Hi Thaddeus! Thaddeus H. Black [2005-01-03 16:20 +0000]: > For my part, I think I spent about 120 hours total on > all the questions, including assigned practical > exercises. I did them in small chunks over four months. > > This is just another datum, to those whom it interests. > Some of the applicants like Jay are probably smarter > than I am, or have education or professional background > in computer programming (mine both lie elsewhere). I don't think that this only depends on the applicant. E. g. I test my NMs very thoroughly and I'm very picky, so my NMs naturally need more time to get past me than past another AM. This does not mean that other AMs are too sloppy, it's more a matter of personal style. > Were I asked, I would tend to say that 120 hours of answering > questions were not too much to expect of an applicant. I agree; as a DD you are supposed to spend way more time into Debian work. However, the time spent in NM depends on the experience of the applicant. In your case you did not yet know everything that you need as a DD, but after working with you so long I'm now reasonably confident that you do now. Investing 120 hours in learning and solving practical exercises (including RC bug fixing and real manpage writing) is not a waste in my eyes. However, it would be a waste if I wanted an experienced developer spent 120 hours on theoretical questions he probably knows very well. > I would be interested to learn how much time my AM spent > on my application, incidentally. I would guess more > than 16 hours. This is hard to estimate, but 15 to 20 hours sounds reasonable. > One further question, just for curiosity. In your > experience, who has more overall knowledge in computing: > the typical computer-science degree holder or the > typical DD? As a DD with a computer science diploma (roughly equivalent to a Master of Science) I must say that this question is too vague. I can safely say that university CS skills and DD skills are nearly orthogonal, so the answer to this question depends on what you understand by "computing". I would not be a worse DD if I would not have studied CS. OTOH as a degree holding computer scientist you do lots of interesting stuff that you don't normally come across as a DD. E. g. my thesis topic was automated formal verification of software and field bus networks. This has a lot to do with discrete mathematics and logics (and programming for actually implementing the stuff) and nothing with Debian packaging and bug handling. But neither is less important than the other in my eyes, so I don't want to judge on this question. Martin -- Martin Pitt http://www.piware.de Ubuntu Developer http://www.ubuntulinux.org Debian GNU/Linux Developer http://www.debian.org
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