Comment On A Constant Barrage

Alex Papadimoulis:

In fact, now that I think about it, maybe it useful after all ... if the rate of the Earth's spin were ever to change, Daniel's coworker would have to only change PAUSE_BY_6_SECONDS from "6" to "6.23" ...

Application.PauseSeconds := PAUSE_BY_6_SECONDS;

The earths rate of rotation changes on a regular basis so the joke's on you!

[;)]

dubwai:

The earths rate of rotation changes on a regular basis so the joke's on you!

[;)]

One funny thing I just noticed is that Josh Buhler's coworker only seems to master "not" and "larger than" operators:

if(!(val.indexOf(" ")>0) || !(val.length>TWO)) {
instead of:
(val.indexOf(" ") == -1 || val.length < TWO)

And second half of above if-statement in reprise:
if(!(val.length>TWO))

And he probably would have used constants if there where any(It looks very much like Flash ActionScript 2.0).

/Mirandir

dubwai:

The earths rate of rotation changes on a regular basis so the joke's on you!

[;)]

Mirandir:

One funny thing I just noticed is that Josh Buhler's coworker only seems to master "not" and "larger than" operators:

if(!(val.indexOf(" ")>0) || !(val.length>TWO)) {
instead of:
(val.indexOf(" ") == -1 || val.length < TWO)

Make that....

(val.indexOf(" ") == -1 || val.length <= TWO)

(I should have fixed the first half of that as well, but we know what JB's Coworker really meant...)

Next is from Kyle, who found the root cause behind the failure of long-running daemons ...

TODAY = today()

YESTERDAY = yesterday()

JamesCurran:

Next is from Kyle, who found the root cause behind the failure of long-running daemons ...

TODAY = today()

YESTERDAY = yesterday()

Am I missing something here? I can see how it's a dumb thing to do, but I don't see the connection between that and the failure of long-running daemons.

I can only imagine that since TODAY is a constant, TODAY says the same thing as it did when the app was started as it does two weeks later.  So maybe they are comparing TODAY with TOMMORROW and determining whether to exit.

if (totalGlue > EIGHT) totalGlue = EIGHT;

// burried in a header file ...
#define EIGHT 16

johnl:

dubwai:

The earths rate of rotation changes on a regular basis so the joke's on you!

[;)]

I suppose calling it something like "duration of earth's rotation" would be too sensible...?

Rate makes much more sense.  Duration implies that it starts and ends....  Would be awfully strange if the earth just upped and stopped rotating after 24 hours.  [:D]

Anonymous:

Rate makes much more sense.  Duration implies that it starts
and ends....  Would be awfully strange if the earth just upped and
stopped rotating after 24 hours.  [:D]

mizhi:

Anonymous:

Rate makes much more sense.  Duration implies that it starts and ends....  Would be awfully strange if the earth just upped and stopped rotating after 24 hours.  [:D]

Haven't you ever seen Superman?

Unfortuetly his code never references an IGyroscope so he cannot detect if the earth's rotation rate was changing.

Also, anybody who previously said the Earth's retation is static was incorrect ( http://www.iers.org/iers/earth/rotation/ ), it does change slightly according to the distance of planets & moons in our immediate area.  Of course going with an average rotation is pretty reliable, I mean, it's not like his code is going to automate landing a probe from earth and it MUST land within a 6 inch square on Mars and he has no visual cues to go by.  Wait I take that back, he might have been a coder on previous Mars lander projects.

Alex Papadimoulis:

private const int INT_ZERO = 0;
private const int INT_ONE = 1;
private const int INT_TWO = 2;
private const int INT_THREE = 3;
'...

private const int INT_TWENTY_SEVEN = 27;
private const int INT_TWENTY_SEVEN = 28;

On the ZX81 home computer, using the built-in BASIC, it was a common coding practice to do something similar; e.g.


10 LET I=1

20 LET O=0


because numeric literals required 5 extra bytes of memory for each
occurence (for speed reasons, the system stored the float value along
with the readable representation) and memory was very limited, 1KB in
the basic model.
So using this "constants" saved 5 bytes each time; the declaration of
both costs est. 24 bytes, so it pays off soon.

Next is from Kyle, who found the root cause behind the failure of long-running daemons ...

TODAY = today()
YESTERDAY = yesterday()
WEEKAGO = weekago()
LASTMONTH = lastmonth()

loneprogrammer:

Constants aren't, variables don't.

So true, thanks for the laugh

Thank god for design patterns, though.

public class MyAwesomeProgram
{
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    MagicNumberFactory mnf = MagicNumberFactory.getInstance();
    int myMagicNumber = mnf.getMagicNumber(MagicNumberFactory.BIG);
    System.out.println("check out my magic number: " + myMagicNumber);
  }
}
class MagicNumberFactory
{
  private static int count = 0;
  public static final int BIG = 1;
  public static final int COOL = 2;
  public static final int SUPERMAGIC = 3;
  public static MagicNumberFactory getInstance()
  {
    return new MagicNumberFactory();
  }
  public int getMagicNumber(int type)
  {
    ++count;
    int theMagicNumber = 0;
    switch(type)
    {
      case BIG:
        theMagicNumber = BIG * 14 * count;
        break;
      case COOL:
        theMagicNumber = COOL * 85 * count;
        break;
      case SUPERMAGIC:
        theMagicNumber = SUPERMAGIC * 132 * count;
        break;
      default:
        theMagicNumber = count;
        break;
    }
    return theMagicNumber;
  }
}

BTW, on that last one:

"Obscure" is to be thought of as a verb, not an adjective.

Basicaly, this value is subtracted from the ascii value in config files, so that the files are "obscure"

JamesCurran:

Mirandir:

One funny thing I just noticed is that Josh Buhler's coworker only seems to master "not" and "larger than" operators:

er..um... It seems you haven't even gotten that far.....

if(!(val.indexOf(" ")>0) || !(val.length>TWO)) {
instead of:
(val.indexOf(" ") == -1 || val.length < TWO)

Make that....

(val.indexOf(" ") == -1 || val.length <= TWO)

(I should have fixed the first half of that as well, but we know what JB's Coworker really meant...)

Haha What the hell was I thinking... ?? [:$] Can I join the "Have-made-a-big-wtf-club" now? [:P]

/Mirandir

ammoQ:

On the ZX81 home computer, using the built-in BASIC, it was a common coding practice to do something similar; e.g.


10 LET I=1

20 LET O=0


because numeric literals required 5 extra bytes of memory for each
occurence (for speed reasons, the system stored the float value along
with the readable representation) and memory was very limited, 1KB in
the basic model.
So using this "constants" saved 5 bytes each time; the declaration of
both costs est. 24 bytes, so it pays off soon.

Alex Papadimoulis:

private const int INT_TWENTY_SEVEN = 27;

private const int INT_TWENTY_SEVEN = 28;

divVerent:

Somehow this reminds me of
$TEXMF/tex/latex/base/latex.ltx[/code: \def\@vpt{5} \def\@vipt{6}
\def\@viipt{7} \def\@viiipt{8} \def\@ixpt{9} \def\@xpt{10}
\def\@xipt{10.95} \def\@xiipt{12} \def\@xivpt{14.4} \def\@xviipt{17.28}
\def\@xxpt{20.74} \def\@xxvpt{24.88}
Seems like Roman eleven and twenty-four were half a percent smaller
than ours, but to make up for this, seventeen was 1.6% larger, fourteen
almost three percent and twenty as much as three point seven percent
larger.

simon:

>If you've not come across the concepts of
singletons before, I would strongly suggest buying the 'gang of four'
book and spending some considerable time browsing the c2 wiki. This is
liable to reduce the WTF:LOC ratio of your work considerably[1].

loneprogrammer:

Constants aren't, variables don't.

Look like artifacts from an original source written in COBOL some decades ago. Often to be found in prgs for accounting and financial calcs.

Found some which made their way from COBOL through dBase to Access aso. I have an idea of beeing a very old sick man in a hospital and there is a holographic avatar serving me ... and it looks like pacman. [*-)]

curtisk:

if (totalGlue > EIGHT) totalGlue = EIGHT;

// burried in a header file ...
#define EIGHT 16

LOL that made my day, I have nothing to say but WTF!

Don't laugh... one day it will happen to you! I have seen this in lots of code before. What happens is some idiot writes the initial system, then all of a sudden it stops working because totalGlue is allowed to be 9, and not 8. So what's the easiest change to make? Just bump it up to 16. Of course the dickhead who did this without renaming the constant should be shot. And they should have renamed it to "MAX_GLUE_AMOUNT" or something.

private const int INT_ZERO = 0;
TODAY = today()

At least he's prepared if 0 would change to 100,01 in the very near feature.

Same with the fact that soon today will be known as 'the day after tomorrow'.

Surely you've thought of that designing your apps ? [^o)]

foxyshadis:

divVerent:

\def\@vpt{5}
\def\@vipt{6}
\def\@viipt{7}
\def\@viiipt{8}
\def\@ixpt{9}
\def\@xpt{10}
\def\@xipt{10.95}
\def\@xiipt{12}
\def\@xivpt{14.4}
\def\@xviipt{17.28}
\def\@xxpt{20.74}
\def\@xxvpt{24.88}

Seems like Roman eleven and twenty-four were half a percent smaller than ours, but to make up for this, seventeen was 1.6% larger, fourteen almost three percent and twenty as much as three point seven percent larger.

The only way this makes any sense whatsoever is if it was mixing
postscript and classical print point sizes. Although that still doesn't
explain the roman numerals.



I've been guilty of making one-time-use constants and placing then right before the function definition. >.>

Anonymous:

This goes back a looong way.  I beleive the original K&R suggested using the line

     #define PI 3.14159

should "the value of PI change in future".

JamesCurran:

Mirandir:

One funny thing I just noticed is that Josh Buhler's
coworker only seems to master "not" and "larger than" operators:

er..um... It seems you haven't even gotten that far.....

if(!(val.indexOf(" ")>0) || !(val.length>TWO)) {
instead of:
(val.indexOf(" ") == -1 || val.length < TWO)

Make that....

(val.indexOf(" ") == -1 || val.length <= TWO)

(I should have fixed the first half of that as well, but we know what JB's Coworker really meant...)

!(val.indexOf(" ")>0)

allows spaces in the first position (position 0) while 

val.indexOf(" ") == -1

Anonymous:

Is it just me, or did I find PAUSE_BY_6_SECONDS to be completely 
reasonable?  I.e. if I use the literal "6000", is it obvious that
is six seconds? Far too easy to accidentally type "600" or "60000" ...



tekra

Alex Papadimoulis:

Of course, we could all be wrong in thinking that constants named
EIGHT are bad. Sometimes, you don't really want EIGHT to be 8, as
demonstrated by this code submitted anonymously ...

if (totalGlue > EIGHT) totalGlue = EIGHT;

// burried in a header file ...
#define EIGHT 16

wakeskate:

simon:

>If you've not come across the concepts of
singletons before, I would strongly suggest buying the 'gang of four'
book and spending some considerable time browsing the c2 wiki. This is
liable to reduce the WTF:LOC ratio of your work considerably[1].

Might I suggest that if you don't know what a singleton is that you get
a book that you can actually read and follow through like "Refactoring
to Patterns".  The GoF book is really good, but it's a reference
book, not a book for learning.