3 ms·

XOR is fine, I understand how it works, though I often don't think about it in some leetcode-type exercise where a xor is the "clever" solution. Byteshift is no

by Zababa 5y ago

XOR is fine, I understand how it works, though I often don't think about it in some leetcode-type exercise where a xor is the "clever" solution. Byteshift is not really intuitive to me, for example in the article, I wouldn't know if I had to shift left or right and would take a bit of time to look that up. As I said, different people think in a different way. I don't understand how people that can understand for loops don't understand map and filter, but I know that they exist.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
That's just wild to me. If I held up a card with a decimal number on it and asked you to remove the X least significant digits, would you have to look up which way to shift them?
- Zababa 5y ago
  Yes, I would have to.
  - dalmo3 5y ago
    If you have a number base n, shift right/left k digits means, respectively, "divide/multiply by n^k". That's the same whether it's decimal (n=10) or binary (n=2).
    - pcthrowaway 5y ago
      It's floor division with bit shifting though, right?
  - wtallis 5y ago
    Would you have to consult a reference in order to be able to point to the least significant digit of a number written down in front of you? Maybe the "least significant/most significant" terminology is unfamiliar enough to you to present a stumbling block. Certainly the fact that you're communicating on a written forum means you're probably comfortable and experienced reading a string of digits and knowing how to understand it as representing a quantity, even if you've forgotten the formal terminology describing that process.
    - Zababa 5y ago
      No, I wouldn't have to consult a reference. What's unfamiliar to me is how exactly byteshifting allows you to take the X most significant bits from a number, although now that I've talked a bit and thought a bit about this it starts to make more sense. The thing is, I've never spent much time thinking about this, so it's unfamiliar to me.

by Zababa 5y ago

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

That's just wild to me. If I held up a card with a decimal number on it and asked you to remove the X least significant digits, would you have to look up which way to shift them?

Zababa 5y ago
Yes, I would have to.
- dalmo3 5y ago
  If you have a number base n, shift right/left k digits means, respectively, "divide/multiply by n^k". That's the same whether it's decimal (n=10) or binary (n=2).
  - pcthrowaway 5y ago
    It's floor division with bit shifting though, right?
- wtallis 5y ago
  Would you have to consult a reference in order to be able to point to the least significant digit of a number written down in front of you? Maybe the "least significant/most significant" terminology is unfamiliar enough to you to present a stumbling block. Certainly the fact that you're communicating on a written forum means you're probably comfortable and experienced reading a string of digits and knowing how to understand it as representing a quantity, even if you've forgotten the formal terminology describing that process.
  - Zababa 5y ago
    No, I wouldn't have to consult a reference. What's unfamiliar to me is how exactly byteshifting allows you to take the X most significant bits from a number, although now that I've talked a bit and thought a bit about this it starts to make more sense. The thing is, I've never spent much time thinking about this, so it's unfamiliar to me.