in reply to Re^5: On Interviewing and Interview Questions
in thread On Interviewing and Interview Questions

Every system in the world will have an editor that speaks English, especially if it's an older machine. English is the lingua franca1 of the computing world.
My criteria for good software:
  1. Does it work?
  2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?

  1. A very interesting note - lingua franca is an old Italian phrase meaning "The language of the Franks", or French. French was considered the lingua franca because everyone who was anyone spoke it back in the Middle Ages as the language of diplomacy.
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Re^7: On Interviewing and Interview Questions
by tilly (Archbishop) on Aug 27, 2005 at 03:14 UTC
    A correction to your very interesting note.

    Lingua Franca was actually a distinct pidgin language, which was used as a trade tongue. It borrowed from various dialects of Italian, Spanish and so on. It got its name from the Arabs who called all Europeans, Franks.

    French became the language of diplomacy much later.

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