Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-02 Thread Ivan Van Laningham
Hi All--

Cameron Laird wrote:
> 
> Welcome back, Ivan.  Your follow-ups make one wonder about the
> span of related topics clp has been missing in your absence.
>

Thanks for the welcome.  Absence was more a consequence of working for
idiots for four years (at 60-80 hours/week) than anything else.  Now
that I'm not working I've got time to catch up on what's new in Python. 
Nice to see a few familiar faces, too.

Metta,
Ivan
--
Ivan Van Laningham
God N Locomotive Works
http://www.andi-holmes.com/
http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/proceedings.html
Army Signal Corps:  Cu Chi, Class of '70
Author:  Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours
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Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-02 Thread Cameron Laird
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Ivan Van Laningham  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
.
.
.
>> >>> 25
>> 25
>> >>> (_ | _)
>> 25
>> >>>
>> 
>> There's clearly some interesting biometrics research to be done here,
>> although there is a well-known ass-capturing attack based on readily
>> commercially available machines from Xerox that might make it hard to make
>> an ass-based identity system resistant to attacks.
>
>http://www.jacquelinestallone.com/rumps.html
>
>Metta,
>Ivan
>
>PS:  I don't think this is an 0401 page; it's been there a while.
.
.
.
Welcome back, Ivan.  Your follow-ups make one wonder about the
span of related topics clp has been missing in your absence.
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Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread Sunnan
James Stroud wrote:
bob == (carol = 2):
  if bob = (bob or carol):
bob == 4
But no one could figure out what bob was supposed to equal anyway.
Wouldn't bob equal the boolean result of the expression (carol = 2)?
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Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread Ivan Van Laningham
Hi All--

Jeremy Bowers wrote:

> Your ass is your identity function.
> 
> Python 2.3.5 (#1, Mar  3 2005, 17:32:12)
> [GCC 3.4.3  (Gentoo Linux 3.4.3, ssp-3.4.3-0, pie-8.7.6.6)] on linux2
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> >>> 25
> 25
> >>> (_ | _)
> 25
> >>>
> 
> There's clearly some interesting biometrics research to be done here,
> although there is a well-known ass-capturing attack based on readily
> commercially available machines from Xerox that might make it hard to make
> an ass-based identity system resistant to attacks.

http://www.jacquelinestallone.com/rumps.html

Metta,
Ivan

PS:  I don't think this is an 0401 page; it's been there a while.
--
Ivan Van Laningham
God N Locomotive Works
http://www.andi-holmes.com/
http://www.foretec.com/python/workshops/1998-11/proceedings.html
Army Signal Corps:  Cu Chi, Class of '70
Author:  Teach Yourself Python in 24 Hours
-- 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread Jeremy Bowers
On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 16:02:53 -0500, Gabriel Cooper wrote:
> Ron_Adam wrote:
> 
>>To me ":=" could mean to create a copy of an object...  or should it
>>be "=:" ?
>>
>>Or how about ":=)" to mean is equal and ":=(" to mean it's not.
>>
>>Then there is ";=)", to indicate 'True', and ':=O' to indicate 'False'
>>  
>>
> Not to mention "(_ | _)" for asserts!

Your ass is your identity function.

Python 2.3.5 (#1, Mar  3 2005, 17:32:12) 
[GCC 3.4.3  (Gentoo Linux 3.4.3, ssp-3.4.3-0, pie-8.7.6.6)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> 25
25
>>> (_ | _)
25
>>> 

There's clearly some interesting biometrics research to be done here,
although there is a well-known ass-capturing attack based on readily
commercially available machines from Xerox that might make it hard to make
an ass-based identity system resistant to attacks.
-- 
http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list


Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread Gabriel Cooper

Ron_Adam wrote:
To me ":=" could mean to create a copy of an object...  or should it
be "=:" ?
Or how about ":=)" to mean is equal and ":=(" to mean it's not.
Then there is ";=)", to indicate 'True', and ':=O' to indicate 'False'
 

Not to mention "(_ | _)" for asserts!
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Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread Ron_Adam
On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 12:15:35 -0800, James Stroud <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

>Is anybody else bothered by those stupid pascal-like ":=" assignment 
>operators?
>
>Maybe, for the sake of adding more variety to the world, wiki should come up 
>with a new assignment operator, like "==". I like that one because then it 
>could really be original:
>
>if (bob = 4):
>  bob == bob + 2

To me ":=" could mean to create a copy of an object...  or should it
be "=:" ?

Or how about ":=)" to mean is equal and ":=(" to mean it's not.

Then there is ";=)", to indicate 'True', and ':=O' to indicate 'False'


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Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread Bill Mill
On Apr 1, 2005 3:15 PM, James Stroud <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Is anybody else bothered by those stupid pascal-like ":=" assignment
> operators?
> 

I actually like them. I think that the = should be a comparison
operator, not a silly ==. I think that comparisons using = are much
clearer, especially since you often write many of them in a row,
whereas you almost always make one assignment per line.

I use := every day in PL/SQL, and it's one of the few positive
syntactical features of the language.

Peace
Bill Mill
bill.mill at gmail.com
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Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread James Stroud
Is anybody else bothered by those stupid pascal-like ":=" assignment 
operators?

Maybe, for the sake of adding more variety to the world, wiki should come up 
with a new assignment operator, like "==". I like that one because then it 
could really be original:

if (bob = 4):
  bob == bob + 2

See how nice that looks? Then we could have people who are used to python and 
c and perl complaining that "=" is for comparison and "==" is for assignment. 
Then the wikilitests would say "hey, man, part and parcel of being a 
programmer is getting assignment and comparison straight--and not making 
typos, you buffoon". But then the guys who have to program in a bunch of 
languages would point out how the wikilitests only psuedo code in wiki--so 
they would never even run the code they wrote. And then some understanding 
fellow would recommend a wiki precompiler to catch "==" inside of "if" 
statements, but then someone else would say that it would limit the 
expressiveness of wiki language:

bob == (carol = 2):
  if bob = (bob or carol):
bob == 4

But no one could figure out what bob was supposed to equal anyway. And then 
someone would say something about a "Turing Machine", just to show that 
theoretically, the above code could be understood by something theoretical.

James

On Friday 01 April 2005 11:23 am, Terry Reedy wrote:
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> > The free wikipedia is adopting a standard pseudocode:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikicode/Specification

-- 
James Stroud, Ph.D.
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA 90095

http://www.jamesstroud.com/
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Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread Terry Reedy

<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message 
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The free wikipedia is adopting a standard pseudocode:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Wikicode/Specification
>
> MShonle says something nice:

Calling a feature 'baggage' is not especially nice.  Neither is getting 
facts wrong.

> I support the idea of wikicode. Basically I think we should present
> code in a Python-like language that doesn't carry so much baggage. For
> example, we can use English sentences (or sentence fragments) instead
> of requiring the reader to understand some obscure Python library.
> (Further, Python has the baggage that there are no block-terminators:

Python does too have block terminators.  They are called dedents.  In doing 
so it follows standard English outline formatting and the practice of many 
algorithm pseudocode writers.  (I roughly estimate around half or more.) 
Two examples I have handy:  Jon Bently in Programming Pearls and Steven 
Skiena in The Algorithm Design Manual.

> i.e., no "}" or "end"s or "fi"s or "repeat"s.

So add #whateve-ender-you want, but leave the code executable if at all 
possible.

> By adding such terminators, we can make it a lot less ambiguous to all 
> readers.

Dedents are unambiguous.  Be adding additional redundant terminators, one 
adds the possibility of mismatch and ambiguity.

Terry J. Reedy



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Re: Pseudocode in the wikipedia

2005-04-01 Thread Peter Hansen
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
(Further, Python has the baggage that there are no block-terminators:
i.e., no "}" or "end"s or "fi"s or "repeat"s. By adding such
terminators, we can make it a lot less ambiguous to all readers.) In
otherwords, we're basically right on track: removing the quirks of
Python, and making it higher-level.
Heh heh... good joke for April 1.
Clearly, calling the absence of something "baggage"
is intended to be humorous...
-Peter
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