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A little tiny horror

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Weird and The Wonderful
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  • Q QuiJohn

    I'd have to see more of the code to decide if this really deserves to be a horror. It's possible that, as an optimization, "fixing" this has zero impact on real world performance while (slightly) obfuscating the code. I'm a much bigger fan of readable code than optimizations with negligible performance improvements. (Not that "2 << i" is that unreadable, but you get the idea.)


    Faith is a fine invention For gentlemen who see; But microscopes are prudent In an emergency!            -Emily Dickinson

    G Offline
    G Offline
    Gary Wheeler
    wrote on last edited by
    #9

    The original surrounding code looked something like this:

    for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
    CString name;
    name.Format(_T("Stuff_%d.dat"),(int)pow(2,i));
    };

    Thinking about it, if I wanted to maximize readability, I would have done this:

    int name_value = 1;
    for (int i = 0; i < 16; i++) {
    CString name;
    name.Format(_T("Stuff_%d.dat"),name_value);
    name_value *= 2;
    };

    The only reason I found this is a compiler error in the original (int)pow(2,i) expression from VS2008 (ambiguous override).

    Software Zen: delete this;

    1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • K KarstenK

      The code got optimized for readability for the 'junior' programmers. And it has the potential to get easily chanced to (int)pow(3,i). I say this to defend your senior... :-O

      Greetings from Germany

      G Offline
      G Offline
      Gary Wheeler
      wrote on last edited by
      #10

      KarstenK wrote:

      defend your senior...

      Actually, I'm senior to the guy that wrote this. I just thought that the guy should have picked a better way to achieve the desired affect.

      Software Zen: delete this;

      L 1 Reply Last reply
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      • L leppie

        Gary Wheeler wrote:

        I replaced it with the following expression:

        And in the process introduced a subtle bug ;P

        xacc.ide - now with IronScheme support
        IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 1 out now

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        G Offline
        Gary Wheeler
        wrote on last edited by
        #11

        Actually not; see my reply above.

        Software Zen: delete this;

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • R Robert Rohde

          Good catch! I assume you are referring to the different results when having i with values smaller than 0 and bigger than 31... Robert

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          leppie
          wrote on last edited by
          #12

          Just smaller than 0, but as he is casting to int 31 or above could be a problem too, not sure if C (which I assume this is) will create a 'long' or 'long long' or whatever they use from the shift. But the result of usage of negative numbers are clear undefined.

          xacc.ide - now with IronScheme support
          IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 1 out now

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          • G Gary Wheeler

            KarstenK wrote:

            defend your senior...

            Actually, I'm senior to the guy that wrote this. I just thought that the guy should have picked a better way to achieve the desired affect.

            Software Zen: delete this;

            L Offline
            L Offline
            leppie
            wrote on last edited by
            #13

            Like:

            int pow(int i, int j)
            {
            switch (j)
            case 0: return 1;
            case 1: return i;
            case 2: return i * i;
            case 3: return i * i * i;
            case 4: return i * i * i * i;
            ...
            }

            ;P

            xacc.ide - now with IronScheme support
            IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 1 out now

            CPalliniC T 2 Replies Last reply
            0
            • L leppie

              Like:

              int pow(int i, int j)
              {
              switch (j)
              case 0: return 1;
              case 1: return i;
              case 2: return i * i;
              case 3: return i * i * i;
              case 4: return i * i * i * i;
              ...
              }

              ;P

              xacc.ide - now with IronScheme support
              IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 1 out now

              CPalliniC Offline
              CPalliniC Offline
              CPallini
              wrote on last edited by
              #14

              Nope. You forgot break; statement. Oh pardon, you're senior! :-D

              If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
              [my articles]

              In testa che avete, signor di Ceprano?

              L 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • G Gary Wheeler

                I found this expression in our current source code:

                int i;
                //...
                (int)pow(2,i)

                This was in code written by a senior developer :wtf:. I replaced it with the following expression:

                (1 << i)

                Software Zen: delete this;

                CPalliniC Offline
                CPalliniC Offline
                CPallini
                wrote on last edited by
                #15

                Gary Wheeler wrote:

                This was in code written by a senior developer

                When seniority approaches retirement... :-D

                If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                [my articles]

                In testa che avete, signor di Ceprano?

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • CPalliniC CPallini

                  Nope. You forgot break; statement. Oh pardon, you're senior! :-D

                  If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                  [my articles]

                  L Offline
                  L Offline
                  leppie
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #16

                  We break for nothing! :p

                  xacc.ide - now with IronScheme support
                  IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 1 out now

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • Q QuiJohn

                    I'd have to see more of the code to decide if this really deserves to be a horror. It's possible that, as an optimization, "fixing" this has zero impact on real world performance while (slightly) obfuscating the code. I'm a much bigger fan of readable code than optimizations with negligible performance improvements. (Not that "2 << i" is that unreadable, but you get the idea.)


                    Faith is a fine invention For gentlemen who see; But microscopes are prudent In an emergency!            -Emily Dickinson

                    CPalliniC Offline
                    CPalliniC Offline
                    CPallini
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #17

                    David Kentley wrote:

                    Not that "2 << i" is that unreadable, but you get the idea.

                    In fact it isn't unreadable, it is wrong. :-D

                    If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                    [my articles]

                    In testa che avete, signor di Ceprano?

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • J jhwurmbach

                      Robert Surtees wrote:

                      I'm guessing the shift is a wee bit faster.

                      Which, as was argued here, is very probably of no importance, while the resulting obfuscation of the intent of the calculation is important.

                      Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.
                      Douglas Adams, "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

                      R Offline
                      R Offline
                      Robert Surtees
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #18

                      jhwurmbach wrote:

                      Robert Surtees wrote: I'm guessing the shift is a wee bit faster. Which, as was argued here, is very probably of no importance, while the resulting obfuscation of the intent of the calculation is important.

                      I'd say it's important. Gary's XT doesn't have an 8087 plugged in.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • R Robert Surtees

                        David Kentley wrote:

                        It's possible that, as an optimization, "fixing" this has zero impact on real world performance while (slightly) obfuscating the code.

                        I'm pretty sure pow() only takes and returns doubles which means the original code is casting two ints in and one back out in addition to its internal pow goodness. I'm guessing the shift is a wee bit faster. :)

                        CPalliniC Offline
                        CPalliniC Offline
                        CPallini
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #19

                        Robert Surtees wrote:

                        I'm pretty sure pow() only takes and returns doubles which means the original code is casting two ints in and one back out in addition to its internal pow goodness. I'm guessing the shift is a wee bit faster.

                        VC++ compiler is smart enough to implement it using shift instead of pow. Anyway, IMHO shift syntax is far more clean. :)

                        If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                        [my articles]

                        In testa che avete, signor di Ceprano?

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • L leppie

                          Like:

                          int pow(int i, int j)
                          {
                          switch (j)
                          case 0: return 1;
                          case 1: return i;
                          case 2: return i * i;
                          case 3: return i * i * i;
                          case 4: return i * i * i * i;
                          ...
                          }

                          ;P

                          xacc.ide - now with IronScheme support
                          IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 1 out now

                          T Offline
                          T Offline
                          Tim Smith
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #20

                          int pow(int i, int j) { switch (j) { default: return 0; case 0: return 1; case 32: i *= i; case 31: i *= i; case 30: i *= i; ... case 1: return i; } } .... ewwwww

                          Tim Smith I'm going to patent thought. I have yet to see any prior art.

                          L CPalliniC 2 Replies Last reply
                          0
                          • T Tim Smith

                            int pow(int i, int j) { switch (j) { default: return 0; case 0: return 1; case 32: i *= i; case 31: i *= i; case 30: i *= i; ... case 1: return i; } } .... ewwwww

                            Tim Smith I'm going to patent thought. I have yet to see any prior art.

                            L Offline
                            L Offline
                            leppie
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #21

                            Even better :p

                            xacc.ide - now with IronScheme support
                            IronScheme - 1.0 alpha 1 out now

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • C Chris Maunder

                              Shift left is way cooler than pow any day. And in the end it's all about how good the code looks, eh? ;)

                              cheers, Chris Maunder

                              CodeProject.com : C++ MVP

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                              peterchen
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #22

                              words to live code by! :D

                              We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
                              My first real C# project | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist

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                              • Q QuiJohn

                                I'd have to see more of the code to decide if this really deserves to be a horror. It's possible that, as an optimization, "fixing" this has zero impact on real world performance while (slightly) obfuscating the code. I'm a much bigger fan of readable code than optimizations with negligible performance improvements. (Not that "2 << i" is that unreadable, but you get the idea.)


                                Faith is a fine invention For gentlemen who see; But microscopes are prudent In an emergency!            -Emily Dickinson

                                P Offline
                                P Offline
                                peterchen
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #23

                                Can you guarantee that floating point inaccuracies + truncation in the cast doesn't introduce a problem? A quick check shows they don't on VC8, but I wouldn#t have bet on it. Further, if your compiler uses the canonical (if simplistic) implementation of double pow_simple(double x, double y) { return exp(y*log(x)); } you fail pretty quickly with pow(2,3) = 7.9999999999999982 To add a pitfall to a lurking bug: if you use the default %f specifier for that, it dutifully prints 8.000000, but truncates it to 7 when casting to int. Also, when using 64-bit integers, starting with pow(2,51) double loses on accuracy.

                                We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
                                My first real C# project | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist

                                N 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • C Chris Maunder

                                  Shift left is way cooler than pow any day. And in the end it's all about how good the code looks, eh? ;)

                                  cheers, Chris Maunder

                                  CodeProject.com : C++ MVP

                                  P Offline
                                  P Offline
                                  PaulPrice
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #24

                                  Words of wisdom, I can often spend hours getting my comments and keywords in the right places to make the code look good and colourful

                                  Paul

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • T Tim Smith

                                    int pow(int i, int j) { switch (j) { default: return 0; case 0: return 1; case 32: i *= i; case 31: i *= i; case 30: i *= i; ... case 1: return i; } } .... ewwwww

                                    Tim Smith I'm going to patent thought. I have yet to see any prior art.

                                    CPalliniC Offline
                                    CPalliniC Offline
                                    CPallini
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #25

                                    (stack madness variant)

                                    int imul(int i, int j)
                                    {
                                    if (j==0 ) return 0;
                                    else return imul(i,j-1) + i;
                                    }

                                    int ipow(int i, int j)
                                    {
                                    if (j==0) return 1;
                                    else return imul(ipow(i,j-1) , i);
                                    }

                                    :-D

                                    If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler. -- Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile.
                                    [my articles]

                                    In testa che avete, signor di Ceprano?

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • G Gary Wheeler

                                      I found this expression in our current source code:

                                      int i;
                                      //...
                                      (int)pow(2,i)

                                      This was in code written by a senior developer :wtf:. I replaced it with the following expression:

                                      (1 << i)

                                      Software Zen: delete this;

                                      C Offline
                                      C Offline
                                      ClementsDan
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #26

                                      Do you work for the same company as me? I've seen someone write code just like that -- to create a bitmask.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • G Gary Wheeler

                                        I found this expression in our current source code:

                                        int i;
                                        //...
                                        (int)pow(2,i)

                                        This was in code written by a senior developer :wtf:. I replaced it with the following expression:

                                        (1 << i)

                                        Software Zen: delete this;

                                        T Offline
                                        T Offline
                                        Tim Carmichael
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #27

                                        But... but... but... this ISN'T VB... Is it possible to have bad code written by a senior developer in a non-VB language??? ;P

                                        R 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • G Gary Wheeler

                                          I found this expression in our current source code:

                                          int i;
                                          //...
                                          (int)pow(2,i)

                                          This was in code written by a senior developer :wtf:. I replaced it with the following expression:

                                          (1 << i)

                                          Software Zen: delete this;

                                          P Offline
                                          P Offline
                                          Pete OHanlon
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #28

                                          Gary Wheeler wrote:

                                          (1 << i)

                                          Moral of the story. Shift happens.

                                          Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.

                                          My blog | My articles

                                          G 1 Reply Last reply
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