Programming Project that Would Look Good on a Resume

printz said:

Well XML is just a data storage or design mark-up language. Nothing to be scared of complexity-wise.

true but that includes XPath, XSLT, Linq to XML etc.

According to info passed along to me, I apparently need to clarify that my previous post was largely being sarcastic and is just a commentary on how stupid hiring practices can be sometimes. It took me almost 10 years to find a job with my degree and diverse skill set, so I have a good perspective on it.

So there :P

printz said:

Pretty sure it's just the young ones who claim they know c++ when they don't, who are being derided.

I'm quoting this sentence to seriously ask something (related to myself). If it sounds inappropriate, I'm sorry. But I'm curious, and for practical reasons that will come in handy to me, I'm asking: What exactly / how much should a person know to do in C++ to be considered that he knows C++? (by the employers or people like printz)

Someone with a knowledge and experience, please give me an answer. I am a C++ self-student.

Well, I did get an answer from a work colleague that there's always more than meets the eye, especially with regards to compiler kinks and writing efficient code (optimization being something frowned upon at the beginning, but inevitably becoming an issue at some point).

At the basics, just make sure you master the meaning of pointers so you don't leak memory or worse, crash the program. Use (const) references instead of copies. Know what const means and use it everywhere it makes sense. Use direct (non-pointer) data wherever possible, don't use pointers everywhere (as you'd do with references everywhere in Java/C#). All these points are what make C++ stand out. If you don't use them, it will look like you're using habits from other languages, and you'll appear insecure.

OOP, templates and operator overloading are not necessary for healthy code, but will help.

And when you get hired just make sure you're capable of learning as you go.

At my job interviews I was tested on such topics as:
- knowing the difference between malloc and new ("new" also calls constructors, malloc doesn't).
- inheritance puzzles (quite a classic C++ exam topic).
- alignment in structures. Structs (and classes etc.) are NOT arranged with their members exactly one after the other in RAM. They're equidistant by multiples of 4 or 8.
- basic (but easily forgettable in practice) algorithms such as quicksort
- little programs such as string manipulation without <string.h>

Thanks, all of that is good to know. :)