Have any of you ever been awarded a job because you have the Certification? Have any of you ever been denied a job because you don't have the Certification? It seems to me that, beyond personal satisfaction, these points are all that matter.

I'm a book worm, myself... Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed - Adam Nathan Essential Windows Presentation Foundation - Chris Anderson

Bravo! That is the best explanation yet. This is exactly what MOST of my colleagues believe. The devils advocate of the group maintains that: int a=12; // is not a ValueType until string s = a.ToString() // is called Thanks everybody for your input.

Your explanation implies that System.ValueType has more information than just the raw memory needed to store the data (an 4 byte integer in my previous examples). I'll try to restate my original question, again using the ValueType System.Int32 as an example: Does an instance of System.Int32 occupy only 4 bytes in memory when it is allocated on the stack? If so, what is the purpose of deriving System.ValueType from System.Object if it does not carry any information from System.Object?

I understand how and why boxing is used... The question remains: If a System.Int32 occupies only 4 bytes on the stack, what is the purpose of deriving System.ValueType from System.Object? Thanks for your reply...

Are you absolutely sure your .zip file is in gzip format? The gzip format has a header and the GZipStream class accounts for this. But, if your .zip file is not in gzip format, the gzip decompression will not work. Your .zip file may have been created with the DEFLATE compression method in which case you need to use the DeflateStream class. Simply substitute GZipStream with DeflateStream and see what happens...

The first sentence of the article reads "A Value Type instance on stack without any Method Table ..." Does that mean an System.Int32 is stored on the stack in just 4 bytes (sounds like it to me)? If so, how does System.ValueType's derivation from System.Object (in which it overides the System.Object methods) avoid a "Method Table?" Assuming the compiler "changes" a System.Int32 to its 4 byte raw form for storage on the stack, what is the purpose of deriving System.ValueType from System.Object? Thanks for the article...

If you are developing new code, why waste time with a 15 year old API like MFC. If you are trying to use existing MFC code, you can host your MFC code in WPF through the interop mechanisms. Only you can weigh the cost between salvaging MFC code or re-writing it in Windows Forms or WPF.

There is an ongoing "discussion" among my colleagues about exactly how a ValueType is stored internally. We are looking for some other views. If a ValueType is derived from System.Object, does it have a vtable or is it stored in raw form until boxed. In other words, is an System.Int32 stored on the stack as a 4 byte integer or does it have a vtable therby making it larger than 4 bytes?

I would think that the U.S. laws would be applicaple to the U.S. branch. It is VERY illegal in the U.S. to ask these types of interview questions! PERIOD! They are not even allowed to ask you if you are married, or have kids... My typical response to such a question is along the lines of "Whether I have kids or not has no bearing on my qualifications for this position." I immediately consider these types of interviews "throw aways" and tend to have a little fun with them. :) Turn the tables and start asking them off the wall questions. At the end, I let them know that THEY have failed THEIR interview and I am not interested in a position with their company.

Nemanja Trifunovic wrote:

probably K&R these days

K&R the dudes or K&R the book? See my post: Even K & R preffered the latter

Bet you didn't know that! 20+ years ago I read an interview with the two and this topic was broached. They both said they were stunned at the attitude of "...if it's good enough for K & R, it's good enough for me" and the thought by some that copying the K & R style of braces made them a good programmer. Of course we are talking about their infamous book, "The C Programming Language." What they also divuldged was that it was not their brace style at all! Their explanation: The publisher discovered that they could save a whole line of space in the book by moving the opening brace to the end of the previous line and the program would still work. They also remarked, and I'm paraphrasing here, "Thank God the publisher didn't know you could write the whole program on one line!" Now you know the rest of the story... Page 2... :-D The last edition of "The C Programming Language" was updated for ANSI C in 1988. It is still in print! :omg:

I consider myself a pretty good Software Engineer. I have been programming for over 20 years now which brings with it experience that can not be measured by on-the-spot syntactical prowness. One of my interviews had several programming questions. Some were of the variety "What is this block of code doing?" while others were "Write a routine to compute the moving average of a stock over time. Consider recursion." Well, I can look at any code and tell you what it is doing. Unfortunately, I didn't even know what a 'moving average' was. Needless to say, the interviewer was dissapointed that I didn't get it. When I got home, I figured out what a moving average was and, within 30 minutes, wrote up two ways of computing it and yes, one was recursive. I fired that off to my interviewer with a question, "Are you looking for a Software Engineer who can solve problems, or a stock broker that can program?" Impressed, he invited me back but I declined, mostly out of spite, but I also felt that his attitude betrayed the way he ran his shop and I wanted no part of it. Programming is a small part of Software Engineering. The programmer who can whip up a routine to compute a moving average using recursion, on-the-spot, is cream of the crop. If you can find him/her, hire them. I'll be the first to admit I'm not at that level and probably never will be. My brain simply isn't wired that way. When I interview people, I am looking for 2 things: Problem solving skills and programming skills. In the end, I like the "What is this block of code doing?" approach. It reveals the interviewees understanding of the language and 'potential' programming skills. But I also like the "Write a routine to ..." type of questions (they identify problem solving skills). They just need to be realistic. Here is an interesting article: FizzBuzz

Sweet! Does it come in an IE flavor?

Yes! That one is not only nauseating but disturbing! :~ And ughh, there is a banner as I type this that is scrolling lines of code by so fast you can't read them and trying to makes me ill. Not that you are supposed to be able to read them but who wouldn't try? That is the distracting part and just on principle, I will never click on that ad! And who the heck is "SQL Stan!?" Watching his bald head pop in and out while I'm trying to read makes me reach for my gun (nerf, of course :-D)...

Okay, this is my pet-peeve... Video advertising! I'm not talking about the banners that change text every 2 seconds (like the Vista API competition banner on my left). They are annoying but tolerable. I'm talking about the videos that have so much crap jumping around on them that you get nauseated trying to read an article or someones post. There is a reason we get sick when we try to read in a moving car and it is the same thing that happens with these obnoxious video advertisements. I know they are designed to get your attention, but webmasters and the advertisers must understand that they are probably having the opposite effect. I am at the point now where I just close the page and look for the info elswhere. So what do you do, tolerate it or quickly move on?

If you saw it, you know why it has to be the worst movie in modern times. If you haven't seen it go ahead and watch it. It is entertaining just for its grade D plot and horribly bad acting (by, ironically, some of the industries best actors!).

If I had to guess, I would say that the hiring companies are having problems for one reason: They want programming experience in GIS but are not willing to pay for such a specialized field of Software Engineering. I work for a package delivery company and we have a suite of routing software that we sell to other delivery companies. I am an independent and have been working on this routing software for 4+ years now. That is a long time for any independent to stay on one project! But here is the kicker. My colleagues who wrote the original mapping code (drawing, path finding, geocoding, etc.) have been with the company for 14+ years! That is unheard of in the Software Engineering dicipline. So you have to ask yourself, "Why?" The answer goes back to my one reason above. As full time employees of the company, these GIS Software Engineers command a salary in the high 80's to mid 90's NOT including a very generous yearly bonus which has, in the past, been equivalent to 6 months salary (though, admittedly, those days are gone and 2 or 3 months is the norm now). Cash compensation is well over 6 figures. So the companies that are having a hard time finding knowledgeable GIS Software Engineers need to realize that they can't look at standard salary surveys. They must admit that GIS programming is very unique and pony up some dough.

The original thread for this discussion was about a "NEW PROJECT in WINDOWS." Go back and read your post IN THAT CONTEXT and you will understand how one would interpret your comments as absolutely laughable. Good day...

Reuven Nisser wrote:

When a programmer wants to cross platform his code, he can not use C# and .NET, he needs to use C and C++.

Reuven Nisser wrote:

COBOL for database programming

Reuven Nisser wrote:

C# and .NET are very slow in comparison with C and C++.

:confused::confused::confused: Man, what planet are you from??