Mastodawn

you know when you read the code. and the code is like

float flooboogMultiplier; // When calculating the flooboog, the flooboog will be multiplied by this value (default 1.0)

and its like. why?? why??? whats wrong with the flooboog. this code is designed to calculate the flooboog. so why would i want to change it???? it implies theres something wrong with all the code maybe? some users have requested changing the flooboog i'm sure. they must be, for this to be an option. but who?? and why???

i guess if your flooboog just isnt coming out right, youve got to scale it havent you. its not a science, its an art. you try the flooboog and its wrong, so you change it to 1.1 and then try it again. maybe you try to 1.05x your flooboog. its a fine art, i bet. can probably get paid pretty well to tune a flooboog

Jason Lefkowitz, but scary

@jk This is why when people say “the code is the documentation” I just start laughing and never ever stop

@jalefkowit you can search open source codebases for "flooboogMultiplier =" and everyone sets it to 1.0. except for two people, one who sets it to 1.0001 with the comment "// critical fix" and someone else who leaves no comment whatsoever and sets it to 9

Jason Lefkowitz, but scary 3d ago

@jk At least when AI takes over it will synthesize all that into “9 // critical fix”

@jalefkowit @jk search *my* codebase and you're gonna find this

# more reliable than using math.ulp() in certain scenarios, see IEEE-754-2008 for more details
flooboogMultiplier = math.nextafter(defaultFlooboogMultiplier)
# NB: do NOT use float_info.epsilon here as there is NO GUARANTEE that defaultFlooboogMultiplier will always remain 1.0
# for example some users believe it should be 9

because explicit is better than implicit and readability counts!!!

@jk @jalefkowit i... i need to check my flooboog multipliers after this revelation...

Markus Ojala 2d ago

@hobbs @jk @jalefkowit is flooboog an actual thing in use or just a placeholder name, albeit a funny one?

Petr Tesařík 2d ago

@mojala @hobbs @jk @jalefkowit oh man, flooboog is a physical quantity, of course; what were you taught in primary school science?

Markus Ojala 2d ago

@ptesarik @hobbs @jk @jalefkowit don't know was skipping school :D

@ptesarik
@mojala @jk @jalefkowit here in americaland, a flooboog is a dozen queeznits but I think in most of Europe it's only ten blorbungs.

Barney Dellar (he/him)2d ago

@jk @jalefkowit I once saw some C++ code where someone had clearly been told to avoid magic numbers. So they’d written

#define THREE 3

Now they could use THREE instead of 3.

However, at some point, someone realised they needed a different value for this, so they changed it to

#define THREE 4

NOW they could use THREE whenever they wanted a value of 4 🤦🏻‍♂️

WildRikku 3d ago

@jalefkowit @jk especially great since in this very accurate example, there is an actual comment that says exactly what the name of the variable already told me so they are BOTH useless

Gabriel N 2d ago

@jalefkowit @jk i like being able to search the git repository for changes

mr_tenor 2d ago

@jalefkowit but have you considered crying as an option?

Chris Marquardt 2d ago

@jalefkowit @jk But have you heard of Mel? http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html

The Story of Mel

@chrismarquardt @jalefkowit i like the Free Verse layout personally. reminiscent of assembler code