The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
Nagesh (fake):
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

Fake nagesh has stole words from my key-board. It is "modern numbers", you idiot.

Also Alegbra invented here.

Also, keyboard isn't hyphenated.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

the beholder:
the beholder:
Nobody commented yet, but this new-hire MUST have typed Every. Single. Number. In roman numbers.
That's not exactly an easy thing to do unless there's a feature in Excel that I'm not aware of.

+1 for dedication -100 for stupidity
There is such a function indeed. He just lost that hard-earned +1

Give him +1 for figuring out how to do that in Excel (unless it's automatic, where you type "I" in the first box and all other values increment by dragging).

CarnivorousHippie · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Tokenize on (IV, IX, I, XL, XC, X, CD, CM, C, M), map to (4, 9, 1, 40, 90, 10, 400, 900, 100, 1000), and sum.

Actual code is left as an exercise for the reader.

DCRoss · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

tundog:
Clearly this problem is screaming for a Perl REGEX!

Why even use a regex? Larry Wall's corollary to Rule 34 states that "If it exists, there is a perl module for it."

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Roman;
$roman = roman($arabic);

There you go.

Of course EMACS users would just use M-x roman-numerals-mode, but that's another story.

ObiWayneKenobi · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

What the hell is it with people and having to return "error codes" from everything? THIS ISN'T VB6. There are sophisticated error handling in modern languages, you don't need to return ints or bools all over the place.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Anon:
TRWTF is this assignment, since there is no single standard for Roman numerals.

You must be a barrel of laughs in a requirements meeting.

Customer: We need to display the number of days between any two given dates.

Anon: That's impossible. Some months have a different number of days from other months. And the number of days in each month can change: What about leap year? And historically, countries switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendars at different times.

Surely the obvious reply is: "The problem is not trivially simple" and/or "The problem as stated has some ambiguitites" is not the same as "The problem is impossible". In this case, we would either agree up front on our definition of how Roman numerals are to be parsed, or if we really wanted to be thorough, we could include some setting or parameter to specify which variation we want. This is hardly a ground-breaking idea. We regularly deal with different date and number formats. Why not different Roman numeral formats?

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Roman Enumeration:
PedanticCurmudgeon:
iToad:
Mere mortals such as us are simply not qualified to tell the difference between god-mode Haskell and WTF Haskell.
Some would say that there is no difference.
The average Haskell WTF is something about a guy who, during an interview, forgot to make his Monad an Applicative. Can you imagine such foolishness? Also, missing a perfectly good opportunity to use a zipWith or a liftM is cause for certain derision.

I heard that Hitler was a monad.

PedanticCurmudgeon · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Meep:
PedanticCurmudgeon:
Peyote `Simon` Joints:
One line in Haskell.
I think you're bluffing. Code or it didn't happen.

rom 'I' = 1 rom 'V' = 5 rom 'X' = 10 ...

All of which can be translated into a single case statement, rom x = case x of { 'I' -> 1; 'V' -> 5; 'X' -> 10 ... }

Since a string is simply a list of characters:

raw_decode nums = map rom nums

Or as a comprehension: raw_decode nums = [ rom num | num <- nums ]

So raw_decode "IXX" yields [1, 10, 10]

Next we want to group up all the IX type cases. Our numerals should always be in descending order, except for those cases, so we can simply group using the < operator.

rollup_prefixes raw = groupBy (<) raw

That gives us a list of lists that may be one or two elements long, by our invariants.

sub_prefix [ num ] = num sub_prefix [ pre num ] = num - pre

Or as a case statement:

sub_prefix roll = case roll of { [ num ] -> num; [ pre num ] -> num - pre; }

And we then map that out:

sub_prefixes rolled_up = map sub_prefix rolled_up

Then we simply sum the result:

final subbed = sum subbed

Put it all together:

rom2num roman = sum [ case roll of { [ num ] -> num; [ pre num ] -> num - pre; } | roll <- groupBy (<) [ case num of { 'I' -> 1; 'V' -> 2; ... } | letter <- roman ] ]

Actually, I was hoping for something in point-free style, but this works too.

Zylon · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

the beholder:
Nobody commented yet, but this new-hire MUST have typed Every. Single. Number. In roman numbers.

Uh, yeah. Nobody's commented on this because it's implicitly stated right in the article:

// // Snipped LOTS of "code" here //

This is, in fact, the entire focus of the WTFery of his solution.

PedanticCurmudgeon · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

briverymouse:
PedanticCurmudgeon:
iToad:
Mere mortals such as us are simply not qualified to tell the difference between god-mode Haskell and WTF Haskell.
Some would say that there is no difference.

The average Haskell WTF is something about a guy who, during an interview, forgot to make his Monad an Applicative. Can you imagine such foolishness? Also, missing a perfectly good opportunity to use a zipWith or a liftM is cause for certain derision.

Actually, I'd be more inclined to laugh at someone who did:

upcaseLine = do
  str <- getLine
  return $ map toUpper str

instead of:

upcaseLine = fmap (map toUpper) getLine

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Roman Enumeration:
I heard that Hitler was a monad.

The important question remains: was Hitler also a burrito?

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

the beholder:
Nobody commented yet, but this new-hire MUST have typed Every. Single. Number. In roman numbers.
That's not exactly an easy thing to do unless there's a feature in Excel that I'm not aware of.

+1 for dedication -100 for stupidity

I bet he did not write it by hand. Instead he generated code using already implemented function:

public string num2rom(string n)
{
    if (n == "1") return "I";
    if (n == "2") return "II";
    if (n == "3") return "III";
    if (n == "4") return "IV";
    if (n == "5") return "V";
    if (n == "6") return "VI";
    if (n == "7") return "VII";
    if (n == "8") return "VIII";
    if (n == "9") return "IX";
    //
    // Snipped LOTS of "code" here
    //
    if (n == "2008") return "MMVIII";
    if (n == "2009") return "MMIX";
    if (n == "2010") return "MMX";
    if (n == "2011") return "MMXI";
    return "E";
}

...and to those curious: I did not write the above function by hand neither -- I used his rom2num to generate mine.

SEMI-HYBRID code · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

...last time i checked the "modern numerals" were called "arabic" ;)

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

As the author of the article wisely suggested with the comment about >>lots of "code"<<, the real WTF is not separating code and data apropriately.

The data as this should be stored in an editable database relation:

CREATE TABLE num_rom(
  num TEXT PRIMARY KEY,
  rom TEXT UNIQUE KEY
);

and then accessed with a simple SQL query:

SELECT rom 
FROM num_rom
WHERE num = :num

Of course in a real life application would add a caching proxy layer, and/or store the database in a ROM (as the name of the function suggests).

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Zylon:
the beholder:
Nobody commented yet, but this new-hire MUST have typed Every. Single. Number. In roman numbers.
Uh, yeah. Nobody's commented on this because it's implicitly stated right in the article:
// // Snipped LOTS of "code" here //
This is, in fact, the entire focus of the WTFery of his solution.

YHBT YHL FOAD

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Zolo:
r = { "I" : 1, "V" : 5, "X" : 10, "L" : 50, "C" : 100, "D" : 500, "M" : 1000 }

No real magic going on b/c this is "Haskell". It'd be 1 line of perl or any language w/ recursion. The string as a hash key helps ... which supports that it'd be 1 line in perl too.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

<?php function roman2dec($strRoman) { $intSum = 0; $arrStrRoman = str_split(strtoupper($strRoman)); $arrErrors = array(); $arrRomanValues = array('I' => 1,'V' => 5,'X' => 10,'L' => 50,'C' => 100,'D' => 500,'M' => 1000); for($i = 0; $i < strlen($strRoman); $i++) { if(array_key_exists($arrStrRoman[$i], $arrRomanValues)) { if($i != (strlen($strRoman) - 1) && strlen($strRoman) != 1) { if($arrRomanValues[$arrStrRoman[$i]] >= $arrRomanValues[$arrStrRoman[$i + 1]]) { $intSum += $arrRomanValues[$arrStrRoman[$i]]; }else{ $intSum += ($arrRomanValues[$arrStrRoman[$i + 1]] - $arrRomanValues[$arrStrRoman[$i]]); $i++; } }else{ $intSum += $arrRomanValues[$arrStrRoman[$i]]; } }else{ $arrErrors[$i] = $arrStrRoman[$i] . ' is an invalid Roman Numeral'; } } if(count($arrErrors) > 0) { return $arrErrors; } return $intSum; } //not outputting errors right now, just values echo roman2dec('MDCCCCX'); //1910 echo '
'; echo roman2dec('MMVI'); //2006 echo '
'; echo roman2dec('MCMLIV'); //1954 echo '
'; echo roman2dec('MCMXC'); //1990 echo '
'; echo roman2dec('IV'); //4 echo '
'; echo roman2dec('V'); //5 echo '
'; echo roman2dec('MCMXLIV'); //1944 echo '
'; echo roman2dec(''); //0 echo '
';

briverymouse · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

RJ:
Zolo:
r = { "I" : 1, "V" : 5, "X" : 10, "L" : 50, "C" : 100, "D" : 500, "M" : 1000 }

No real magic going on b/c this is "Haskell". It'd be 1 line of perl or any language w/ recursion. The string as a hash key helps ... which supports that it'd be 1 line in perl too.

"Haskell", officially the new name for Python.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

CarnivorousHippie:
Tokenize on (IV, IX, I, XL, XC, X, CD, CM, C, M), map to (4, 9, 1, 40, 90, 10, 400, 900, 100, 1000), and sum.
Actual code is left as an exercise for the reader.

I really like your approach, but what's wrong with V, L and D?

da Doctah · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Somewhat serious followup: Give me a regex that will match only movie titles that end in Roman numerals. Take into account that sometimes there will be a secondary title, as in "Death Warriors IV: the Deaths Continue".

I tried to do this a few years ago on IMDb to figure out what the highest numbered "sequel" was. Ran into the problem that "mi", "di", "xi" and others are actual words in some languages.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

prmivm

FTFY

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

vereor:
the beholder:
the beholder:
Nobody commented yet, but this new-hire MUST have typed Every. Single. Number. In roman numbers.
That's not exactly an easy thing to do unless there's a feature in Excel that I'm not aware of.

+I for dedication -C for stupidity (FTFM)

There is such a function indeed. He just lost that hard-earned +I

Give him +I for figuring out how to do that in Excel (unless it's automatic, where you type "I" in the first box and all other values increment by dragging).

It isn't (at least in my version), but all it takes is stumbling on a function named ROMAN after pressing equals. Hardly worth +I

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

SEMI-HYBRID code:
Nagesh:
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

...last time i checked the "modern numerals" were called "arabic" ;)

It is being irony-like turm "American English."

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Jay:
Anon: That's impossible.

Nobody said it was impossible. Do you always put words in other people's mouths so you can argue with them?

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
SEMI-HYBRID code:
Nagesh:
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

...last time i checked the "modern numerals" were called "arabic" ;)
It is being irony-like turm "American English."

Also, Times new Roman font developd by Germans.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Nah, first he wrote a decimal to roman converter.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

SEMI-HYBRID code:
Nagesh:
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

...last time i checked the "modern numerals" were called "arabic" ;)

Ouch! You just tried to correct [fake] Nagesh when he is actually correct.

While they are often called "Arabic" numerals, they are more correctly called "Indo-Arabic" numerals. In the west we call them Arabic numerals because we learnt them from Arabs who, in turn, learnt them from the Indians.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Meep:
rom 'I' = 1 rom 'V' = 5 rom 'X' = 10 ...
All of which can be translated into a single case statement, rom x = case x of { 'I' -> 1; 'V' -> 5; 'X' -> 10 ... }

Since a string is simply a list of characters:

raw_decode nums = map rom nums

Or as a comprehension: raw_decode nums = [ rom num | num <- nums ]

So raw_decode "IXX" yields [1, 10, 10]

Next we want to group up all the IX type cases. Our numerals should always be in descending order, except for those cases, so we can simply group using the < operator.

rollup_prefixes raw = groupBy (<) raw

That gives us a list of lists that may be one or two elements long, by our invariants.

sub_prefix [ num ] = num sub_prefix [ pre num ] = num - pre

Or as a case statement:

sub_prefix roll = case roll of { [ num ] -> num; [ pre num ] -> num - pre; }

And we then map that out:

sub_prefixes rolled_up = map sub_prefix rolled_up

Then we simply sum the result:

final subbed = sum subbed

Put it all together:

rom2num roman = sum [ case roll of { [ num ] -> num; [ pre num ] -> num - pre; } | roll <- groupBy (<) [ case num of { 'I' -> 1; 'V' -> 2; ... } | letter <- roman ] ]

That's about 25 lines of code (including the comments that are necessary to make Haskell readable). It would've been less typing in something like COBOL (and probably faster too, as there's no need to depend on the misuse of recursion)!

daily · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

RandomGuy42:
if(r=="III") return "Pentium";

FTFY

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

replace: "IV" => "4", "IX" => "9", "IL" => "49", "IC" => "99", "ID" => "499", "IM" => "999", //"VL","VC","VD","VM" not supported, use XLV instead... "XL" => "4", "XC" => "9", "XD" => "49", "XM" => "99", //"LD","LM" "VI" => "6", "VII" => "7", "VIII" => "8", "I" => "1", "II" => "2", "III" => "3", "V" => "5", "X" => "1", "L" => "5", "C" => "1", "D" => "5", "M" => "1",

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Anon:
SEMI-HYBRID code:
Nagesh:
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

...last time i checked the "modern numerals" were called "arabic" ;)

Ouch! You just tried to correct [fake] Nagesh when he is actually correct.

While they are often called "Arabic" numerals, they are more correctly called "Indo-Arabic" numerals. In the west we call them Arabic numerals because we learnt them from Arabs who, in turn, learnt them from the Indians.

He who corects fool is not rewarded for his truble. He who corects wise man receves gift beter than golds.

zzo38 · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Toodle:
Code fail on IIX

IIX is not a valid roman numeral.

And, in Haskell, you can return the error indicator just by using the Maybe type (in a new programming language, currently codenamed "Ibtlfmm", the you can use the successor type which is the same as Haskell's Maybe just with a different name)

The average Haskell WTF is something about a guy who, during an interview, forgot to make his Monad an Applicative.

I often complain about same things too

Addendum (2012-04-02 15:45): (MMMIM is a non-standard, but valid, roman numeral; IIX, however, is not even valid.)

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

That code in question did in fact fail on IX though. As will most of the examples people have shared.

KattMan · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Yoh:
That code in question did in fact fail on IX though. As will most of the examples people have shared.

My interpreter pattern suggestion would not fail.

example here... http://www.dofactory.com/Patterns/PatternInterpreter.aspx

This pattern also works out well for creating a sounddex generator.

Matt Westwood · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

TRWTF is that Roman numerals are still used in certain contexts. How fucking shit-for-brains stupid is that.

PiisAWheeL · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

link87:
Roman Enumeration:
I heard that Hitler was a monad.
The important question remains: was Hitler also a burrito?

NO HITLER WAS NOT A BURRITO. Burritos are delicious and awesome. Hitler was not delicious or awesome. Do not ruin burritos for me!

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

There was actually a serious (maybe) proposal to add Roman numerals to Python, but it got rejected:

PEP 313

Too bad. I wanted to see whether I could calculate the square root of pi, using only Roman Numerals.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

mine certainly did not fail on IX

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Here's my (crummy) stab at it: (Now with input validation)

#!~/bin/perl
use 5.010;
while ( <DATA> ) {
	chomp; say 0 and next unless length;
	
	(/\b
		(M+|(?=[CDXLVI]))
		(C{1,4}|CD|DC{0,4}|CM|(?=[XLVI])|(?<=M))
		(X{1,4}|XL|LX{0,4}|XC|(?=[VI])|(?<=[MCD]))
		(I{1,4}|IV|VI{0,4}|IX|(?<=[MCDLX]))
	\b/x) ? do { my $n; $n+={''=>0,I=>1,IV=>4,V=>5,IX=>9,X=>10,XL=>40,L=>50,XC=>90,C=>100,CD=>400,D=>500,CM=>900,M=>1000}->{uc $_} foreach split /(IV|IX|XL|XC|CD|CM|I|V|X|L|C|D|M)\s*/; say $n;}: say "[$_] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral";
}
__DATA__

MM
VIIX
VIIII
IV
IX
IL
IC
ID
IM
VL
VC
VD
VM
XLV
XL
XC
XD
XM
LD
LM
VI
VII
VIII
I
II
III
V
X
L
C
D
M

PRINTS:

0
2000
[VIIX] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
9
4
9
[IL] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[IC] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[ID] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[IM] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[VL] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[VC] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[VD] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[VM] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
45
40
90
[XD] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[XM] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[LD] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
[LM] does not appear to be a valid Roman numeral
6
7
8
1
2
3
5
10
50
100
500
1000

KattMan · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

iToad:
There was actually a serious (maybe) proposal to add Roman numerals to Python, but it got rejected:
PEP 313

Too bad. I wanted to see whether I could calculate the square root of pi, using only Roman Numerals.

This will get you started CD/CXXVII = PI

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Ol' Bob:
Nagesh:
Nagesh (fake):
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

Fake nagesh has stole words from my key-board. It is "modern numbers", you idiot.

Also Alegbra invented here.

Who's this Aleg chick? And what're you doin' inventin' underwear for her?

Don't laf. There is such a thing as Feminist Algebra. Yes, it's moronic, but is a real-life kolluge kourse.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
Anon:
SEMI-HYBRID code:
Nagesh:
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

...last time i checked the "modern numerals" were called "arabic" ;)

Ouch! You just tried to correct [fake] Nagesh when he is actually correct.

While they are often called "Arabic" numerals, they are more correctly called "Indo-Arabic" numerals. In the west we call them Arabic numerals because we learnt them from Arabs who, in turn, learnt them from the Indians.

He who corects fool is not rewarded for his truble. He who corects wise man receves gift beter than golds.

BFD. The copyright expired centuries ago. And, as we say in non-static, loosely typed societies (a little computer language lingo as societal commentary there), "yeah? so what have you done for me lately?"

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

I guess his solution to the first exercise was this:

printf( "99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall.\n" "98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 97 bottles of beer on the wall.\n" "97 bottles of beer on the wall, 97 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 96 bottles of beer on the wall.\n" "96 bottles of beer on the wall, 96 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 95 bottles of beer on the wall.\n" "95 bottles of beer on the wall, 95 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 94 bottles of beer on the wall.\n" "94 bottles of beer on the wall, 94 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 93 bottles of beer on the wall.\n" /* SNIP 92 lines */ "2 bottles of beer on the wall, 2 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 1 bottle of beer on the wall.\n" "1 bottle of beer on the wall, 1 bottle of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall.\n" "No more bottles of beer on the wall, no more bottles of beer.\nGo to the store and buy some more, 99 bottles of beer on the wall.\n");

PiisAWheeL · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

KattMan:
iToad:
There was actually a serious (maybe) proposal to add Roman numerals to Python, but it got rejected:
PEP 313

Too bad. I wanted to see whether I could calculate the square root of pi, using only Roman Numerals.

This will get you started CD/CXXVII = PI

I. P is not a roman numeral. II. Roman numerals didn't have decimal points. III. The longer roman numerals get the more digits near the beginning get changed until you just have a bunch of M's to count your thousands with. Thats why it (should have) died with the romans.

Coyne · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Romanes eunt domus:
I guess his solution to the first exercise was this:
printf( "99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall.\n" "98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, 97 bottles of beer

Really? In this thread?

Why not:

Romanes eunt domus:
I guess his solution to the first exercise was this:
printf( "XCIX bottles of beer on the wall, XCIX bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, XCVIII bottles of beer on the wall.\n" "XCVIII bottles of beer on the wall, XCVIII bottles of beer.\nTake one down and pass it around, XCVII bottles of beer on the wall.\n" etc.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

The company's hiring practices alone could be its own article.

Matt Westwood · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

radarbob:
Ol' Bob:
Nagesh:
Nagesh (fake):
Roman numeral system is being flawed system. The West can be thanking Indian for invention of modurn numerals.

Fake nagesh has stole words from my key-board. It is "modern numbers", you idiot.

Also Alegbra invented here.

Who's this Aleg chick? And what're you doin' inventin' underwear for her?

Don't laf. There is such a thing as Feminist Algebra. Yes, it's moronic, but is a real-life kolluge kourse.

Bleedinell. You ain't wrong:

http://www.sydneyline.com/Gross%20and%20Levitt%20review.htm

"There was actually a paper read at a 1993 meeting of the Mathematical Association of America entitled 'Toward a Feminist Algebra' by Maryanne Campbell (a literary critic) and Randall K. Campbell-Wright (a mathematician).

Part of the paper was a call for an end to what it claimed were sexist stereotypes in college algebra textbooks. They disapproved of problems which used examples of a girl and her boyfriend running towards each other because this portrayed heterosexual involvement. On the other hand, they recommended approval of problems about Sue and Debbie, 'a couple financing their $70,000 home'. They wanted algebra problems to present female heroes, to analyse sex differences and to affirm women's experiences.

Taking to heart the absurd shibboleth of contemporary literary theory that all language is metaphor, Campbell and Campbell-Wright set out to prove that metaphor plays a central role in the language of mathematics. They do not demonstrate this through the obviously rather difficult cases of symbolic statements and formulae. Instead they offer verbal examples culled from textbooks -- 'manipulate an algebraic expression', 'attack a problem', 'exploit a theorem' -- as evidence that mathematics is a nest of aggression, violence, domination and sexism.

From this they derive postmodern literary dogma such as: 'Mathematics is portrayed as a woman whose nature desires to be the conquered Other.' They want the whole field of mathematics reappraised so that its imagined failings can be rectified and it can become a discipline fit for women to enter. Gross and Levitt, however, are more perceptive about their motives.

'The purpose of the carefully tailored feminist language and imagery is not primarily to build the self-confidence of women students, but rather to convert problems and examples into parables of feminist rectitude. It is, at bottom, not different from an imaginary Christian fundamentalist pedagogy requiring that all mathematics problems illustrate biblical episodes and preach evangelical sermons.'

... and then I must point you towards this:

http://stonetelling.com/issue1-sep2010/johnson-towards-a-feminist-algebra.html

... enjoy, you buggers.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Matt Westwood:
...(snip 2MiB)...
a nest of aggression, violence, domination and sexism

But that's what everybody wants! So what's their point?

CarnivorousHippie · 2012-04-02 Reply Admin

the beholder:
CarnivorousHippie:
Tokenize on (IV, IX, I, XL, XC, X, CD, CM, C, M), map to (4, 9, 1, 40, 90, 10, 400, 900, 100, 1000), and sum.
Actual code is left as an exercise for the reader.
I really like your approach, but what's wrong with V, L and D?

Ummm, oops.

Public Function CalcRoman(strRN As String) As Long
    If Len(strRN) = 0 Then
        CalcRoman = 0
    ElseIf InStr(1, "iv,ix,xl,xc,cd,cm", Left(strRN, 2)) > 0 Then
        CalcRoman = Split("4,9,40,90,400,900", ",")((InStr(1, "iv,ix,xl,xc,cd,cm", Left(strRN, 2)) - 1) / 3) _
            + CalcRoman(Mid(strRN, 3))
    Else
        CalcRoman = Split("1,5,10,50,100,500,1000", ",")(InStr(1, "ivxlcdm", Left(strRN, 1)) - 1) _
            + CalcRoman(Mid(strRN, 2))
    End If
End Function

No error checking and lots of WTFery, but that's the general idea.

2012-04-02 Reply Admin

Probably not "the" way to do it in c#, but it works... [code] private enum RomanNumerals { I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, M = 1000 }

    private int ConvertRomanToNumeric(string RomanNumeral)
    {
        // MCMLXXIIX = 1978

        List<char> Numerals = RomanNumeral.ToList<char>();

        int ConvertedNumber = 0;
        int currentNumber = 0;
        int currentMax = 0;

        Numerals.Reverse();

        foreach (char Numeral in Numerals)
        {
            RomanNumerals num = (RomanNumerals)Enum.Parse(typeof(RomanNumerals), Numeral.ToString());
            currentNumber = (int)num;

            if (currentNumber >= currentMax)
            {
                ConvertedNumber += currentNumber;
                currentMax = currentNumber;
            }
            else
            {
                ConvertedNumber -= currentNumber;
            }
        }
        return ConvertedNumber;
    }

[/code/

Roman Enumeration

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