Re: How do I write directly to a memory address?

[Adam Beneschan <adam@irvine.com>]

On Feb 8, 5:56 pm, Shark8 <onewingedsh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> That is a far more elegant & practical solution, IMO.
>
> The problem really comes into play with the question
> "How do you set the third bit?" because there is no
> such context (a device in your example) with which
> to base your answer, and so you must give an
> answer somewhat tangential to what the actual
> practical problem may be.

Since this is an interview and not the final exam of a college class,
I don't see a problem with giving an answer that reflects how you'd
actually approach the problem.  Dmitry asks, "How do you set the third
bit?", and you say, "Well, if the third bit is a Ready bit in a
hardware I/O register, I'd define a struct with bit components [yes, I
think C has those] and just assign 1 to the component, which would be
more readable than using a mask."  If the interviewer were Dmitry, I
think he'd be impressed.  If the interviewer were one of the
programmers Dmitry was complaining about, they may not have a clue
what you're talking about.  So you have to judge.  But a good,
experienced programmer knows that sometimes the thing that someone's
asking you for isn't always what they really want, and sometimes you
have to dig a bit deeper to find out whether it really is what they
need, or whether they've just assumed a solution to some deeper
problem and maybe you have a better solution.  Answering in this way
tells the interviewer that you have the ability to do this kind of
probing when it's necessary, assuming the interviewer isn't an idiot.

                             -- Adam