The Nineteenth Byte

mınxomaτ

12:09

When you know your project makes no sense, but you build it anyway.

Quill

do you have an event every year where there are no rules?

Mars Ultor

@Quill Or use a third-party Registry Editor to enable regedit

Quill

it's like 9 lines in VB

Mars Ultor

@Quill Well, no everyone knows/uses VB

Bald Bantha

OK what do y'all think about this challenge:

I am a Bantha - I can't mow my lawn. I can eat it, my my neighbors do not like that. I also have ADHD (No, seriously), and I will get bored if your code is not short.

Your program will take several inputs:
A - Length of yard in feet
B - Width of yard in feet
C - Width of lawn mower in feet (may be decimal)
D - Speed of lawn mower in miles per hour
Your program will output how long it will take me in hours to mow my lawn
The pattern I want my lawn cut in:

Mars Ultor

12:20

Seems pretty trivial

Bald Bantha

Bounus: -(IDK how many bytes): Compensate for overlapping rows with another input E

Mars Ultor

@BaldBantha BTW, never have a non-percentage bonus

@QPaysTaxes a char*

Bald Bantha

@MarsUltor I am only knowledgable enough to answer "trivial" questions. You guys generally take trivial questions, the add some modulo arithmetic and multiple bases and stuff and I can't answer those. I mean, they are perfectly fine challenges, but we need more trivial questions... At least this one isn't kolomgrov complexity

TimmyD

Without a fancy pattern, this is just width-yard / width-mower (to get how many passes you need) * length-yard (to get total distance travelled) / speed-mower ...

Bald Bantha

@TimmyD Speed of mower is in MPH

just to make you mad

TimmyD

12:23

so tack on a 5280 to the calculation

Bald Bantha

^

Mars Ultor

@TimmyD it's got a /2 and floor() somewhere because only half the rows are mowed

Bald Bantha

@TimmyD Should I make overlap madantory

TimmyD

@MarsUltor All the rows are mowed, just some go in the opposite direction -- it's the way the grass lays that causes the change in coloration

Mars Ultor

@QPaysTaxes Actually

@QPaysTaxes ?

Bald Bantha

12:25

@TimmyD Yes, they are all mowed

I chose that pic because it shows straight rows

Nathan Merrill

@BaldBantha make the room non-rectangular :)

Mars Ultor

You pass a str = char[/*max_size*/] then gets(str) fills str with input

Bald Bantha

Not room facepalm B/C I totally mow my room...

Mars Ultor

@QPaysTaxes It's a string

As an array of chars

Nathan Merrill

 ********
 *** ****
   ** **

TimmyD

12:26

@BaldBantha That would add a little bit to the calculation, but it still is just some pretty simple maths.

Nathan could be on to something -- if you have trees or water ponds or whatnot that you need to "mow around"

Bald Bantha

@TimmyD Yeah Well I haven't taken calculus yet sooooo

I mean, is it a bad challenge, or just trivial?

yeah

Nathan Merrill

@BaldBantha its not a bad challenge, its just trivial

Mars Ultor

Input

Nathan Merrill

its basically a math formula

Bald Bantha

Cool I'll go make edits and post

Mars Ultor

12:27

from console

I mean, input from stdin

TimmyD

Jan 22 at 21:29, by TimmyD

Simple is nice. Trivial is not.

Mars Ultor

If you're returning the data, you need the pointer anyway, since you're actually returning the pointer

TimmyD

@BaldBantha I strongly recommend using the Sandbox before posting to Main

cat

> If it's not in Perl, it's probably in Perl 6.

Mars Ultor

wat

Um

cat

12:31

@QPaysTaxes don't ever use gets(). EVER. ಠ_ಠ

Mars Ultor

You need to gets into a pointer

cat

never ever ever gets

at least use fgets

Mars Ultor

C needs to know the size at compile time]

Relevant

cat

@QPaysTaxes k

Mars Ultor

If you're using malloc, free the pointer in the same function

gist.github.com/btmills/4201660

TimmyD

12:35

If you do something that works but isn't pretty, you can then take it to Code Review

cat

^

Mars Ultor

It's probably better to free() it once you're finished using the pointer

cat

@MarsUltor Why would you free something you didn't malloc()?

Mars Ultor

@cat I know

But IDK whether QPaysTaxes is using a static array

cat

I don't just mean a static array, if you didn't malloc it, you probably shouldn't free it, just let it go out of scope, right?

Mars Ultor

12:39

But that's a memory leak

C doesnt have a garbage collector

If it goes out of scope, it will still exist

cat

for stuff on the heap, alloc'd with malloc / xmalloc / calloc, yes, you need to free, but if there's a pointer on the stack in this scope and this scope ends, the stack is trashed

Quill

@QPaysTaxes devdocs.io has some good C documentation

hey there @ProgramFOX

ProgramFOX

hello @Quill

cat

@QPaysTaxes I decided to actually learn C this week so I don't have to do my programming class assignments in C#. :D

:o it even loads for me at school!

Mars Ultor

How is C easier to use than C#?

@QPaysTaxes My school blocks Bing images for some reason

cat

12:44

@MarsUltor I just don't like C#.

Mars Ultor

But

It's better than many languages

cat

@QPaysTaxes Yes! Learning it is way more fun.

@QPaysTaxes because I learned why gets() is bad, and now I use fgets()

man 3 gets will tell you

classs is ovaaaaaa

Maltysen

@QPaysTaxes same, hide.me/proxy

yeah, its just a pointer

Mars Ultor

My school blocks devices with non-Intel wireless adapters D:
It also keeps blocking proxies, but people always find another one

@cat How is C# bad?

Quill

@QPaysTaxes laterino

zyabin101

12:51

@QPaysTaxes "I'm not a shit ninja ~_~"

Maltysen

@Quill btw, did you end up watching kiznaiver?

Quill

I didn't... I've been super busy

Maltysen

oic

mınxomaτ

@MarsUltor I'm pretty excited for C#7: kenneth-truyers.net/2016/01/20/new-features-in-c-sharp-7

zyabin101

@Downgoat @ArtOfCode and other GitHub users: Your dashboard, early or late, got a nag screen with a suggestion to get unlimited private repos. Yup, GitHub made an unified plan for people and organisations.

Also, that nag screen can always be closed permanently.

Because no one cancelled the pretty (x) button on the top right ;)

Maltysen

12:59

@zyabin101 \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/ \o/

mınxomaτ

Yay. I already paid for GitHub, but that's really good news. Take that BitBucket :P

cat

@MarsUltor It's not bad, I just don't really like it, and I don't find learning it as fun as I find learning C and LISP.

Maltysen

@zyabin101 do you know if this includes the student pack things? I was thinking of applying for one

Rainbolt

I don't think it's a "fun" language. The benefit of C# for me is that there is just so much material on the Internet about C#, that I can count of the rest of my team to write decent code.

And MSDN. I really like MSDN.

Nathan Merrill

I don't think any serious language is really considered "fun"

cat

13:05

Can someone who's better at C than I please explain to me why this compiles fine with:

-Wall -Wextra -Wfloat-equal -Wundef -Werror -fverbose-asm -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-align -Wstrict-prototypes -Wstrict-overflow=5 -Wwrite-strings -Wconversion --pedantic -std=c11

on my gcc5 but as soon as I give it to ideone, it doesn't compile?

@NathanMerrill beg to differ ಠ_ಠ

Nathan Merrill

programming is fun, but any "fun" language is basically esoteric, like hexagony

zyabin101

Can someone who's better at C than I please explain to me why C people use VEEEEERY LOOOOONG command lines? :P

cat

@zyabin101 because that's how we get GCC to compile a language that looks vaguely like ANSI C99. I love Richard Stallman, but I want my code to work on VS2010+ too. :P

zyabin101

@Maltysen Yes, it does.

mınxomaτ

13:40

El'endia Starman

13:53

Math with Bad Drawings: In Defense of Explanation (because apparently it needs defending)

This is great and makes me proud that I do both kinds of work; I create AND I explain, because it's no fun if no one else understands what I'm doing.

Zgarb

@El'endiaStarman I agree with this writer.

zyabin101

@Guys Tabs or spaces?

The answer is, tabs.

mınxomaτ

@zyabin101 Depends on the lang: ukupat.github.io/tabs-or-spaces

El'endia Starman

@zyabin101 No. Don't you start this again.

zyabin101

@El'endiaStarman Nope. I don't start this again.

I just found that thing from the Stack Overflow 2015 survey.

I wish that they'll introduce the tabs or spaces question in 2017...

PhiNotPi

14:07

@mınxomaτ Is CoffeeScript actually that bad?

mınxomaτ

Never used it

PhiNotPi

I've never used it either, but given that it's supposed to be "Javascript made elegant," but it's somehow more dreaded than Javascript itself, makes me wonder what went wrong.

mınxomaτ

Anything but JS is JS made elegant.

Geobits

I'm glad to see Cordova on the dreaded list. It deserves it.

zyabin101

@mınxomaτ But survey says the answer is, tabs. :P

mınxomaτ

14:11

@zyabin101 Surveys are almost always meaningless when there's a strong opinion for every user. Objective measures are better. But you probably have to fork the analysis site and increase the sample size.

Geobits

Unless it's about peanut butter. Then you can usually trust the surveys. Well, the ones that shows smooth as better, at least. The others are clearly flawed.

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

@Phrancis QPaysTaxes sandboxed a new one.

Phrancis

hai

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

monking

El'endia Starman

@zyabin101 Did you not see the following text that says that the more experience a developer has, the more they prefer spaces?

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

14:19

I think you want s/more/less/ .... :P

ArtOfCode

@El'endiaStarman Spaces are the better character, but tab is the preferable key. Press tab, auto-insert spaces to your desired width of tab.

zyabin101

@EᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏIʀᴋ monring

El'endia Starman

@ArtOfCode I'm gravitating to that position myself.

trichoplax

@Geobits It seems I arrived in the nick of time

ArtOfCode

It's not fun having to press space two or four times, but one keypress for four spaces? Excellent.

trichoplax

14:27

I need to read before writing

3

ArtOfCode

yes, yes you do

trichoplax

:)

Phrancis

@EᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏIʀᴋ I still don't really know what you are talking about

zyabin101

/o\

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

@Phrancis I asked if you liked KOTHs because I thought you said you did a while ago, and a new ruby KOTH is in the sandbox currently, almost ready.

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

14:41

63

Q: How to include a Lenny face in a LaTeX document? e.g. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

How would one include a "classic" Lenny face in a LaTeX document? A paper is due tomorrow and I am curious. e.g. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I have attempted to use the verbatim environment but it has proved fruitless.

trichoplax

yesterday, by Quill

15

Q: How to include a Lenny face in a LaTeX document? e.g. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

How would one include a "classic" Lenny face in a LaTeX document? A paper is due tomorrow and I am curious. e.g. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I have attempted to use the verbatim environment but it has proved fruitless.

unicode fun

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

dangit

@Quill y u ninja innocent avocad cat

El'endia Starman

Well, at least it's easy to see that the question got 48 votes in that time...

Dennis

It spread.

35

Q: Code-trolling/prank questions for TeX.SX?

I have a friend who uses me for LaTeX support. He isn't very tech savvy but likes LaTeX and so I help him out when something he needs to do requires more than the standard stock of macros and environments. We like to play pranks on each other. I had the idea to prank him the next time he ask for...

fun

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

shit

trichoplax

14:51

That's particularly worrying in combination with the "I'm not very good at LaTeX myself, though"

Probably not best placed to be spreading problems they are ill equipt to fix later...

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

Dennis

1.7k 2 8 25

amsmath best-practices bibtex lists spacing macros natbib

o_O why are you spreading it?

Dennis

That's an impostor.

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

okay

Dennis

Dennis, The Nineteenth Byte

121 3

spacing

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

he must be, because he actually posts code-trolling..

trichoplax

14:55

We finally have somewhere to migrate code trolling challenges to

5

Uh... please don't try this

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

aw

trichoplax

The irony of the last two comments

I would not like to see code trolling on the main site. However, I have been enjoying the answers given here quite a bit :-) — Daniel Mar 28 '14 at 7:19

I've migrated this from the meta site: I guess some editing is needed as a result! — Joseph Wright ♦ Apr 15 '14 at 3:58

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

@trichoplax ... contradictory??

trichoplax

@EᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏIʀᴋ I'm guessing that comment was posted while the question was still on meta

"I'm glad this is only on meta" followed by "I've migrated this to main"

Eᴀsᴛᴇʀʟʏ Iʀᴋ

@trichoplax oh

Geobits

15:14

@trichoplax I like how it's "finally" two years later ;)

trichoplax

@Geobits Oh! I was looking at the month and assuming this was recent... :(

And this while I'm still on the starboard for needing to read better...

2

Oh thanks

Geobits

Wasn't me, but I'll add to it...

trichoplax

You are too kind. It's almost unbearable

Geobits

Yes, that's me. Geobits the Kind.

TimmyD

Kindabits

Geobits

15:19

Better than Kinderbits.

TimmyD

Y'know what's messed up? US laws that forbid Kinder eggs.

Geobits

I thought that was a joke when I first heard it a while back.

zyabin101

@TimmyD XO

Geobits

I used to get those things all the time as a kid.

trichoplax

I heard they recently became Gendered Eggs (or is that just in the UK?)

zyabin101

15:20

Why did they forbid Kinder eggs?

TimmyD

I'm just amused by the fact that there's a black market for smuggling Kinder eggs across the border from Canda

@zyabin101 Has to do with selling non-food items and food-items in the same packaging.

trichoplax

As with many smuggled items, you never know what you're gonna get

TimmyD

@zyabin101 linky to the US Food & Drug Administration site if you want to read the whole thing

Geobits

I guess this is why Cracker Jacks are so terrible now too.

Oh wait, this only concerns imports. wtf?

TimmyD

@Geobits Pshaw, Cracker Jack is getting rid of the physical toys, too linky

Nathan Merrill

15:27

So, I've been thinking about scoped side effects.

Geobits

@TimmyD Yeah, that's what I meant. I thought it was for the same reason (toys mixed with non-toys), but apparently they're just cheap.

Nathan Merrill

aka, lets say I want to make a pure function

but it uses a queue

which is not functional

however, if the queue.put() function indicates that its side effects are limited to the Queue scope

then, assuming my pure function isn't modifying a queue passed to it (or its a class variable), then it can still be pure

PhiNotPi

@zyabin101 To me more specific, it's not about selling them in the same packaging, it's about having a non-edible object entirely embedded within an edible product.

El'endia Starman

Imgur: Forced Perspective

2

PhiNotPi

It's also important to note that the law doesn't specifically target Kinder eggs. Kinder eggs were invented in the 70's while the law is from the 30's.

Geobits

15:41

It is odd that it seems to be import-only. I wonder if there is a corresponding law for domestic products, or if the FDA just handles inspections for that or something.

El'endia Starman

I'd assume that exports are covered by domestic manufacturing laws.

Geobits

Well, there goes my idea for chocolate-covered marbles. Thanks Congress.

El'endia Starman

I feel like chocolate-covered marbles would be a pain in the butt...

Geobits

True. Maybe jacks would be better.

El'endia Starman

Make them black and add fish hooks too.

...then you'd have black jacks and hooks...

Geobits

15:48

I like the way you think. Somebody get this man a blog.

Oh wait.

TimmyD

@El'endiaStarman I am intrigued by this idea and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

El'endia Starman

Never would I have thunk it...more subscriptions because of a pun based off of a meme from a show I haven't watched...

TimmyD

> Homer: So, Burns is gonna make us all go on a stupid corporate retreat up in the mountains to learn about teamwork. Which means we'll have to cancel our plans to hang around here.
Bart: Teamwork is overrated.
Homer: Huh?
Bart: Think about it. I mean, what team was Babe Ruth on? Who knows.
Lisa and Marge: Yankees.
Bart: Sharing is a bunch of bull, too. And helping others. And what's all this crap I've been hearing about tolerance?
Homer: Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Geobits

You definitely should've expected that. Show-meme-puns always get more subscribers.

El'endia Starman

@TimmyD Welp. I totally missed that one. :P

Nathan Merrill

15:54

If you are using JetBrains, you should update

zyabin101

I am using more normal products. :P

TimmyD

:D

zyabin101

IDLE is my Python IDE, and it needs no security updates. :P

Geobits

Well hell. Sesame Street has gotten a lot darker recently.

El'endia Starman

@Geobits Geez, no kidding.

zyabin101

15:57

In other news, people recently started uploading on Imgur large dumps of images.

El'endia Starman

It's been going on for a while.

Geobits

People have been dumping on imgur for a while now.

El'endia Starman

@zyabin101 You are neither the ninja'er nor the ninja'ee, so you don't get to say "ninja'd".

zyabin101

@El'endiaStarman Fixed. ಠ_ಠ

El'endia Starman

@Geobits I like how this is a double entente.

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