ . Not looking for C++ trivia here (or someone who memorized the C++ lite FAQ). But things like good practices when it comes to memory management, using templates, virtual destructors, functors (and operating / passing functions). 3. Good idea how things work under the hood. So concepts like atomic variable (why and when to use it), bit-packing data, avoiding branching in hot code paths, and allocation strategies (memory pools). Am I asking too much? I've found out that folks who have a solid grasp of CS, language and how things work under the hood can reason more complex things they don't know (yet). We're using C++ to build a relational database for storing lots of multi-dimensional time series data. We're leveraging Google's supersonic for execution (https://code.google.com/p/supersonic/ https://code.google.com/p/supersonic/). The other important pieces (like the IO subsystem, indexing, query planing, sharing & routing) we've built ourselves.
  - revelation 14y ago
    The problem is that there is a wide range of different coding styles, between "C with sanity" and "Boost.Spirit". You seem to lean more towards the C side, but that's not clear from the "C++ expert" label alone.
- mtanski 14y ago
  I forgot to add that C++ is a big language so I doubt that anybody out there can hold all the corner cases in their head without going to documentation.

by mtanski 14y ago

joelthelion 14y ago

What kind of things are you doing with C++? Also, what do you consider a "good C++ engineer"? I'm pretty sure I would fail a C++ interview requiring me to know trivia about obscure parts of the language, yet I do use C++ successfully almost every day.

qdog 14y ago
Yep, our local c++ tough guy figures he's a 6/10 in c++ knowledge, and we're unsure if you can make it to 7/10. Yet, millions of instances of his code are still successfully running as we speak. I once had someone ask me if I was a c++ expert, I said no, did not get an interview. I guess I should have lied and hoped the questions they asked me fell in the realm of c++ I know.
mtanski 14y ago
Sorry for being overly vague with the term "good". I guess I would break it down to 3 categories. 1. Solid understanding of CS concepts. You don't have to build a Red-Black tree in the interview (ugh) but you should know properties of self-balancing trees and when to use them. 2. Effective use of C++ . Not looking for C++ trivia here (or someone who memorized the C++ lite FAQ). But things like good practices when it comes to memory management, using templates, virtual destructors, functors (and operating / passing functions). 3. Good idea how things work under the hood. So concepts like atomic variable (why and when to use it), bit-packing data, avoiding branching in hot code paths, and allocation strategies (memory pools). Am I asking too much? I've found out that folks who have a solid grasp of CS, language and how things work under the hood can reason more complex things they don't know (yet). We're using C++ to build a relational database for storing lots of multi-dimensional time series data. We're leveraging Google's supersonic for execution (https://code.google.com/p/supersonic/ https://code.google.com/p/supersonic/). The other important pieces (like the IO subsystem, indexing, query planing, sharing & routing) we've built ourselves.
- revelation 14y ago
  The problem is that there is a wide range of different coding styles, between "C with sanity" and "Boost.Spirit". You seem to lean more towards the C side, but that's not clear from the "C++ expert" label alone.
mtanski 14y ago
I forgot to add that C++ is a big language so I doubt that anybody out there can hold all the corner cases in their head without going to documentation.