4 ms·

Steve Wozniak is not boring

62 points by neilellis 12y ago

rmason 12y ago
Inspirational for sure but never boring.
LukeB_UK 12y ago
A good example of companies and open source projects having a little humour and showing that they're human too.
yRetsyM 12y ago
Is this a reference to some earlier comment? Or just a general shout out to a hero of the programmer?
- kghose 12y ago
  No, sometimes the generator will come up with boring_wozniac, and they just catch that case.
- hcarvalhoalves 12y ago
  Read the source - it's a random name generator that pairs adjectives + names.
hcarvalhoalves 12y ago
Nice touch.
gnuvince 12y ago
Can we say something about using goto?
- pervycreeper 12y ago
  or a loop that is not guaranteed to end?
  - klodolph 12y ago
    PRNGs don't work that way. They have periods over which all possible output values are produced, close to an equal number of times. Even when producing tuples, we know that this won't loop forever.
    - pervycreeper 12y ago
      You know that, because you already know how "rand" is implemented
- Amezarak 12y ago
  Why? To be sure they should be used sparingly, but it looks it makes enough sense in this particular case and isn't single-handedly going to cause any spaghetti-code problems. In this particular case I think a goto fits the bill.
- drdeadringer 12y ago
  If you use it responsibly, I don't see much problem.
- rgawdzik 12y ago
  All tools can be misused. Goto has a dark past, but it can still be used responsibly. It's almost like generalizing a concept like OOP to be bad because horrible code can be made with it.
- adamgravitis 12y ago
  At least in this situation, you can see the entire affected control flow within four lines. goto generally becomes a problem when suddenly everything is short-circuiting everywhere and you can't see where control's getting passed off to.
- mholt 12y ago
  Sure. This is a fair use case. Kind of makes more sense than a full while loop, especially since the case is only likely to occur at most once per call to GetRandomName().
- hmrmaxwell 12y ago
  It seems that mild goto usage is not uncommon in at least some major golang projects: https://github.com/dotcloud/docker/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/dotcloud/docker/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/hashicorp/serf/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/hashicorp/serf/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/skynetservices/skydns/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/skynetservices/skydns/search?q=goto&ref=c... https://github.com/calmh/syncthing/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/calmh/syncthing/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/juju/juju/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/juju/juju/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform EDIT: formatting
- kyrra 12y ago
  Go is fairly strict in the use of goto: http://golang.org/ref/spec#Goto_statements http://golang.org/ref/spec#Goto_statements They have their use cases, and this code seems like a fine use of it. Goto is taught as one of those things you should never use but it still has a purpose. If you look at any C code goto still used. You just have to make sure not to overuse it.
trevmckendrick 12y ago
For the nontechnical out there: This is a random name generator that pairs adjectives with names (e.g. "angry_einstein"). In the unlikely chance the generator returns the pair "boring_wozniak", it discards it and generates another name.

62 points by neilellis 12y ago

rmason 12y ago

Inspirational for sure but never boring.

LukeB_UK 12y ago

A good example of companies and open source projects having a little humour and showing that they're human too.

yRetsyM 12y ago

Is this a reference to some earlier comment? Or just a general shout out to a hero of the programmer?

kghose 12y ago
No, sometimes the generator will come up with boring_wozniac, and they just catch that case.
hcarvalhoalves 12y ago
Read the source - it's a random name generator that pairs adjectives + names.

hcarvalhoalves 12y ago

Nice touch.

gnuvince 12y ago

Can we say something about using goto?

pervycreeper 12y ago
or a loop that is not guaranteed to end?
- klodolph 12y ago
  PRNGs don't work that way. They have periods over which all possible output values are produced, close to an equal number of times. Even when producing tuples, we know that this won't loop forever.
  - pervycreeper 12y ago
    You know that, because you already know how "rand" is implemented
Amezarak 12y ago
Why? To be sure they should be used sparingly, but it looks it makes enough sense in this particular case and isn't single-handedly going to cause any spaghetti-code problems. In this particular case I think a goto fits the bill.
drdeadringer 12y ago
If you use it responsibly, I don't see much problem.
rgawdzik 12y ago
All tools can be misused. Goto has a dark past, but it can still be used responsibly. It's almost like generalizing a concept like OOP to be bad because horrible code can be made with it.
adamgravitis 12y ago
At least in this situation, you can see the entire affected control flow within four lines. goto generally becomes a problem when suddenly everything is short-circuiting everywhere and you can't see where control's getting passed off to.
mholt 12y ago
Sure. This is a fair use case. Kind of makes more sense than a full while loop, especially since the case is only likely to occur at most once per call to GetRandomName().
hmrmaxwell 12y ago
It seems that mild goto usage is not uncommon in at least some major golang projects: https://github.com/dotcloud/docker/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/dotcloud/docker/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/hashicorp/serf/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/hashicorp/serf/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/skynetservices/skydns/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/skynetservices/skydns/search?q=goto&ref=c... https://github.com/calmh/syncthing/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/calmh/syncthing/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/juju/juju/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform https://github.com/juju/juju/search?q=goto&ref=cmdform EDIT: formatting
kyrra 12y ago
Go is fairly strict in the use of goto: http://golang.org/ref/spec#Goto_statements http://golang.org/ref/spec#Goto_statements They have their use cases, and this code seems like a fine use of it. Goto is taught as one of those things you should never use but it still has a purpose. If you look at any C code goto still used. You just have to make sure not to overuse it.

trevmckendrick 12y ago

For the nontechnical out there: This is a random name generator that pairs adjectives with names (e.g. "angry_einstein"). In the unlikely chance the generator returns the pair "boring_wozniak", it discards it and generates another name.