From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 24037 invoked from network); 3 Jan 2023 02:59:15 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 3 Jan 2023 02:59:15 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 94C8C424CD; Tue, 3 Jan 2023 12:58:41 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 13D2E424C4 for ; Tue, 3 Jan 2023 12:58:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 2B49D35E848; Mon, 2 Jan 2023 18:58:36 -0800 (PST) Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2023 18:58:36 -0800 From: Larry McVoy To: Adam Thornton Message-ID: <20230103025836.GZ25547@mcvoy.com> References: <20230102203646.GT25547@mcvoy.com> <7AC50DD1-DAB2-443A-B275-E3FB08031167@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <7AC50DD1-DAB2-443A-B275-E3FB08031167@gmail.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Message-ID-Hash: ZBYQ2LPDROIUM2F7QWT2GE6C55EFVBNN X-Message-ID-Hash: ZBYQ2LPDROIUM2F7QWT2GE6C55EFVBNN X-MailFrom: lm@mcvoy.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: COFF X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [COFF] Re: [TUHS] Interview question List-Id: Computer Old Farts Forum Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: On Mon, Jan 02, 2023 at 02:13:45PM -0700, Adam Thornton wrote: > > > > On Jan 2, 2023, at 1:36 PM, Larry McVoy wrote: > > > > The /bin/sh stuff made me think of an interview question I had for engineers, > > that a surprisingly few could pass: > > > > "Tell me about something you wrote that was entirely you, the docs, the > > tests, the source, the installer, everything. It doesn't have to be a > > big thing, but it has to have been successfully used by at least 10 > > people who had no contact with you (other than to say thanks)." > > > > Most people fail this. I think the people who pass might look > > positively on the v7 sh stuff. But who knows? > > Huh. That is a surprisingly tricky question, depending on how you want to construe "entirely you". > > Which of these, if any, do you count? Any of them that are entirely done by you. Here's an example. I posted move.c and copy.c to comp.sources.unix as an undergrad, a newbie. They let you do stuff like move =.c =.C++ and the = was the wild card. .* in regexp. They were a little better than that because you could have more than one = and could expand with something like \=2 \=1 (it's been 40 years, I might have the details wrong, still have the source, can post). Just did http://mcvoy.com/lm/move.shar I know people used it because later in life it got mentioned. But literally noone ever asked me how to use it or install or anything. It's a tiny thing but it meets what I was looking for. Entirely you means entirely you. If you have done that, you are in a pretty small crowd. -- --- Larry McVoy Retired to fishing http://www.mcvoy.com/lm/boat