20 ms·

One number is 'too many'?

klyrs 6y ago
I've gotten into way too many fights over this, and my bitter sarcasm is leaking here. I actually like numbers in code. But I've literally been told that distance = ((x1-x0)**2 + (y1-y0)**2)**.5 has "magic numbers" and that's a "code smell"
- ectopod 6y ago
  Raising to the power of .5 rather than using the sqrt function does whiff a bit. Even better, use hypot. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/web/javascript/reference/global_objects/math/hypot https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/web/javascript/refe... https://docs.python.org/3/library/math.html https://docs.python.org/3/library/math.html
  - klyrs 6y ago
    Yup, hypot is better on performance grounds, if you assume I'm using doubles. But is it as readable as my snippet?
    - Noumenon72 6y ago
      How could it not be? It has a name that says what it's doing, while yours is more punctuation than text. To "read" yours I have to just skim over it and mentally assign "according to the variable name, that hodgepodge means 'distance'... I hope". I have a BS in math, so obviously I'm familiar with the math notation, but I code like an English major.
      - klyrs 6y ago
        If the function was named "hypotenuse" then it would be unambiguously more readable. But since the function is considerably older than the modern zealotry surrounding code readability, it's this weird 5-letter word that most people aren't familiar with. Contrast that to the Pythagorean theorem, which folks are exposed to in elementary/middle school.
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      - seoaeu 6y ago
        Yeah, not to mention tons of possible variations of that line that you might not notice at a glace but would completely change the output.
        klyrs 6y ago
        Yeah, my bad for not radiation-hardening my code https://github.com/mame/radiation-hardened-quine https://github.com/mame/radiation-hardened-quine
        seoaeu 6y ago
        I was thinking more in line with http://www.underhanded-c.org http://www.underhanded-c.org, but that was also an interesting read
    - sdenton4 6y ago
      Well, clearly we need a metricFactory to provide the distance function, in case we later want our game to run in a non euclidean context.
      - klyrs 6y ago
        I hope you get that metricFactory out of a computableMathConceptFactoryFactory
- deleted 6y ago
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- echelon 6y ago
  I was once told in code review that using XOR was "too low level" for Ruby code. This was by a person that sprinkled lazy backfilling behavior throughout the codebase, created magic method_missing dispatches against polymorphic ActiveRecord relationships, and exposed the database as a service through a RESTful DSL that allowed arbitrary method dispatch. I'm glad I spend most of my time in statically typed, math and binary-friendly codebases now.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

I've gotten into way too many fights over this, and my bitter sarcasm is leaking here. I actually like numbers in code. But I've literally been told that distance = ((x1-x0)**2 + (y1-y0)**2)**.5 has "magic numbers" and that's a "code smell"

ectopod 6y ago
Raising to the power of .5 rather than using the sqrt function does whiff a bit. Even better, use hypot. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/web/javascript/reference/global_objects/math/hypot https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/web/javascript/refe... https://docs.python.org/3/library/math.html https://docs.python.org/3/library/math.html
- klyrs 6y ago
  Yup, hypot is better on performance grounds, if you assume I'm using doubles. But is it as readable as my snippet?
  - Noumenon72 6y ago
    How could it not be? It has a name that says what it's doing, while yours is more punctuation than text. To "read" yours I have to just skim over it and mentally assign "according to the variable name, that hodgepodge means 'distance'... I hope". I have a BS in math, so obviously I'm familiar with the math notation, but I code like an English major.
    - klyrs 6y ago
      If the function was named "hypotenuse" then it would be unambiguously more readable. But since the function is considerably older than the modern zealotry surrounding code readability, it's this weird 5-letter word that most people aren't familiar with. Contrast that to the Pythagorean theorem, which folks are exposed to in elementary/middle school.
      - deleted 6y ago
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    - seoaeu 6y ago
      Yeah, not to mention tons of possible variations of that line that you might not notice at a glace but would completely change the output.
      - klyrs 6y ago
        Yeah, my bad for not radiation-hardening my code https://github.com/mame/radiation-hardened-quine https://github.com/mame/radiation-hardened-quine
        seoaeu 6y ago
        I was thinking more in line with http://www.underhanded-c.org http://www.underhanded-c.org, but that was also an interesting read
  - sdenton4 6y ago
    Well, clearly we need a metricFactory to provide the distance function, in case we later want our game to run in a non euclidean context.
    - klyrs 6y ago
      I hope you get that metricFactory out of a computableMathConceptFactoryFactory
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echelon 6y ago
I was once told in code review that using XOR was "too low level" for Ruby code. This was by a person that sprinkled lazy backfilling behavior throughout the codebase, created magic method_missing dispatches against polymorphic ActiveRecord relationships, and exposed the database as a service through a RESTful DSL that allowed arbitrary method dispatch. I'm glad I spend most of my time in statically typed, math and binary-friendly codebases now.
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