On 14 Jun 1999 08:34:17 -0400, Nieminen Mika wrote:

>13. Your patch is included in the superpatch or at least it's popular. (2)

How about "Your patch is the superpatch?"

I only scored 39, but you needed more techie stuff and less rote 
memorization.  Also, while I understand the illumination curves,
I don't use them to choose a light source, so I didn't get those
points.

Here are some statements you may feel free to add if you'd like.
I'd say you should make scoring easier by making it like the 
canonical purity test - every question's a point, even the ones 
that aren't very likely.

These are knowledge only someone who knows the source would have:
- You know which .c and .h files you must change to add a keyword to 
  the parser.
- You can add a keyword and get it right the first time.
- You know which .c file contains the functionality for each aspect of
  the renderer.
- You can find a bug in the renderer given just a description of the
  symptoms and without using a debugger.

These are things everyone can find out easily but only the truly
hardcore will know:
- You know BOTH reasons why a mesh can't be used in CSG.
- You know that 'merge' doesn't have to be a primitive CSG operation 
  and can recite the equivalent sequence of intersections, unions, and 
  inverses.
- You know that 'difference' isn't a primitive CSG operation and you
  know how POV represents one internally.
- You understand how 'bounded_by' _really_ works.
- You know that a height_field has an inside and how it is defined.

These are accomplishment-oriented, but more realistic than "You could 
do anything Chris Colefax can do" :
- You've written your own include file and distributed it on the net.
- Your include file used one or more of the following: macros, arrays,
  vector algebra (vnormalize, vdot, vcross)
- You understand all the options to 'media' without having to look in 
  the manual.

These are self-referential, like your last question:
- You didn't know the answer to one of the above questions so you tried
  to find it in the manual.
- You didn't know the answer to one of the above questions so you tried
  to find it in the source code. 
- You didn't know that 'merge' wasn't a primitive but now that you do
  you have worked it out for yourself.

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