Re: Two Question Asked Of Me..

["Booth Martin" <Booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my mind these general types of questions are useful for allowing you to
show your skills interacting with non-technical people.  These questions are
an open ended invitation for you to begin a dialog with the interviewer. 
These are not questions designed to measure technical expertise.  A few key
questions from you are important here.   
 
The right questions from you are a wonderful opportunity for you to take the
interview to your strengths, and also for them to get a good feel if you can
understand and communicate effectively.  
 
Remember this, the Interviewer is looking for the right person for a
specific job;  help him/her.  S/he is NOT looking for reasons to cull you
from the herd.
 
 
 
---------------------------------------------------------
Booth Martin   http://www.MartinVT.com
Booth@xxxxxxxxxxxx
---------------------------------------------------------
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Date: Saturday, February 15, 2003 23:26:22
To: RPG programming on the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: Two Question Asked Of Me..
 
 
On Fri, 14 Feb 2003 as400bill@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> What makes up an RPG ILE program?
>
 
There's no such thing as an "RPG ILE" program. Programs are created from
modules. Modules are created from source code which can be RPG, and also
can be many other languages. However, the "RPG" part of it is gone at
the time that it becomes a program -- consequently, it's an ILE program...
NOT an "RPG ILE" program.
 
Of course, once the binding is done, the modules aren't used anymore
either... so saying that an ILE program is made up of modules isn't really
correct either.
 
Technically, the only correct answer I can give to this question is
"bytes". It was a poorly worded question.
 
What they probably were thinking of is the difference between creating an
ILE program vs. creating an OPM program.... and apparently they expect
everyone they ask to be in the same mindset.
 
 
> Also
>
> How do you display a sub-file?
>
 
Yet another poorly worded question. Too vague, just like the first one.
 
The answer could be "by running a program." Or, if you like, I could
look up the 5250 codes that are sent to the terminal, and say "by sending
this sequence of bytes to a 5250 terminal".
 
What are they really looking for here? The EXFMT statement? or
READ/WRITE statements? or are they looking for the DDS code?
 
I mean, without any context, answering these questions is silly. In order
to give good answers to programming question, you have to first understand
what problems you're trying to solve.
 
Were you asked this by someone as part of a job interview? or part of a
class you're taking? or...?