Kate just drew my attention to a wonderful rant over at Joel on Software
When I started interviewing programmers in 1991, I would generally let them use any language they wanted to solve the coding problems I gave them. 99% of the time, they chose C.
And the problem with this is…?
[W]hat I’d like to claim is that Java is not, generally, a hard enough programming language that it can be used to discriminate between great programmers and mediocre programmers. It may be a fine language to work in, but that’s not today’s topic.
Essential reading, complete with Monty Python references and a picture of a card punch.