
C language inventor spurns Google's language exam - philf
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/21/ken_thompson_take_our_test/
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tdmackey
It's not really a language exam like a certification or anything but merely a
style compliance review. Also, such a compliance review doesn't exist for C,
but rather C++, and all of Thompson's work is on Golang which run a little
differently than and separately from the centralized google codebase where
this little bit flag matters therefore he doesn't need to worry about it since
he doesn't really commit to the core. Besides, if someone else who has
"passed" reviews his code, which just about every reviewer has, he can commit
anyway.

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houseabsolute
Eh, he's not allowed to check in code to the main repository without someone
who has C++ readability approving it first. Since code would need to be
reviewed to be checked in anyway, it's not really a significant hurdle to get
approval since almost everyone has C++ readability and the code review tool
reminds you when approval is needed.

That being said, having looked at some of his code he would probably have to
significantly modify his style to get readability.

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fletchowns
Aside from the fact that this garbage shouldn't even be posted here, there was
certainly no spurning involved.

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shadowsun7
I found this rather interesting, to be honest. Assuming a) this is true, b)
why? and c) why does Thompson 'see no need'?

I'm assuming the answer to b) is consistent standards (applied to all Google
engineers). However, the answer to c) is what I want to know, because it
relates to how Thompson currently works. Does anybody have more information on
this?

~~~
nostrademons
a.) The article is ridiculously misleading.

It's not really a programming "test", it's a special code review where you
submit a block of code you've written that's already part of a production
system, and then a reviewer goes over it with a fine-toothed comb for style
violations, knowledge of the language fundamentals, proper usage of typical
library functions, and good testing practice. While it is possible to "fail" a
readability review, that usually only happens if you completely do not
understand the basics of the language. Usually the reviewer will work with you
to improve the code until it's suitable.

It's also not unheard of for code written during these readability reviews to
become useful production code. For example, my JS readability reviewer asked
me to write a quick mock-object framework, to prove that I understood how
classes, objects, and prototypes worked since the code I had submitted used
none of these. This was later pulled out into its own library, at the request
of some coworkers, and now is used for testing a bunch of websearch
JavaScript.

You've guessed b.) correctly.

As for c.), you can still check in code without having readability, you just
need to find someone with readability to review and approve it. I think it's a
fairly good bet that Ken Thompson works with someone with C++ readability, and
since all code needs to be reviewed anyway, it basically doesn't matter.

It actually fairly common for engineers to not bother getting readability,
both because they can count on others to review their code and because the
readability process requires that you submit a large chunk of code that was
"primarily authored" by yourself. That latter bit disqualifies most code,
because most Googlers work on teams and we end up rewriting our code several
times before it's stable. I submit C++ all the time, but I still don't have
C++ readability, because most of my changes have been edits (sometimes fairly
extensive) to a class that somebody else wrote.

~~~
shadowsun7
Thank you nostrademons. Yours is the reply I was looking for.

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jacquesm
It's there for the world to read in the 'coders at work' book (highly
recommended), and it is a misleading title.

He simply never got around to it because he saw no need.

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ramchip
_whether Thompson has finally allowed himself to be subject to a humiliating
examination on the language he invented by an acne-scarred, know-it-all Oompa-
Loompa who is absent-mindedly flicking paper pellets into a Starbucks cup
while Twittering._

Well, that was typical for The Register.

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crazydiamond
So did Thompson have a big role in designing the GO language? (I've not read
anything on GO for a few months so can't recall.) I thought it was someones
20% project.

Is it easy to call existing C libraries with GO ?

Is Go worth learning, I was thinking of digging into Clojure or some form of
Lisp.

~~~
houseabsolute
I can answer the second question. Yes, it's very easy to call existing C
libraries from Go. <http://golang.org/cmd/cgo/>

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robryan
Weird that this is news now, given the amount of time it's been in print. If I
recall this was the same case with guido having to do the python test.

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dzlobin
I can't believe I even tried to read this.

"C language inventor too busy to take test, can't check in code and doesn't
need to"

