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Re: boolean to int : was char to decimal

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On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 07:26:02 -0400, Jeff Higgins
<jeff@invalid.invalid> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who
said :

>For my own future reference:
><http://home.comcast.net/~k9dci/site/?/page/Piecewise_Polynomial_Interpolation/>
>Some help with curves for those of us with severe mathematical disabilities.

A few thoughts. I studied various types of interpolation back when I
was a teenager.  I had a friend trying to use a novel device called a
pen plotter.  The goal was to write a demo program that would draw the
pink panther to use for open house at UBC.  Ordinary polynomial
interpolation turned out to be very unstable.  It seemed to be
constantly trying to misinterpret your intent while keeping to the
letter of the specification.

I tried to ask various advanced mathematicians what advice they had,
but since the idea of using equations to draw cartoons was unheard of
they were quite brusque with me. It was just too nutty and frivolous
an idea to consider.

The great Anthony Ralston came to visit (the author of our numerical
analysis textbook).  Without having the proper vocabulary, I tried to
describe the spline curve, or a curve that mimicked a K&E
interpolation snake. He sharply chastised me saying it made no sense
at all to investigate curves that just looked a certain way without
having some mathematical meaning.

I asked Dr. Z. Melzak. He suggested Chebychev polynomials might be
better behaved.  These also had the nice properly they were easier to
compute on the low res floating point of the era.

Too bad that I did not get a chance to ask Dr. John Warnock, who was
in Vancouver at the time, perhaps thinking about adding spline curves
and other interpolation to his future PostScript.

I wrote Walt Disney, explaining a scheme I had for interpolating (in
time) hand drawn cartoons (which would be called today "morphing"). I
figured it would lower costs and bring it a new golden era of
cartoons. They wrote back saying they were not interested.

Since that time there has an explosion in mathematical drawing, so I
would imagine there are now some "nice" algorithms, perhaps that
behave like the K&E dark green snake (do they still make those?)
-- 
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com
One of the great annoyances in programming derives from the irregularity
of English spelling especially when you have international teams.  
I want to find a method or variable, but I don't know precisely
how its is spelled or worded. English is only approximately phonetic.  
Letters are randomly doubled.  The dictionary often lists variant spellings.
British, Canadian and American spellings differ.I would like to see an 
experiment where variable names were spelled in a simplified English, where 
there were no double letters.I also think you could add a number of rules 
about composing variable names so that a variable name for something would
be highly predictable. You would also need automated enforcement of the 
rules as well as possible.

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Re: boolean to int : was char to decimal Jeff Higgins <jeff@invalid.invalid> - 2011-06-23 07:26 -0400
  Re: boolean to int : was char to decimal Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-06-23 10:07 -0700
    Re: boolean to int : was char to decimal bugbear <bugbear@trim_papermule.co.uk_trim> - 2011-06-24 09:51 +0100

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