2 ms·

If the point is looking for organizational skills, i think compilers are legitimate. They're big complicated beasts. Sure, some people in isolation can make ama

by jfoutz 11y ago

If the point is looking for organizational skills, i think compilers are legitimate. They're big complicated beasts. Sure, some people in isolation can make amazing things with a few thousand lines of code - I think most people would be happy employing Fabrice Bellard. Writing a C compiler seems like one of those standard undergrad activities. If a programmer can make that work, they probably have sufficient organizational skills. It seems like real-time, distributed, multi user app development is a separate filter. I guess it's the distinction between looking for someone who is capable of solving those problems vs looking for someone who has solved those problems.

dpark 11y ago
"Tell me about writing a compiler" seems mostly to be a question intended to restrict your hires to fresh grads who took a compiler course or if you're trying to poach compiler writers from another company. You're not likely to get a very useful response from someone who hasn't written one recently or at all. You could just as well ask "Tell me about writing a POSIX shell", or "Tell me about writing a browser", or basically any "Tell me about writing a <FOO>". It's not a useful question unless you're specifically hiring them to write a <FOO>.