Why Write Tests Helps catch bugs in the code, and in the programmer’s mental model of what the code does.
The later a bug is caught in the development cycle, the more expensive it is to fix it. A good test today is a future debugging session saved.
The test is the first client of your code. It uncovers sub-optimal design choices, tight couplings, missed cases, etc....
On the Clean Code Movement Good enough is good enough. The architectural choices and bugs in the implementation tend to be more impactful, so focus more on those.
Be conservative in what you consider technical debt. It should be something that slows down current/future changes, and not code that doesn’t “feel nice”. A code base that is free if technical debt is likely over-emphasizing polish over delivery.
Abstractions and indirections in the name of future-proofing tend to be wrong especially when treading new paths, where you can’t reliably predict the future....
The Sandman (1989 - 1996) by Neil Gaiman. Image from Sandman #36.
Path to comic: Lucifer (Netflix) -> Lucifer (Comic) -> The Sandman (Comic)
Netflix is also adapting the comic, so interested in how it deviates from the source. Ser Brienne of Tarth will be Lucifer. Hype!
Love Dream: Sister – you know how I felt for Nada one. What I feel for her still....
A union is a struct in which all members are allocated at the same address so that the union occupies as much space as its largest member, e.g.
// This is a naked union because it doesn't have an associated indicator // for which member it holds. union Value { Node* p; int i; } // The language doesn't keep track of which kind of value is held by a // union, so the programmer must do that themselves, e....
Unscoped (or Plain or C-Style) Enumerations Plain (or C-style) enums are entered in the same scope as the name of their enum, and implicitly convert to their integer value, e.g.
enum Color { red, green, blue }; int col = green; Color c2 = 1; // error: invalid conversion from 'int' to 'Color' [-fpermissive] enum CardColor { red, black }; // Error: "red" conflicts with a previous declaration...
A struct helps us organize the elements that a type needs into a data structure, e.g.
struct Vector { int sz; // number of elements double* elem; // pointer to elements on the free store }; void vector_init(Vector& v, int s) { v.elem = new double[s]; v.sz = s; }
However, notice that a user of Vector has to know every detail of a Vector’s representation. We can improve on this....
Resource Handles RAII is also covered in Classes in C++ > Motivation for the Destructor Mechanism The constructor/destructor pattern enables objects defined in a scope to release the resources during exit from the scope, even when exceptions are thrown. All standard-library containers, e.g. std::vector, are implemented as resource handles.
std::unique_ptr and std::shared_ptr These “smart pointers” are useful in managing objects that are allocated on the free store (as opposed to those allocated on the stack)....
A template is a class or a function that we can parameterize with a set of types or values.
Parameterized Types The vector-of-doubles can be generalized to a vector-of-anything type by making it a template:
// `template<typename T>` can be read as "for all types T". Older code // uses `template<class T>`, which is equivalent. template<typename T> class Vector { public: explicit Vector(int s); ~Vector() { delete[] elem; } // ....
The Dilemma There are wide productivity variations between good programmers and poor ones. Sackman et. al. found 10:1 ratios. The data showed no correlation between experience and performance.
The idea of a 10x developer is mostly ridiculed in my online circles. That said, some jobs have X years of experience as a requirement. How can we resolve these contradictions?
The major part of the cost of large teams is communication, and system debugging to correct the ill effects of miscommunication....
Inspired to read this comic by the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder film.
Motifs [Gorr] As I stand here now, witnessing with my own eyes the first awkward fumblings of life in the void, I see no weeping god. No tears except those shed by the misshapen creatures around me, minutes old and already begging for death. I see no grand plan at work. No benevolent omnipotence at display....
The Swamp Thing. Image from dccomics.com
Motifs [Blind] Loyalty Their master gone, the un-men pause, uncertain of what to do… They must among themselves for a moment – and, at least, a decision is reached. For all their existence, they have followed their master blindly – wherever he might lead… And there seems no good reason to change that situation now.
Ignorance Divinity, Maine – founded circa 1648 – population: 97 good, god-fearing people – principal industry: scrambling for an existence – principal produce: ignorance and fear....
The Department of Truth | Image Comics. James Tynion IV; Martin Simmonds. imagecomics.com . Accessed Feb 18, 2022. Department of Truth (2020 - present) by James Tynion IV. Image from imagecomics.com
Expecting a modern take on 1984, which I didn’t finish because I lost interest.
Plot Points [Lee Harvey Oswald] The more people believe in something, the more true that thing becomes....
Crime Drama Ozark’s highlights are Ruth Langmore’s 90s' hip hop playlist, Wendy Byrde’s sociopathic ambition, and Del Rio’s suave. The show follows the Byrde family that has to launder money for the Navarro Cartel. The writers use shortcuts as the show proceeds, and grant excessive plot armor for the Byrde family in subsequent seasons.
’s Bill Dubuque also wrote The Accountant (2016 Film) , which follows a CPA with high-functioning autism who makes his living by uncooking the books of criminal organizations experiencing internal embezzlement....
When it comes to STEM diversity goals, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) tends to be excluded from the URMs under discussion, e.g. .
However, AAPI as a blanket term obscures the struggles of member groups, e.g. \(62\%\) of AAPI adults aged 24 and older have an associate’s degree or higher, compared to 28% of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders of the same age. AA comprises \(\approx 50\) ethnic groups, while PI has \(\approx 20\)....
Snow, Glass, Apples Stumbled onto from Hoopla’s recommendations. flips the script and tells the story from the step mother’s perspective, and she is also the protagonist.
Snow White is a vampire. She fed on her father (consensually?), the King, to the point of him being a shadow of a man. Her stepmother, the Queen, was only 18 when the King died. The Queen had witnessed Snow White’s vampirism, and so she had a servant kill her by carving out her heart and dump her in the forest....
Mental Attitude While Learning Distinguish Mere Facts From Conclusions or Opinions Discriminate between mere statements of facts, necessary conclusions which follow therefrom, and mere opinions which they seem to render reasonable. There’s no need to perform an experiment to verify that the atomic weight of oxygen is 16. That the sum of the angles of a plane triangle equals two right angles is not a mere fact, but an inevitable truth....
Stories of Your Life and Others. Ted Chiang. 2010. ISBN: 9781931520898 . Tower of Babylon Story focused on Hillalum, who lived during the construction of the Tower of Babel .
notes that the Hebrew school version was more elaborate than the Old Testament account, e.g. the tower is so tall that it takes a year to climb, and when a man falls to his death, no one mourns, but when a brick is dropped, the brick-layers weep because it will take a year to replace....
Objective: Learn to read the game and make smart predictions. Reaction times are overrated; perception and prediction rule .
Offensive Playmaking and Scoring tracks the following play types: transition, isolation, pick & roll ball handler, pick & roll roll man, post up, spot up, handoff, cut, off screen and put-backs.
At least these categories provide a baseline for what search terms to use. also has a miscellaneous play type section, so it’ll be interesting to see if a new play-type pops up in the future....
quotes Doug McIlroy:
Those types are not “abstract”; they are as real as int and float.
What is the context of this quote?
A class is a user-defined type provided to represent a concept in the code of a program. Essentially, all language facilities beyond the fundamental types, operators, and statements exist to help define better class or to use them more conveniently....
Beginnings Your shot at intriguing or acclimating the reader. Establish the tone, stylistic manner and attitude in the first few sentences.
The Direct Beginning State the subject in the first sentence, and the thesis in the first paragraph.
Use the first paragraph to define subject or a quick synopsis of the material to come.
The Delayed Beginning An attention-getting device, e.g. anecdote, generalization, vivid description, dramatic incident, paradoxical observation, can serve as the background to your thesis....