February 2014 Archives

Why code style is important

Over at ImperialViolet, there's an interesting argument observation on Apple's recent SSL/TLS bug in iOS. This is the code in question:
static OSStatus
SSLVerifySignedServerKeyExchange(SSLContext *ctx, bool isRsa, SSLBuffer signedParams,
uint8_t *signature, UInt16 signatureLen)
{
OSStatus err;
...

if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.update(&hashCtx, &serverRandom)) != 0)
goto fail;
if ((err = SSLHashSHA1.upd…

Interview tools: "Walk me through this"

I've been experimenting with something in the interviews I've been doing most recently. Turns out it works quite well, so I'm sharing this in the hope that it will help you as much as it has me.

One of the most important things on a software team is code reading comprehension and communication: the ability to read code, whether yours or someone else's, and walk through it, explaining to someone else what it does. Sometimes you'll be reading your code and explaining it to someone else; sometimes you'll be reading someone else's code and explaining it to yourself, sometimes you'll be lo…

"You and your ilk are a tiny minority trying to impose your opinion upon the majority who actively and vocally disagree with you."

I will no longer be participating at Perlmonks.

About Joe McMahon

user-pic Blogging about Perl, wandering off into compatibility issues with other things, like Python and Django.