Re: Availability of Ada Programmers

[csusb@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Jules)]

In article <3h3hgg$8il@cronkite.seas.gwu.edu>,
	dobrien@seas.gwu.edu (David O'Brien) writes:
>
>I really wish management would realize they need to 1. hire software
>engineers, and not code-slingers, and 2. should then train that
>competent college grad in what ever language is to be used.  Remember
>only 20% of what is on a resume should be believed.  The number of
>applicants I have interviewed that claim to *KNOW* C (their emphasis)
>disgusts me.  When I ask them if C is pass by reference or pass by
>value, 70% of the time I get "pass-by-reference".  When I ask them to
>elaborate, they say because you pass pointers.  This is how well they
>know this language the *claim* to know.  Yes, we often pass pointers in
>C, but that pointer value is Pass-by-value.  If only they really
>understood the language.

I would argue that this is not a problem of mis-understanding the language,
but of mis-understanding the terminology/jargon associated with it.
In your example, the applicants knew what you had to do in the language -
they understood it from a practical point of view - but didn't understand
the terms you used when you asked the question.
-- 
/* Julian R Hall				csusb@csv.warwick.ac.uk
   
   Flames should be redirected to /dev/null - I don't know what
   I'm saying myself so don't expect it to make sense all the time!         */