5 ms·

1. [Ternary computers]: Base-3 is the most efficient of all integer bases; numbers are stored most economically with trits. 2. Something like a [Lisp machine]

1. [Ternary computers]: Base-3 is the most efficient of all integer bases; numbers are stored most economically with trits. 2. Something like a [Lisp machine] that is optimized for functional-style programming with immutable data. [Ternary computers]: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ternary_computer https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Ternary_computer [Lisp machine]: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Lisp_machine https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Lisp_machine

bruce343434 4y ago
Heap trees would be less efficient with trits. What do you mean "most efficient of all integer bases"?
- Leftium 4y ago
  Ternary minimizes both the length and number of different symbols used to express a range of numbers[1]. Heap trees were probably optimized for binary, since that's what we use. Perhaps there would be a ternary version of heap trees? Or a totally different ternary data structure that serves the same purpose? [1]: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/446664/what-is-the-most-efficient-numerical-base-system https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/446664/what-is-the-...
- Leftium 4y ago
  Slightly off topic, but I'm curious why some users start a comment with "* * *", then edit it later? Is this just a HN thing? (Parent comment happened to start as one of these "* * *" comments.)
  - bruce343434 4y ago
    Do you mean my comment? I did not write nor remove "* * *".
    - Leftium 4y ago
      Oh, interesting! According to HN Replies, that was the content of your comment (https://imgur.com/t5316Rx https://imgur.com/t5316Rx) (When I checked on HN, it was not "* * *") I've seen these ephemeral "* * *" comments before, and even another comment asking about them.
      - bruce343434 4y ago
        That is interesting, perhaps a synchronisation error? As if the actual comment wasn't available yet but the email already got sent.
        Leftium 4y ago
        I don't think it's just an HN Replies email thing. I've seen "* * *" in actual HN comment threads, too. And I've seen it in 100% of your replies to me, when I've never seen it for other replies. So I wonder if it's related to how you use HN
        __ryan__ 4y ago
        This is definitely solely an HN Replies thing.
        Leftium 4y ago
        This is the first time I've seen it in my HN Replies, but I have seen "* * *" before on https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/. I even saw another comment asking about this type of comment.
        __ryan__ 4y ago
        Do you have any HN-related extensions installed? Edit: I truly did not believe you, but it appears to maybe be the “delay” feature [0]. Users with a delay set might show the asterisks until the delay passes. My apologies. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=231024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=231024

bruce343434 4y ago

Heap trees would be less efficient with trits. What do you mean "most efficient of all integer bases"?

Leftium 4y ago
Ternary minimizes both the length and number of different symbols used to express a range of numbers[1]. Heap trees were probably optimized for binary, since that's what we use. Perhaps there would be a ternary version of heap trees? Or a totally different ternary data structure that serves the same purpose? [1]: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/446664/what-is-the-most-efficient-numerical-base-system https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/446664/what-is-the-...
Leftium 4y ago
Slightly off topic, but I'm curious why some users start a comment with "* * *", then edit it later? Is this just a HN thing? (Parent comment happened to start as one of these "* * *" comments.)
- bruce343434 4y ago
  Do you mean my comment? I did not write nor remove "* * *".
  - Leftium 4y ago
    Oh, interesting! According to HN Replies, that was the content of your comment (https://imgur.com/t5316Rx https://imgur.com/t5316Rx) (When I checked on HN, it was not "* * *") I've seen these ephemeral "* * *" comments before, and even another comment asking about them.
    - bruce343434 4y ago
      That is interesting, perhaps a synchronisation error? As if the actual comment wasn't available yet but the email already got sent.
      - Leftium 4y ago
        I don't think it's just an HN Replies email thing. I've seen "* * *" in actual HN comment threads, too. And I've seen it in 100% of your replies to me, when I've never seen it for other replies. So I wonder if it's related to how you use HN
        __ryan__ 4y ago
        This is definitely solely an HN Replies thing.
        Leftium 4y ago
        This is the first time I've seen it in my HN Replies, but I have seen "* * *" before on https://news.ycombinator.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/. I even saw another comment asking about this type of comment.
        __ryan__ 4y ago
        Do you have any HN-related extensions installed? Edit: I truly did not believe you, but it appears to maybe be the “delay” feature [0]. Users with a delay set might show the asterisks until the delay passes. My apologies. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=231024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=231024