Was this a position where they were expected to write code? I'm surprised that developers making six figures couldn't solve a problem that an interviewer considered trivial.
Any chance of a sample or maybe an alternate version of the problem?
Please don't post like this. It's off topic and once the comments get vouched for or unkilled by mods, it sticks around as a dangling reference that never gets garbage collected.
If you a [dead] post that shouldn't be dead, you should vouch for it by clicking on its timestamp, then clicking 'vouch' at the top of its page. This is why we added that feature. There's a small karma threshold (> 30) before vouch links appear. Alternatively, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll take care of it. Moderators review many of the software-killed comments but there is a time lag before we get to them, since we are not software.
Edit: also, could you please stop creating accounts for every few comments you post? We ban accounts that do that. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Users needn't use their real name, but do need some identity for others to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
Hey, thanks - on Tor and just created, so probably shadow banned. Thought it was not a bad comment that would make it through a mod queue, but w/e. Thanks for letting me know and hope you get some visible comments!
You mean using something like typescript as a shell language? That could work and it would leverage the javascript runtime and yet provide the rich type system and benefits.
I don't focus in the language itself but in how interface between utilities. The shell is a place for a light scripting layer and make talk apps in many langs.
Instead in what the utilities talk. Like in a REST interface you declare the kind of data (table, tree, lines of text, a binary blob) and this unlock what combinatory commands are available (so for table/lines you get relational commands for example) that are global. So the utilities are mostly concerned about their input/outputs.
Probably for efficience the utilities get a REQUEST call alike:
GET /list: WHERE name = "hello"
to have the opportunity of do the processing inside.
I think there is another post on HN right now about how computers are more like appliances today and no longer as readily programmable as they were before.
And looking at that problem, you realize that a shell is a huge part of the tinkerability of an OS and bash has dropped the ball in that regard. It's like it's frozen in 70s.
We should be moving towards something like a LISP machine where the whole system is exposed through your shell itself. Perhaps, we can start using Chrome dev tools console something like a shell, a good first step might be using typescript for the shell.
One of the most important things for tinkerability of an OS is the shell.
IMO bash has dropped the ball in the last 20 years. It's a poor programming language experience. I think we should replace bash with node.js Javascript shell, that will bring back LISP style computers back in vogue.
Oh. This is a thing I've never felt. If python had better facilities for running other commands, that'd be an option for me. But I think bash has a very interesting set of conveniences and trade-offs.
If built from first principles today I'm sure it would looke differentbut for me Node.js wouldnot be it. Scripting it is fine, as a shell to live in, I would find it very messy.
I've been doing more things with bash recently, it has generally been a good experience.
Reminds me of that scene from the movie "Lord of War" where they re-paint quickly over the original name of the ship and put a new flag on the ship in 10 minutes.
