Discussion between Iwillnotexist Idonotexist and impinball

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

1:25 AM

Hello!

impinball

hi

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

I just added an APL solution, if you've noticed

It uses APL's compression operator, one character only.

impinball

Basically, the assembly instruction clearly dictated, as shown in your answer, it was created for the sole purpose of doing what the question just asked.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

That's true. That's why I posted it.

impinball

I noticed already, and I'm looking up that as well, because single-operation APL answers sound suspiciously similar.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

1:28 AM

So you're not willing to accept my APL solution either?

impinball

And also, in the next to last comment, I added the link to the relevant answer (I forgot to post it).

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

(Link to / operator documentation was provided)

impinball

I haven't removed my downvote yet, because I haven't really had the time to look it up yet.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

Yes, I just saw. It's a bit mean what you did there, moving the goalposts ex post facto, but the OP of the post you edited even mentioned that he appreciates learning the powerful features of another language.

To wit: I have no objection to these being posted as a side note within the main answer though - that is interesting and helps me learn different languages capabilities.

impinball

I have withdrew my downvote, but what exactly would your program do? I'm not well versed in APL, and most of the documentation is slightly cryptic to me.

I'm not the one who created the challenge, but here's the spirit of my edit:

*Edit to the FAQ answer

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

1:34 AM

microapl.co.uk/apl_help/ch_020_020_840.htm

impinball

I already looked at the link.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

Well basically APL uses the left argument as a mask and the right as the vector from which to select-compress. If I supply the arguments as a bitstring, they achieve exactly what the questioner asked...

This is the blind leading the blind, mind you; I don't know APL. But I do know that the second example given in that link can be altered to what I did.

This one

1 1 1 1 0/12 14 16 18 20
12 14 16 18 (20 corresponds with the only 0 and
is ignored)

The mask (to the left) picks out 12, 14, 16, and 18 because they correspond to a 1, and rejects 20 because it corresponded to a 0. It's entirely ignored.

Of note is that the code does NOT produce 12 14 16 18 0, i.e. it's not a simple select.

impinball

Basically, the answer I edited was using Mathematica as an example demonstrating what it meant. It linked to Conway's Game of Life implemented in one function call. There are others, such as using the Date object in JS to parse a date.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

1:52 AM

Yes, I agree some things are more underhanded than others. But it interests me that Mathematica has something like that in one operation; It may interest others.

On the other hand, here, I've demonstrated that no less than two languages have the same single-operation vector compression. So this is not a one-of-a-kind underhanded thing; It's actually in production use and should be considered a legitimate operation.

Besides, in x86 that took 5 bytes to express; APL took one character. So in retrospect the x86 code wasn't so effective anyways.

impinball

It still sounds suspicious, but this question anyways is probably best for terse, functional languages. Your disclaimer is sufficient enough that I won't instinctively downvote.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

My take on the matter is that I _am_ interested in knowing the crazy things other assembly languages can do, and consider such magic operations no worse than APL's or Golfscript's potent but short operators. Both were designed to pack powerful operations in as few bytes as possible; Can assembly be faulted for doing the same?

But if it does displease the community, I'll cease and desist.

impinball

I will request that you edit your answer to not come across as so accusative.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

Will do:

Rejected as loophole

Done

impinball

And it only really is displeasing on code-golf challenges (as the main entry). Anecdotes about that kind of stuff is fascinating, and people use that kind of stuff to solve more complex code golf challenges.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

1:58 AM

Ah

Anyways I cut down on the accusatory-ness, it now reads only that it was rejected

Sorry if it rubbed you the wrong way; I just don't know who is in charge of determining these things.

impinball

np

It's mostly a community-driven thing. And I'm not the first to point out these things.

I have to go.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

Okay, so case closed?

Alright

See you.

Iwillnotexist Idonotexist

3:43 AM

@JanDvorak Then should I just blast my two solutions to pieces? There are apparently few appreciators...

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