A Successful Audition

I know almost nothing about specialties in fields other than my own (programming, teaching programming, and writing about programming).  But I assume it's safe to use the same sort of logic, whatever the discipline.  So here goes.

Even after retiring, I flatter myself I've remained competent in the programming language called PHP.  Here's a code fragment in that language.  It determines whether or not an individual will be allowed to use an application.

<?
header("Expires: Monday, February 2nd, 2003 1:00:00 GMT");
header("Cache-control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
header("Cache-control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);
header("Pragmna: no-cache");

$mysql_host = 'localhost';
$mysql_user = 'mysql';
$mysql_pass = '';
$mysql_db = 'xam';
$new_coll_id = $_POST["lname"];
$dt_time = date("Y-m-d h:i:s");
$msg4notconnect = "\n<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><h4 align=\"center\">Sorry; unable to connect to the security server.  Please try again.</h4>";
$msg4notavail = "\n<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><h4 align=\"center\">Sorry; the security database is unavailable at the moment.  Please try again.</h4>";
$msg4notreg = "\n<br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><h4 align=\"center\">The security database doesn't show an entry for you.  Please try again.</h4>";


And so on.  Even without programming experience, you can decipher what's going on here.  But for me, with the language called C++, that's not so easy.  For instance:

#include <iostream.h>
int main()
{
int numone, numtwo, numthree, sum, diffone, difftwo, diffthree;
system("clear");
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "Please enter three integers." << endl << endl;
cout << endl << "First integer: " << endl << endl;
cin >> numone;
cout << endl << "Second integer: " << endl << endl;
cin >> numtwo;
cout << endl << "Third integer: " << endl << endl;
cin >> numthree;
sum = numone + numtwo + numthree;
diffone = sum - numone;
difftwo = sum - numtwo;
diffthree = sum - numthree;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "The sum of the numbers you entered is " << sum;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "The difference between the sum and the first number is " << diffone;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "The difference between the sum and the second number is " << difftwo;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "The difference between the sum and the third number is " << diffthree;
cout << endl << endl << endl;
system("sleep 7");
system("clear");
cout << endl << endl << endl;
cout << "Have a great day!";
cout << endl << endl << endl;
return 0;
}

I think you get the point.  I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that John Ratcliffe,  Donald Trump's nominee to replace Dan Coates as Director of National Intelligence, is no better qualified for that position than I am to write code in C++.  Members of the Administration have touted Ratcliffe's experience as a lawyer and prosecutor.  But most of his casework involved contract law.  Call me crazy, but I don't see any parallel between that specialty, and national security.


Of course, one can always return to the theory that folks in effect audition for Mr. Trump.  Certainly Mr. Ratcliffe did so when he questioned Robert Mueller.