• (cs) in reply to Wizard Stan
    Wizard Stan:
    Actually, it's mostly just Europe (and Quebec... weirdos) that use the "1st floor is the floor above ground" system. North America (except Quebec. Seriously, WTF guys?), Russia and Asia use the "ground floor is first floor" system. I think Australia also uses British terms. Hong Kong appears to be split 50/50. That just leaves South America and Africa as the deciding votes. I wasn't able to find any information on how they number their floors.

    American system in South America too, albeit a bit more confusing. In the apartment building I live we just call the 1st level "Lobby", the 2nd/3rd "Parking" and the 4th "Restaurant". The elevators buttons don't have numbers, just their names. Then it continues to the 5th, 6th, 7th...

  • (cs) in reply to Pedro

    I think y'all are missing the point of the first one: The WTF is that it is a largely non-obvious way to design elevator controls, that requires a taped page of instructions (as opposed to the very simple one-button-per-floor method).

    So its not that the ground floor is 0, its that that the user has to think about what the ground floor is, and type it in instead of having a dedicated button labeled "G" or "0" or whatever. Double WTF for the user having to know that the basement is -1.

  • Ground Floor (unregistered)

    I get it now. The basement would be 255!

  • (cs) in reply to Pedro
    Pedro:
    The wheelchair button probably forces the assignment to pick a "wheelchair-friendly" elevator in case you have different sizes (never had to use it).

    Or it could go slower than normal, to not strain the neck of the handicapped.

  • Pedro (unregistered) in reply to BradC
    BradC:
    I think y'all are missing the point of the first one: The WTF is that it is a largely non-obvious way to design elevator controls, that requires a taped page of instructions (as opposed to the very simple one-button-per-floor method).

    So its not that the ground floor is 0, its that that the user has to think about what the ground floor is, and type it in instead of having a dedicated button labeled "G" or "0" or whatever. Double WTF for the user having to know that the basement is -1.

    Having to know that the basement is -1 is not really that big a deal. It's pretty standard in several places, even. Having one button per floor can easily become a mess in big buildings, and it's not as though people aren't used to phones, computers, calculators and several other devices that use the exact same keypad layout to introduce numbers with multiple digits.

  • Steve (unregistered)
    “A popular job interview question goes something like, ‘program me an elevator control system. . .’”
    Okay,
    You = an_elevator_system;
  • MT (unregistered)

    It's not a WTF if you just play games with Unicode http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/Completed

    http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/%D0%A1ompleted

  • (cs) in reply to Infinite Quality
    Alex:
    Impossible... rememer that (null) is not nothing, not something, and not anything. (null) cannot be seen and (null) cannot not be seen. So, therefore, you all must have immagined a (null) article.[/i]
    The (null) that can be seen, is not the (null).
  • IT Girl (unregistered)

    I just want to know where pressing "1", "3" would take you. Since in the North America vs the rest of the world debate, we tend to avoid the 13th floor here in North America due to a significant amount of Triskadekaphobia.

  • Dave (unregistered) in reply to Pedro

    Aughhhhh.....!

    The WTF is that when spending thousands on an elevator system they decided to use a 'standard' keypad likes it makes a difference. Who cares if it's generic - a building is unlikely to develop a new floor as if by magic and I'd sure as hell stump up for a new control panel while building the new elevator shafts and motors.

    oh, and in big buildngs you don't get one elevator servicing all floors... it would take too long to get where you're going.

  • Pedro (unregistered) in reply to IT Girl
    IT Girl:
    I just want to know where pressing "1", "3" would take you. Since in the North America vs the rest of the world debate, we tend to avoid the 13th floor here in North America due to a significant amount of Triskadekaphobia.

    Screw you and your silly superstitions then :). Our elevators takes us to the 13th floor, which lies between the 12th and the 14th, just like the well-ordered element of N it is. (Incidentally, if that's true, no citizen of the united states has the moral authority to complain about our floor numbering system :P)

  • (cs) in reply to ThisIsMe
    ThisIsMe:
    Uh, so if the building only has 5 floors, what happens if I enter 9?

    Can anybody say "Wonka-vator"? Like when Willy Wonka smashes through the roof in his elevator?

  • my name is missing (unregistered)

    I like the last one. It's always a good thing to get an array of good hope in your inbox.

  • Pedro (unregistered) in reply to Dave
    Dave:
    Aughhhhh.....!

    The WTF is that when spending thousands on an elevator system they decided to use a 'standard' keypad likes it makes a difference. Who cares if it's generic - a building is unlikely to develop a new floor as if by magic and I'd sure as hell stump up for a new control panel while building the new elevator shafts and motors.

    oh, and in big buildngs you don't get one elevator servicing all floors... it would take too long to get where you're going.

    The wonders of mass production: Same keypad, every building your elevator-building company installs an elevator in. And if you'd read my previous posts, you insert the destination floor outside the cabin, and the elevator system decides which elevator will service you. In big buildings you can further use that to provide hints for the other elevators.

  • Synchronos (unregistered)

    Oh, I see the WTF: The numeric keypad does not allow FILE_NOT_FOUND floor to be typed in.

  • Big Sibling (unregistered) in reply to Pedro
    Pedro:
    IT Girl:
    I just want to know where pressing "1", "3" would take you. Since in the North America vs the rest of the world debate, we tend to avoid the 13th floor here in North America due to a significant amount of Triskadekaphobia.

    Screw you and your silly superstitions then :). Our elevators takes us to the 13th floor, which lies between the 12th and the 14th, just like the well-ordered element of N it is. (Incidentally, if that's true, no citizen of the united states has the moral authority to complain about our floor numbering system :P)

    To maintain the complacency of the sheeple of the World's Greatest Country (TM) all references to the number 13 or to any alleged American inadequacies will be filtered by the Fatherland's National Firewall.

  • Dan Moore (unregistered)
  • (cs) in reply to amischiefr
    amischiefr:
    Bitch:
    Where's the wtf for the first one?

    Captcha: nulla (i think you're right)

    Are you retarded or trolling? -1 for the basement and you don't see the wtf? I know I know, lots of European places use 0 for ground floor instead of 1, its not our fault you guys are mildly retarded.

    Yes, they are mildly retarded, unlike us programmers who use 0 for the first item in an array instead of 1.

  • mauve (unregistered)

    TRWTF is the use of a character-driven UI in this day and age. Lifts should be controlled with a scrollbar.

  • way2trivial (unregistered) in reply to Pedro

    would it be such a big deal to take a sharpie and change the '-' to a 'B'

    then no one would complain

  • C. F. Martin (unregistered)

    Sheesh, with all this talk of America v Europe it seems like you all forget that Obama is going to turn us into Europe! The only problem I see is: who the hell are WE going to be jealous of?!?

    Maybe we can ask him to raise taxes on evil corporations that refuse to label the first floor as "0"

    Captcha = dolor

  • (cs) in reply to Pedro
    Pedro:
    IT Girl:
    I just want to know where pressing "1", "3" would take you. Since in the North America vs the rest of the world debate, we tend to avoid the 13th floor here in North America due to a significant amount of Triskadekaphobia.

    Screw you and your silly superstitions then :). Our elevators takes us to the 13th floor, which lies between the 12th and the 14th, just like the well-ordered element of N it is. (Incidentally, if that's true, no citizen of the united states has the moral authority to complain about our floor numbering system :P)

    Japan can't say anything either then, as they frequently skip the 4th floor for the same reason.

  • brian (unregistered) in reply to Pedro

    I see...so if 20 people are waiting for elevators and they press in their floor numbers and 3 elevators show up, how do they know which elevator are they supposed to get into? does the elevator announce which floors it's going to - like a conductor? deaf people would love that system. perhaps there is an lcd panel (or braille screen) on the outside of each door to indicate which floors each elevator is going to.

  • (cs) in reply to e
    e:
    snoofle:
    Enter This:
    Bob:
    There is a - button and a big button at the bottom that I think is enter.
    That big button would be the one with a picture of a wheelchair on it?

    And if I press 2 * 3 {wheelchair} does that take me to the 6th floor (7th if in the UK)?

    Where's the square root symbol in case a mathematician comes along and wants to go the the 4^(1/2) floor?

    What about Pi?

    well, seeing as floors are discrete integers, I don't think an irrational number, such as pi, would be very useful...

    There are a few buildings where I live that have levels that are partial floor offsets from each other. In one particular case, it's a 2 story building, but it has 4 levels (the middle two being about 4 steps up each, so floors: 1.0, 1.33333, 1.66666, 2.0). "PI" isn't that far fetched.

  • (cs)

    It makes logical sense that if the the Ground Floor is one below Floor 1, and the Basement two below it, then their indices within the elevator control system are 0 and -1.

    But those floors are not referred to as "Zeroth floor" and "Negative first floor", anywhere in the world.

    An interface should follow established conventions, not invent its own. If people call it Basement, provide a control labeled 'Basement'.

  • Trinetra (unregistered)

    Any decent programmer knows that a zero-based array is best.. ditto for the lift buttons! btw, 0 = Ground in India too

  • Pedro (unregistered) in reply to brian
    brian:
    I see...so if 20 people are waiting for elevators and they press in their floor numbers and 3 elevators show up, how do they know which elevator are they supposed to get into? does the elevator announce which floors it's going to - like a conductor? deaf people would love that system. perhaps there is an lcd panel (or braille screen) on the outside of each door to indicate which floors each elevator is going to.

    The LCD above the keypad lets you know which elevator will take you to your floor, and there's a display inside the cabin itself, just next to the door (so visible from the outside when the doors are open), that shows all the floors that cabin is stopping on.

  • DaveNI (unregistered) in reply to levi_h

    Glasgow, Scotland Quality Hotel

    Ground Floor is the ground floor Next floor up is the Entresol floor Next floor up is the 1st Floor

    Just cause us Scots want to confuse the world, especially with some whisky in us. :)

    Dave still searching for the i'th floor

  • yah (unregistered) in reply to campkev
    campkev:
    Pedro:
    IT Girl:
    I just want to know where pressing "1", "3" would take you. Since in the North America vs the rest of the world debate, we tend to avoid the 13th floor here in North America due to a significant amount of Triskadekaphobia.

    Screw you and your silly superstitions then :). Our elevators takes us to the 13th floor, which lies between the 12th and the 14th, just like the well-ordered element of N it is. (Incidentally, if that's true, no citizen of the united states has the moral authority to complain about our floor numbering system :P)

    Japan can't say anything either then, as they frequently skip the 4th floor for the same reason.

    is that because 1+3 = 4?

    (shi!)

  • Fishy (unregistered)

    So what is wrong with the first one?

    If it was a 50 storey building should the user be presented 50 unique buttons or a keypad of 10 digits to enter the floor number which can also then cope with floors below ground level?

  • Chris (unregistered)

    Er, surely the real WTF is that the instructions say to press the # key, but the keyboard only has a * key.

  • (cs)

    Not sure if I understand the SourceGear copy screenshot. Is this reproducable in Vault? Or in the downloadable version of their Diff tool?

    I'm sure Eric Sink (http://www.ericsink.com/) would be interested in this little "feature" of his product.

  • Osno (unregistered) in reply to Wizard Stan

    Yo don't get it, do you? The building you're describing has 2 floors. I think the real difference is that in the countries where 0 is 0 (as it should be), there's generally no housing in that floor. A hall, maybe, or a patio.

  • yah (unregistered) in reply to Fishy
    Fishy:
    So what is wrong with the first one?

    If it was a 50 storey building should the user be presented 50 unique buttons or a keypad of 10 digits to enter the floor number which can also then cope with floors below ground level?

    For everything above the ground floor, you only really need one button - for the 50th floor, you just need to press it fifty times. If you get in anywhere other than the ground floor and you want to leave the building, then you don't need to push a button at all (i.e. press it zero times for the 0th floor). Then you only need one other button ('-') to get to the basement(s).

  • Osno (unregistered) in reply to Wizard Stan
    Wizard Stan:
    Smash King:
    In South America we use the smart system too. Above the ground floor there's the first floor. I believe Africa must be the same.

    Hey America what's up with the 1-based floor numbering? Do you base your numbering system on roman numerals? Not the smartest system today eh?

    It's actually quite intuitive. Building X has 3 floors. We count them: 1 floor, 2 floor, 3 floors! AH AH AH! With the floor on the ground, the one we point to and count "1", that's the first floor. The one above that, we point to and say "2"; that's the second floor. We then point one higher, and say "3", the third floor. I'm sure someone can equally justify the "ground zero" system: it's just two ways of thinking. But please stop referring to it as the American system. The point I'm trying to make is that significantly more countries than just the US use it, and it's quite insulting to be casually lumped in with them.

    Sorry, quoting this when I said the 2-floors thing.

  • Pedro (unregistered) in reply to Chris
    Chris:
    Er, surely the real WTF is that the instructions say to press the # key, but the keyboard only has a * key.

    Is that a joke or have you seriously never seen '#' used as short for "number"?

  • yah (unregistered) in reply to Pedro
    Pedro:
    Chris:
    Er, surely the real WTF is that the instructions say to press the # key, but the keyboard only has a * key.

    Is that a joke or have you seriously never seen '#' used as short for "number"?

    woosh

  • (cs) in reply to Bitch
    Bitch:
    In the UK at least the 1st floor is above the ground floor.

    because thats how we roll

    I live in the US and that's the way the floors are numbered in my apartment building. But that's not the usual case.

  • (cs)

    -1 = First level below ground 0 = Ground level 1 = First level above ground

    It makes perfect sense.

  • (cs) in reply to Laurie Laptop
    Laurie Laptop:
    These lift controls are very popular in Europe. I guess it's because you can install them cheaply in a building with any number of floors.
    If a building has more than two floors, I would personally prefer that the lift wasn't "cheap".
  • Mike (unregistered)
    Chris:
    Er, surely the real WTF is that the instructions say to press the # key, but the keyboard only has a * key.

    I can't reproduce this at work with SourceGear DiffMerge v.3.2.0. The copy paste works fine, and there is no tooltip when you hover over selected or non-selected code.

    I also have SourceGear vault 3.x at home, and have never had a problem copying code from the diff window.

    I suppose this still could be an issue in some other version of either of these tools.

  • Subsoil (unregistered) in reply to Wizard Stan
    Wizard Stan:
    Smash King:
    In South America we use the smart system too. Above the ground floor there's the first floor. I believe Africa must be the same.

    Hey America what's up with the 1-based floor numbering? Do you base your numbering system on roman numerals? Not the smartest system today eh?

    It's actually quite intuitive. Building X has 3 floors. We count them: 1 floor, 2 floor, 3 floors! AH AH AH! With the floor on the ground, the one we point to and count "1", that's the first floor. The one above that, we point to and say "2"; that's the second floor. We then point one higher, and say "3", the third floor. I'm sure someone can equally justify the "ground zero" system: it's just two ways of thinking. But please stop referring to it as the American system. The point I'm trying to make is that significantly more countries than just the US use it, and it's quite insulting to be casually lumped in with them.
    It's not so intuitive when you're in a building with several floors below the ground floor. Ground floor = Floor 1 // no problem Floor below ground floor = Floor 0 // seems logical then Floor below that = Floor -1 // weird
  • Pedro (unregistered) in reply to yah
    yah:
    Pedro:
    Chris:
    Er, surely the real WTF is that the instructions say to press the # key, but the keyboard only has a * key.

    Is that a joke or have you seriously never seen '#' used as short for "number"?

    woosh

    Hehe, cynicism got the best of me. (Incidentally, captcha is nobis. Noob!)

  • Mike (unregistered)

    Well I quoted the wrong guy. I guess my copy /paste from my browser window stopped working.

  • xorsyst (unregistered) in reply to Rootbeer
    Rootbeer:
    It makes logical sense that if the the Ground Floor is one below Floor 1, and the Basement two below it, then their indices within the elevator control system are 0 and -1.

    But those floors are not referred to as "Zeroth floor" and "Negative first floor", anywhere in the world.

    It's quite normal in UK lifts for the basement floor to have a -1 button (and I've been in a couple with a second basement floor labelled -2). I've seen the ground floor labelled 0 before too, but that's less common.

  • Vollhorst (unregistered)

    German:

    basement = Tiefgeschoß (first, second and so on) ground level/1st floor = Erdgeschoß 2nd floor = 1. Stock = 1. Etage and so on

    There are some other naming conventions like Ebene and so on. Not all of them start at 0.

  • (cs) in reply to Richard

    Zero-based indexing is one thing, but I stayed in a building that started at the "second" floor. There was no basement (or "first" floor hidden underground, I asked. For clarification, this was in Scotland as well. I was in room 1.5.1.2, which was the first door to the building, the "fifth" floor, the first door once you got up there, and the second room.

    Also, the code sample is missing a 'd'.

  • Not Wtf (unregistered)
    Note from Alex: Impossible... rememer that (null) is not nothing, not something, and not anything. (null) cannot be seen and (null) cannot not be seen. So, therefore, you all must have immagined a (null) article.

    Um, is that supposed to be funny? Lame.

  • (cs)

    I'm missing a Zeppelin button!

    Also, I used to live in a university dorm that had a ground level and a floor 0 right above it. The zeroth floor contained stuff like the fitness room.

  • (cs)

    I've been very, very good about keeping what I would consider to be humorous error messages out of my code but I'm so tempted at times.

    Is it so wrong to include the logged in user's name in the error message to make it that much more personal, warm and fuzzy?

    "You can't do that JONESM. Do it right."

    Um, maybe not.

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