In other news, I almost rep capped twice from (mostly) a single answer. 25 short. shrug

The interesting thing here is that if I weren't close - if I'd gotten, say, 2 upvotes the second day - that would actually bother me less.

hey there @SirTechSpec

Like when I realized that I could, theoretically, purchase an '84 Corvette, not doing so bothered me a lot more than when it was out of the question. That was a tough couple of weeks before I adjusted my mindset. XD

Heya @Shalvenay, what's happenin'?

@SirTechSpec not a whole heck of a lot, wondering why my misrouted package is taking its own sweet time getting out of the MSP area

MSP?

@SirTechSpec Minneapolis area, sorry

Ah, gotcha. That is a bummer.

@SirTechSpec at least it isn't "fell off truck" or "derailment" or "call claims @ 555-5555"

@Shalvenay Is that what happened to you? O.o

Bringing back memories of when my laptop died in Japan

@SirTechSpec no, mine just got misrouted. I have heard apocryphal tales of "derailment" actually showing up in UPS tracking results though

The graphics card blew (turns out it was a known problem - there was later a class action suit/recall) and, although I'd been assured that my Dell warrantee applied overseas, they neglected to mention that it only covered the laptop being overseas while it broke, not the actual repair happening overseas.

@SirTechSpec did they cover shipping at least?

So I had to ignore the local Dell repair center and ship it back to my folks so the technician could conveniently come to their house and conveniently fix it free of charge.

@Shalvenay Nope :(

@SirTechSpec zoinks -- probably could have bought a cheapo laptop for the cost of int'l shipping both ways

Had the dickens of a time getting it back from Customs on the way back. I had to fax something.

Like, with a fax machine.

@Shalvenay Not really - I remember it came to something like $100, which at the time would not have gotten you very far towards a laptop - but I could have bought a new graphics card and installed it myself for that price, if I'd known how at the time. (And if I didn't want to keep what was left on the warranty.)

@SirTechSpec yeah, customs I hear can be a real nightmare

but yeah -- I am very glad I don't have to pay international shipping all the time, it'd drive me nuts if I did

It would have been much simpler if I'd been willing to pay another, I dunno, 10 bucks for import tax - the hassle was to prove to them that it was MY laptop, and I was planning on taking it with me when I left

@SirTechSpec :p

so yeah -- another problem is boy, am I in a RP drought or what these days

The extra sting came later, when they admitted that the graphics cards in that line all had a defect, and that they were reimbursing anyone who'd paid to have them replaced... but people who had them replaced under warranty "for free" got nothing. >__<

@SirTechSpec yuck.

@Shalvenay Ah, that is too bad. Reason?

(also, brb, gotta drive home)

@SirTechSpec mostly just LFG these days -- my a) transport limitations and b) odd-to-say-the-least style don't help things one bit. Nitsua's working on a RPG.SE DW game

and I was in @waxeagle's RPG.SE 5e game

but scheduling is still up in the air for the DW game, and I suspect one of Tiamat's minions must have captured @waxeagle and is holding him hostage deep in some dungeon somewhere

@nitsua60 You know, there's such a thing as being too nice about things.

@Miniman referent?

@nitsua60 Well, if someone calls you "extraordinarily pedantic", apologising for "coming across that way" is being too nice, as evidenced by the way it caused them to magnanimously forgive you rather than apologising for their rudeness.

@Miniman You know, I hesitated quite a while before even engaging with that user. I've yet to have a positive interaction with them. But, hope springs eternal! So I gave it a try, then disengaged right-quick when it became clear that all I had to look forward to was more jackass-ery =)

(Tagging one's own question with RAW then complaining when someone points out incorrectly-quoting sources is... a special breed of... person.)

@nitsua60 Well, I admire your self-control and restraint. (The first two sentences ring very familiar, the last one not so much.)

Anyhoo, before we cross any lines...how's the advantage going?

@Miniman Was absolutely slammed at work today, so just (like, ten minutes ago) got to working on it. But I think it'll go quick, now that I've decided to brute-force rather than bother with probability arithmetic =)

@Shalvenay What are your transport limitations and style? (I think we've talked about your style idiosyncrasies in the past, but jog my memory.)

I think if I become emperor of the world one of my first decrees will be that all programming languages need to decide on one standard: "elseif," "elsif," or "elif." I don't care which, but I'm so freaking tired of looking it up every time =\

@nitsua60 Wait, what about "else if"?

@nitsua60 Standards are great! There are so many to choose from!

@SirTechSpec that's why decree >> standard =)

Also, if you replace "and then a miracle occurred" with "specific trumps general" in this somewhat famous cartoon, you have a lot of the D&D 5e answers on this site.

@Miniman In that a lot of people say "specific trumps general" without making it clear which rule they think is more specific than the general rule and why?

@Miniman Doesn't that parse in a slightly different way?

@SirTechSpec In some cases it's closer to saying "specific trumps general" as if it was a magic spell that would magically make the answer correct by magic, but yeah, that too.

@nitsua60 What would that be?

@Miniman "Topic: The use of rhetoric to obscure a lack of content."

@nitsua60 I'm not aware of any language where that's the case - there's some that allow multiple formats of the phrase, but it's hard to imagine how you could treat "else if () {" differently to "elsif () {". Now, "else { if () {", on the other hand, is very different.

@SirTechSpec I always thought the second "if" in an "if... else if" is nested one layer below the parent "if... else"<abort rest of message>. I think it's "what he said ^^"

@nitsua60 I guess that'd be possible in some languages - if "else" was a complete construct in itself, that could happen.

This is why brackets and braces are a Good Thing.

@Miniman I believe that some languages interpret "else if" as "else { if() {". At least, one or more of my IDEs auto-indent the line after "elseif" differently than the line after "else if" =)

Pretty sure in Java it works that way. You have
if (A) {
 do stuff
} else if (b) {
 do different stuff
} else {
 do something entirely different
}

@nitsua60 Now I'm trying to work out if that could actually lead to different behaviour - I'm pretty sure it could, but I'm having trouble coming up with an example.

The brackets make it pretty clear that "different stuff' only happens if B is true and A isn't, and "something entirely different" only happens if neither are true.

I think that if there are statements between "}" and "else {" in @SirTechSpec's example, there'll be a visible difference. I think.

But then in Java I don't think you can use "elseif' as a synonym for "else".

@nitsua60 Well, in Java, at least, the program failing to compile would be a visible difference.

@Miniman That too, but I think nitsua's talking about a hypothetical language that woudn't.

@SirTechSpec transport limits are that I don't drive and public transit isnt' very good evenings/weekends

I think I'm talking about taking over the world. And requiring that everyone always surround the arguments of trig and logarithmic functions with parens, 'cause think of what you're doing to the kids!

@Shalvenay That would certainly pose a difficulty. Before I continue, let me ask: are you looking for advice or commiseration?

@SirTechSpec some advice -- online would be nice, save for the recurring stylistic clashes

@nitsua60 hey

@SirTechSpec -- and mind hopping over to the NAB actually?

@nitsua60 sin x ^2 What's being squared, nitsua? What's being squared?

@Miniman [shakes head] "Look at what you're doing to the kids, man."

I.e. in my world that doesn't parse and gets you a big red scrawled "UNCLEAR!"

@nitsua60 I'm both proud and ashamed of making it work without maths formatting - there's a very important space there.