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“Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

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Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#81
post #52
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a marathon runner, people sometimes ask "How does a person run for 3 hours O.O" and well it's about the same as running for 5 minutes except you don't stop. Simple != easy

Strength training is equally simple. Just keep increasing the weight you lift.

Being thin is also easy, just don’t eat too much.

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#85

This is funny, but it's like saying "Math is basically pluses and minuses". I see coding as playing with hardware without having to use soldering iron.

Maybe math is just equations and sets.

It is just sets! Set theories like Zermelo–Fraenkel can be the foundations for all of mathematics.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_theory

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#86

Computers are just thinking rocks.

> When we write programs that "learn", it turns out that we do and they don't.

Programmers are just linguists that use and make artificial languages, like Esperanto!

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#87
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All you really need is `mov`. https://github.com/xoreaxeaxeax/movfuscator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7EEoWg6Ekk

SUBLEQ :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer

It’s a pretty fun and enlightening exercise to sit down and work out how you’d implement all the usual instructions when all you have is Subtract And Branch If Negative.

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#88
post #14

That first reply is so funny to me because it hits too close to home https://twitter.com/nice_byte/status/1466940940229046273 The more I do this, the more I gravitate towards the simple things.

I'd never seen that meme before, but there's a Bruce Lee quote (maybe apocryphal) that has had a lot of meaning for me ever since I got over the same hump myself.

“Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick.”

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#89
post #14

That first reply is so funny to me because it hits too close to home https://twitter.com/nice_byte/status/1466940940229046273 The more I do this, the more I gravitate towards the simple things.

Despite being a joke, I know it's the "Ha Ha Only Serious" [0] sort. I can't help but think this is severely biased by the trends of "enterprise software," where you eventually "give up", and clock your 9–5 writing if+for making a fine living, but erroneously pass that off as a mature, Jedi-like way of thinking about programming, like the meme suggests. (And, consequently, you spend no less time debugging hairy, nest…

>I have no beef with if+for, but a large part of the reason they're "goto tools", if you will, is because industry is slow to assimilate many state-of-the-art ideas, sometimes by as much as 40 years.

For assimilation to happen, the state-of-the-art solution also has to result in a net gain over the existing solution, and the higher the differential in complexity between the two, the bigger that gain has to be.

Re: “Coding is basically just ifs and for loops.”

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite being a joke, I know it's the "Ha Ha Only Serious" [0] sort. I can't help but think this is severely biased by the trends of "enterprise software," where you eventually "give up", and clock your 9–5 writing if+for making a fine living, but erroneously pass that off as a mature, Jedi-like way of thinking about programming, like the meme suggests. (And, consequently, you spend no less time debugging hairy, nest…

>I have no beef with if+for, but a large part of the reason they're "goto tools", if you will, is because industry is slow to assimilate many state-of-the-art ideas, sometimes by as much as 40 years. For assimilation to happen, the state-of-the-art solution also has to result in a net gain over the existing solution, and the higher the differential in complexity between the two, the bigger that gain has to be.

And, these days, "net gain" in an industrial context is typically tied to almost no aspect of the quality of the code, but more to the management of large groups of people, as well as stability and growth of the business.
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