A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
Rules
This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
As a software developer, the less ambiguous your notation is, the better it is for everyone involved. Not only will I use brackets, I'll split my expression into multiple rows and use tabs to make it as readable as humanly possible. And maybe throw a comment or 2 if there's still some black magic involved
As a professor said, most programming languages don't care about readability and whitespace. But we care because humans need it to parse meaning. Thus, write code for people, not for the machine. Always assume that someone with no knowledge of the context will have to debug it, and be kind to them. Because that someone might be you in six months when you have completely forgotten how the code works.
Exactly. You read code way more times than you write it, so it makes all the sense in the world to prioritize readability.
Source code is for humans, then the compiler turns it into code for machines.
Python forcing end of line and tabs kinda does. Add Black auto-formatter and it's pretty good.
This. Always be kind to your future self.
Yep, if you're writing code for a machine, just do it in binary to save compilation time (/s just in case). Also, you in six months will indeed be someone with no knowledge of the context. And every piece of code you think you write for one-time use is guaranteed to be reused every day for the next 5 years
And every piece of code you think you write for one-time use is guaranteed to be reused every day for the next 5 years
I had someone submit a pull request recently that, in addition to their actual changes, also removed every single parenthesis that wasn't strictly necessary in a file full of 3D math functions. I know it was probably the fault of an autoformatter they used, but I was still the most offended I've ever been at a pull request.
Autoformatter? More like obfuscator
I genuinely hate being human for this stuff. So many things have such crazy computational shortcuts, it's sometimes difficult to remember which part represents reality. Outside of the realm of math, where "imaginary" numbers are still a touch of enigma to me, so many algorithms are based on general assumptions about reality or the specific task, that the programmatic approach NEVER encapsulates the full scope of the problem.
As in, sometimes if you know EXACTLY how a tool works, you might still have no idea about the significance of that tool. Even in a universe where no one is lazy, and everyone wants to know "why?", the answers are NOT forthcoming.
Also works if you dont trust yourself with correctly ordering your operations.
I, my head, shake.
Also known as: Japanese speaker
Ok man. Wtf did I just watch...
I get it. We are here on the somehow dark side of the internet..
But THIS.... without any context. i mean. Im questioning live here man. What do you want to express with that?
I'm pretty sure it's just a reference to when the kid types ))<>((
Btw, it's not from the dark side of the Internet. This was a very popular video at the time.
(I used(LISP)one time(and it(permanently))changed the way I (program(computers)))
This is why every calculator should be a RPN calculator.
I still have my HP 48 series calculator. It's a sturdy beast.
The underlying truth of this joke is: Programming syntax is less confusing than mathematical syntax. There are genuinely ambiguous layouts of syntax in math (to a human reader that hasn't internalized PEMDAS, anyways) whereas you get a compilation error if ANYTHING is ambiguous in programming. (yes, I am WELL aware of the frustrations of runtime errors)
Internalized PEMDAS without knowing it's literally the same thing as BODMAS is exactly the problem!
(‿!‿) (‿O‿)
( . ) ( . ) ( . Y . )
Improved readability is always good
My calculator says -2² = -4, so yeah...
Isn't the "-" order of operations the same as a multiply ? I think I learned powers take priority over the "-" so your calculator would be right.
But either way if it can cause confusion you should use parentheses.
Every calculator I've used has separate negative and subtraction keys for this purpose. There is no order of operations to follow, it's just a squaring a number
I learned negative as being a separate operation where we need to apply the order of operations. I think it was something like :
-2 is a diminutive for -1x2 so it uses the order of operations of a multiplication.
My calculator is the official one used in schools in France (ti-83 premium ce) and it says -2^2 = -4 with the negative key.
I don't think it would make a mistake in such a simple concept.
But whatever these concepts can change depending on the field, country, level of education. What I mean is : it's unclear, so use parentheses. So (-2)^2 or -(2^2) are the correct ways to write it.
I would never write -n². Either ‐(n²) or (-n)². Order of operations shouldn't be some sort of gotcha to trick people into misinterpreting you, it's the intuitive reading of a well constructed mathematical expression.
I've never seen a calculator that had bracket keys but didn't implement the conventional order of operations.
But anyway, I'm on Team RPN.
https://plus.maths.org/content/pemdas-paradox
Even two casios won't give you the same answer:
https://plus.maths.org/content/sites/plus.maths.org/files/articles/2019/pemdas/calculators.png
I feel this in my bones
I recall that there is a myriad of memes of the form 'what is 4-2*3' under which there is always a never ending discussion of confidently incorrect dumbasses denying the existence of the multiplication before addition rule.
So your suspicion is at least not unreasonable
Or, you know, you could simplify the terms?
sounds like work for a compooter
