Re: proof of coding

David A. Sinck wrote:

>We're in the middle of hiring some perl skilled folks at work (or
>trying to at any rate) and as part of the normal course of things, we
>had tend to request code samples from the candidates so we can get a
>feel that they know their way around without using a map().
>
>Yesterday we had a code sample come in that sent off danger flag for
>me, and sure enough some simple googling found the self same code
>(modulus minor formatting, removal of comments and the like).
>
>Now, there are two options
>
>1) The website stole the code from the candidate
>2) The candidate stole it from the website
>3) They both took it from the same source (not found via google :-)
>
>The question I have is, say you're trying to prove one side or the
>other of IP issues with code. Who do you believe? Right. How do you
>prove you created the code? Right now, my gut reaction is to suspect
>the candidate than the website.
>
>About the only thing I can think is that you post with full headers
>and a (c)opyright to newgroups at time of creation so you can point to
>a google news link and say "see, back then, that code was mine."
>
>But I suppose that would only prove that you submitted it not that you
>wrote it.
>
>I dunno, I just thought I'd put out the question and see if someone
>had thoughts of proving code creationism.
>
>Thanks,
>
>David
>
>
>
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Easy solution :)
People copy code, I don't care much about that, I care if they can
actually do the work.
Give each of the contenders a simple task to do in Perl and ask for the
working code.

For example:
Using the perl DBI and DBD::Mysql modules write a function that will
retrieve the city
from the following table given the zipcode. Be sure to comment your
code and format as you would normally.
Assume the following database connection parameters:
username: kungpow
password: chicken
hostname: foo.hostname.com

Table Definition:
CREATE TABLE `zipcodes` (
`zipcode` varchar(20) NOT NULL,
`city` varchar(20) NOT NULL default ''
PRIMARY KEY (`zipcode`)
) TYPE=MyISAM;


I'd send an email to anyone that I found blatant plagarism the link
where I found the code and ask about it :)
IE: When reviewing your code sample, it looked familliar. I found what
appears to be the same code on this web site: http://...

JD
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