The Internet Is a Wonderous Place!

I have programed for 30 years now. I have published dozens of articles in professional software engineering journals. I have written programs used to trade tens of millions of dollars of securities each day. I teach computer science.

And today Ken B. informed me that if I set a random variable once outside of a loop the result will be different than if I set it anew each time around the loop!

Comments

  1. Gene is pretending to miss the point I, and others, made on another thread.
    Playing dumb.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, Ken, I am NOT "pretending to miss" any point:

    1) You DID tell me, "Move the variable outside the loop and see what happens." As if I hadn't put the variable in the loop on purpose, and didn't already know exactly what would happen if it was outside the loop.

    2) Your point, which you made about a dozen times, was that I *misunderstood* the definition of a hot streak, per TGV. And I responded about a dozen times that I understood the way TGV defined it just fine, but that I *disagreed* with their definition. And you would come back with, "But Gene, a hot streak MEANS..."
    So I was a disagreeing with a definition, and you could telling me I was not conforming to the definition with which I was disagreeing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gene, do you sincerely believe that if you put Ken B under truth serum, he would say "Gene doesn't know that randomizing a variable inside and outside a loop has different effects"? Clearly his comment was more along the lines of a rhetorical question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Of course Keshav! But to even pose it as a rhetorical question implies I wasn't aware of what I was doing when I put it inside the loop, and hadn't thought about what would happen if I put it outside.

      Delete
    2. Or I am concisely identifying where the assumption Matt and I object to is incorporated into the code implicitly so that readers might be able to see it clearly.

      Delete
    3. Then why address your question to me rather than to the readers?! Look, the way you wrote it, it sure seemed to *me* that you thought I didn't know what was going on there. But if the above is what you were up to, I suggest better wording.

      Delete
  4. If I asked you "Can pigs fly? would I be implying you don't know what pigs are or what flying is ?

    That's a rhetorical question By the way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No.

      But if I was designing an airplane, and you looked at my design and asked, "Are airplanes supposed to fly?" I certainly WOULD think you were implying I didn't know what I was up to!

      For that matter, if I were the angel in charge of animal design and you asked me "Can pigs fly?" it would have a whole different import than if you ask Gene Callahan ordinary mortal.

      Context matters, rob.

      Delete

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