The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2014-05-28 Reply Admin

Doesn't Microsoft has some sort of three state boolean (or even four state)? But AFAIK only two states can be used.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

More frist.

HerrDerSchatten · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Yes, MS has it in Office (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.core.msotristate.aspx) - but there are five (!) values in it, but values other than True / Flase are not supported.

I thinkt the state "msoTriStateMixed" is explainable: It will be returned when you have a group of checkboxes of mixed state - in that case the state of the group is neither true nor false. msoTriStateToggle could be the currently selected checkbox etc. But why msoCTrue?

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

TRWTF is that both "False" and "More False" have the same ID...? I confess to not having a particularly strong grasp on the intentions of the developers involved here -- it's going to need a debrief session and a code review. And I think an earlier-than-scheduled career appraisal is in order as well.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Hannes:
Doesn't Microsoft has some sort of three state boolean (or even four state)? But AFAIK only two states can be used.

AFAIK, Microsoft does not have thee state booleans. Booleans are true or they are false. The one exception is a boolean that is 'unassigned' or nullable (i.e. null in a database).

Checkbox controls, however, can show a 3rd state as a greyed out appearance. But then I would argue that such checkbox controls are not representative of a boolean value :)

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

I guess it's one of the mostester wrong way of implementing a boolean that I ever saw.

captcha : abbas, Abbas were more true to their music.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

needs more TruerFalse and WronglyTrue

Steve The Cynic · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

QJo:
More frist.

More usefully, less Discourse...

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Stuart is right: A tomato is a fruit http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/is-a-tomato-a-fruit-or-a-vegetable

Captcha: suscipere: no, it's not suspicious

da Doctah · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

You've got your binary logic, you've got your fuzzy logic, and now there's this fractal stuff.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

When simulating digital circuits (which are made of analog parts), you easily find yourself in a situation where "booleans" are not so black and white, such as..

True
False
Not connected
Possibly True
Possibly False
Invalid

..where "possibly" signals get overwritten by the "strong" signals if in the same net, and "invalid" is caused by having both True and False in the same net.

No FILE_NOT_FOUND there yet, though..

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Three state booleans (or Booleans) are in Java:

Boolean[] bools = new Boolean[]{null, Boolean.TRUE, Boolean.FALSE};

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

This leads itself to expansion:

Smidgeon of truth Possibly True Probably True True More True Most True Extremely True Religious Conviction

Not Entirely Sure Doubtful Seriously Doubtful False More False Most False Utterly False Political Statement

... and so on.

Is it then possible to assign a complement operation upon an ExtraBoolean such that the complement of e.g. Seriously Doubtful is Probably True? Or does one need to posit the existence of statements whose extra-boolean truthiness and falsitude are in fact independent? e.g. a statement may be Most False but at the same time Possibly True? We could build an entire field of mathematics upon this concept. Perhaps model a statement's Extra-booleanity on the complex plane: truthiness along the real axis and falsitude along the complex. Then a statement that is purely Political Statement, when multiplied by the negative square root of minus one becomes a Religious Conviction?

Might this analysis be used to get to the bottom of the relationship between US and UK during the early 2000's?

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

[image]

Trondster · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Needs SuperFileNotFoundNoReallyIveLookedEverywhere

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

DQ:
Stuart is right: A tomato is a fruit http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/is-a-tomato-a-fruit-or-a-vegetable

Bah. Tomatoes. Boring stuff. For some real innovation see EU Council Directive 2001/113/EC which declares carrots to be fruit.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Steve The Cynic:
QJo:
More frist.
More usefully, less Discourse...

And with the mostest easy way to nest comments, too!

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Steve The Cynic:
More usefully, less Discourse...

I'm actually wondering when they will try Discourse again... a good time (if there can be such a thing with Discourse) would be with Erik's next article, perhaps he will get less flak then.

martijntje · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

At least this article has a working comment system, unlike the previous one where my login suddenly doesn't work and I cannot sign up because my email is already in use

Perhaps that comment system is also implemented with these new-fangled booleans, where you don't have an account, but not really not have an account.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

martijntje:
Perhaps that comment system is also implemented with these new-fangled booleans, where you don't have an account, but not *really* not have an account.

TRUE FALSE DISCOURSE_IS_TRWTF DISCOURSE_IS_EXTRA_TRWTF FILE_NOT_FOUND

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

enum KnownBoolean { KNOWN_KNOWN = 0, KNOWN_UNKOWN = 1, UNKNOWN_KNOWN = 2, UNKNOWN_UNKNOWN = 3, KNOWN_NOT_FOUND = 4 };

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Probably a throw back from doing COM+ interop between C++ and VB6

VB6 True = -1 C++ True = 1 VB6 / C++ False = 0

I remember writing code that looked like

if result <> false then if result = True then ' result comes from vb else ' result comes from c++ end if end if

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

martijntje:
At least this article has a working comment system, unlike the previous one where my login suddenly doesn't work and I cannot sign up because my email is already in use

That way it prevented you from recreating your account at least; for me it was not complaining about my email already being in use so now I can log in to Discourse but not to CS any more.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Extra Spicy Vindaloo:
Probably a throw back from doing COM+ interop between C++ and VB6
VB6 True = -1 C++ True = 1 VB6 / C++ False = 0

I remember writing code that looked like

if result <> false then if result = True then ' result comes from vb else ' result comes from c++ end if end if

And when you port that to .NET, what happens? What is True in VB.NET? Also can you write: if result < false then ' result comes from vb end if

or does VB complain (even though <> is a strange way to imply !=)

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Miriam:
TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

Penny

PedanticCurmudgeon · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Needs more values. I would add DoublePlusTrue and DoublePlusUntrue.

Steve The Cynic · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

np:
or does VB complain (even though <> is a strange way to imply !=)

BASIC has done not-equals with <> more or less from the beginning. And it isn't the only language that uses <> for not-equals - consider the Pascal family of languages - and overall, giving the chronology of programming languages, that makes != a strange way of expressing <>, and both of them a strange way of expressing .NE..

kilroo · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Some Random Idiot:
Miriam:
TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

Penny

knock knock knock

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Yeah, this is true WTF. Obviously they should use enums: enum SuperBool {sbTrue,sbFalse,sbMoreTrue,sbMoreFalse}

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Miriam:
TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

It always amuses me that, on these forums, you come across so many people who assume that if they like something then everybody MUST like it, and that if they don't like something then everybody else MUST hate it too. No arguments.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Anon:
Hannes:
Doesn't Microsoft has some sort of three state boolean (or even four state)? But AFAIK only two states can be used.

AFAIK, Microsoft does not have thee state booleans. Booleans are true or they are false. The one exception is a boolean that is 'unassigned' or nullable (i.e. null in a database).

Except it says right at the top of MsoTriState Enumeration:

Specifies a tri-state Boolean value

of which none of the five possible values are null...

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Some Random Idiot:
Miriam:
TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

Penny

The last time I checked, she was as hot as a tree trunk. So no, not Penny. I rather think it's the show being slightly different from all the who-fucks-whom sitcoms we usually get.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

np:
(even though <> is a strange way to imply !=)

Eh, not really for BASIC languages - only strange if you're used to Pascal/C conventions.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

To me the only real WTF is the naming. You can't call something a "Boolean" that certainly is something different. Like we don't call 32-Bit integers "4.294.967.296-state Booleans"...

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Tux "Tuxedo" Penguin:
Yeah, this is true WTF. Obviously they should use enums: enum SuperBool {sbTrue,sbFalse,sbMoreTrue,sbMoreFalse}

"MoreFalse" in this context sounds wrong. How much more? Do we also need an "EvenMoreFalse" and a "MuchMoreFalse"?

For a sextuple enum

enum SuperBool { sbTrue, sbTruer, sbTruest, sbFalse, sbFalser, sbFalsest }

is probably better.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Anon:
Miriam:
TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

It always amuses me that, on these forums, you come across so many people who assume that if they like something then everybody MUST like it, and that if they don't like something then everybody else MUST hate it too. No arguments.

He's right though, it really is shit.

Captcha: luctus. Looks like we luctus out and this article's comments didn't go to discourse.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

And don't forget the female boolean:

true false false, but

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Steve The Cynic:
np:
or does VB complain (even though <> is a strange way to imply !=)
BASIC has done not-equals with <> more or less from the beginning. And it isn't the only language that uses <> for not-equals - consider the Pascal family of languages - and overall, giving the chronology of programming languages, that makes != a strange way of expressing <>, and both of them a strange way of expressing .NE..

I agree, those are rather strange ways of expressing northeast. I would have gone with ↗.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

qazwsx:
Anon:
Miriam:
TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

It always amuses me that, on these forums, you come across so many people who assume that if they like something then everybody MUST like it, and that if they don't like something then everybody else MUST hate it too. No arguments.

He's right though, it really is shit.
Captcha: luctus. Looks like we luctus out and this article's comments didn't go to discourse.

I like it. And as you know, my opinion is the only one that really counts. You may try and deny it, but it is an existential truth of reality.

Also - I do not like Star Trek.

Zemm · 2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Taco:
And don't forget the female boolean:
true false false, but

We still don't have enough memory in the world for a true female boolean, since it will remember stuff you did wrong in your very first Hello World program.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

So, (True + MoreTrue) == False?

Makes perfect sense.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

TheDawgLives:
So, (True + MoreTrue) == False?
Makes perfect sense.

It's like how "Yeah, right" actually means "BS"

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

kilroo:
Some Random Idiot:
Miriam:
TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

Penny

knock knock knock

Penny

knock knock knock

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Zemm:
Taco:
And don't forget the female boolean:
true false false, but

We still don't have enough memory in the world for a true female boolean, since it will remember stuff you did wrong in your very first Hello World program.

... and suppose you have a programmer moving from vb to c++. Does the female boolean in vb pull the hair of and attempt to scratch the eyes out of the female boolean in c++?

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Anon:
Miriam:
TRWTF is Big Bang Theory's popularity. It just gets boring after a few episodes and the characters are all so very cliché. How in the world did it manage to stick around for so long?

It always amuses me that, on these forums, you come across so many people who assume that if they like something then everybody MUST like it, and that if they don't like something then everybody else MUST hate it too. No arguments.

so what you're saying is that the dislike is not true, or false, but there might be a third state after all....

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

qazwsx:
TheDawgLives:
So, (True + MoreTrue) == False?
Makes perfect sense.

It's like how "Yeah, right" actually means "BS"

But it only works in one directtion - "No" + "No!!!" + "NO!!11eleven" will never mean "Yes".

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Five comments.

I can't comment using Discourse, perhaps because it requires JS. Well, I guess I'll just read THEDAILYWTF in my RSS feed, and never visit the site again.
Tomato is a fruit. Yes. Also, it's a vegetable, as it is used as one. Apparently, there's no clear definition of vegetable, so whatever. (Sorta mentioned in a previous link.)
The Big Bang Theory is alright. Part of the reason it is funny are the clichés.
The real WTF is that the two wrongs are both zero. If it makes sense to distinguish between them, then at least make them positive and negative zero.
There is no comment five.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

QJo:
Zemm:
Taco:
And don't forget the female boolean:
true false false, but

We still don't have enough memory in the world for a true female boolean, since it will remember stuff you did wrong in your very first Hello World program.

... and suppose you have a programmer moving from vb to c++. Does the female boolean in vb pull the hair of and attempt to scratch the eyes out of the female boolean in c++?

No, they will probably like each other, become best friends and will stop behaving in any cooperative or even predictable way whatsoever when you are around.

2014-06-02 Reply Admin

Yes, but that is only in the context of jam making and stated like that to stop people trying to say "But my jam doesn't need to conform to the relevant standards because it's not fruit based!"

Would make a good Daily Mail headline, though.

Extra Boolean

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