cjfd

62 ms·

721.
by cjfd 7y ago
Actually, this problem does occur in practice. When one needs to output some numbers in a column it can be important how wide the widest one is. Ironically, in that case the numbers are going to be converted to text anyway so you might as w
722.
by cjfd 7y ago
The article talks about 'lots of comments'. The occasional comment can be helpful but many things are just as clearly expressed in code as in comments. E.g., if you write a numerical algorithm you should probably either explain it
723.
by cjfd 7y ago
I would much rather be on a project where commenting is prohibited then where it is mandatory, e.g., the senseless babbling that goes along with javadoc/doxygen/PEP-8-like comments. That is such absolute garbage. At some point it
724.
by cjfd 7y ago
I am not so sure that pitting to tendencies against each other is such a good idea. The thing is that the good programming is somewhere in the middle of all of these things because if any of these tendencies goes too far we run into problem
725.
by cjfd 7y ago
This can go two ways. One can end up with lots of different types that do nothing but wrap a string. On the other hand I have also seen a float being used to represent a price. The correct way is somewhere in between those two extremes. If
726.
by cjfd 7y ago
Restarting the process frequently sounds like a very messy solution. It is not acceptable in all cases to restart the process frequently. For server software it is the rule that this is not acceptable. Also note that if your software is goi
727.
by cjfd 7y ago
Asking the question 'what are the features of this thing' is a potentially very complicated question in a dynamic language. Each and every line of code could have added or removed a feature. Dynamic language make for very messy an
728.
by cjfd 7y ago
In this case I would use something like std::function in C++. An std::function can also be unititialized and one can test for that using 'if'. Obviously, one does not want an inheritance hierarchy as complicated as the one you ske
729.
by cjfd 7y ago
On the one hand the quote by Edsger Dijkstra comes to mind. "The question of whether machines can think is about as relevant as the question of whether submarines can swim." We are hardwired to attribute great significance to what
730.
by cjfd 7y ago
Recently I was asked to come up with a word for this kind of thing and after some thinking I settled on 'reliability'. So now we sometimes spend a bit of time on 'reliability' which sounds pretty nice, doesn't it?
731.
by cjfd 7y ago
Well, these distinctions are not all-or-nothing. A common way to further the independence of the judicial branch is to appoint judges for life. A judge that cannot be fired by the executive branch has less need to appease it.
732.
by cjfd 7y ago
Democracy is a system of government where the three powers: law giving, executive, and judicial are separated and at least the law giving is in the hands of (representatives of) the people. In the case of the massive spying by government we
733.
by cjfd 7y ago
That is not at all or in any way what I said......
734.
by cjfd 7y ago
Presumably you will also be okay in a multi-threaded program if only one thread touches Xlib. That would be the sensible way to write a GUI anyway because multi-threading should only be used if it is necessary and not just for the heck of i
735.
by cjfd 7y ago
Because it is quite a bit too obvious?
736.
by cjfd 7y ago
Don't call yourself a grumpy old man. Call yourself a 'programmer who is capable of thinking more than one month ahead', which is shorter than the release of the 'MVP' anyway so you are saving everybody both time an
737.
by cjfd 7y ago
Also, since you name jira. Try doing a so-called 'bulk change' in jira for, let us say, three stories, and marvel at the needless sequence of screens one is guided though. It has nothing to do with any necessary complexity. It is
738.
by cjfd 7y ago
No these tweets get it exactly right. A problem is software that gets sold on golf courses without any regard the people who are actually going to use it.
739.
by cjfd 7y ago
Well, when just rendering text the text and the postscript for it can correspond pretty much one-to-one. On the other hand, if you start to include the necessary fonts it quickly becomes big.
740.
by cjfd 7y ago
However, now that interest is low future discounting should also be lower so writing maintainable software should start to look better.
741.
by cjfd 7y ago
I think here is room for some literate programming here. Why not have once source document for both formal proofs and semi-formal expositions. Then one can extract from that the coq proof and thus have a proof that everything is sound and a
742.
by cjfd 7y ago
Quite intangible. Insofar as our genes want anything they want us to reproduce but they do so by nudging us in the general direction of reproducing, not, in most people at least, by the conscious wish to reproduce.
743.
by cjfd 7y ago
I tend to agree. There is a plausible hypothesis to explain it too. Namely, that many social scientists don't particularly like doing statistics or calculations or that they are not naturally very good at it or that they are not very c
744.
by cjfd 7y ago
I am not sure we should be punishing ourselves either but when I look at how things are currently going in my country, it seems we already are. There are climate plans that basically involve 25 centimeters of insulation to every house and h
745.
by cjfd 7y ago
Well, these AI calculations also emit much CO2. It may be a luxury that we can only afford ourselves within measure. The vision of a society where AI plays a large role may only be feasible both ecologically and economically if/when we
746.
by cjfd 7y ago
No, it is not okay. If you need insert/update/select for every object/table that is way too much duplication. It becomes very irritative when the schema changes. There should be table meta data in such a case but one should a
747.
by cjfd 7y ago
Occasionally monitor them to make sure that they are not engaging in activities such as burning the house down?
748.
by cjfd 7y ago
I don't think saying anything negative about test driven development is a positive contribution. Our industry should practice it more instead of less. I do it almost all the time. Sure, there are a few exceptions. It is quite unneeded
749.
by cjfd 7y ago
A high level overview. First separate it out in what the different processes are that are running in the working system. How are they communicating? What is their function? Why was it separated in this particular way? For the more difficult
750.
by cjfd 7y ago
You will find answers to 1 and 2 in https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0503009

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