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A little tiny horror

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Weird and The Wonderful
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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

    G Offline
    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

      L Offline
      L Offline
      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

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • 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

                          P Offline
                          P Offline
                          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

                          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

                            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

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                              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
                                      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

                                        R Offline
                                        R Offline
                                        RichardM1
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #29

                                        I'm uncomfortable saying this :sigh: No, it is all about the app meeting the requirements. One of the requirements (too often, only implied) is that the code be readable and maintainable. It may be that << is better looking than pow in some cases, but maybe not. What if that was coding a requirement directly? I would expect any coder worth his salt to understand and translate, but I know too many programmers that are not worth their salt.

                                        I want to die like my Grandfather. Peaceful, Sleeping. Not screaming like his passengers.

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                                        0
                                        • T Tim Carmichael

                                          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 Offline
                                          R Offline
                                          RichardM1
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #30

                                          We senior developers are very resourceful! :-\

                                          I want to die like my Grandfather. Peaceful, Sleeping. Not screaming like his passengers.

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