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Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python

From Robert Kern <robert.kern@gmail.com>
Subject Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python
Date 2013-11-11 11:53 +0000
References <-JadnUirYuhUruPPnZ2dnUVZ8rSdnZ2d@bt.com> <1c4c0901-f80a-42f3-9df5-7e7431353079@googlegroups.com> <CAPTjJmp-aATt7qz9_Hyxu+ex+OcpxbhfVGW0EwMtGrVxpHONHg@mail.gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.lang.python
Message-ID <mailman.2373.1384170873.18130.python-list@python.org> (permalink)

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On 2013-11-11 10:39, Chris Angelico wrote:

> A 'minor weapon' is based on a roll of a 100-sided dice. If it's 01 to
> 70, "+1 weapon: 2,000gp [weapon]"; if it's 71 to 85, "+2 weapon:
> 8,000gp [weapon]"; if 86 to 90, "Specific weapon [minor specific
> weapon]"; and if 91 to 100, "Special ability [minor special weapon]
> and roll again".
>
> My code to handle that starts out with this array:
>
> "minor weapon":({
>      70,"+1 weapon: 2,000gp [weapon]",
>      85,"+2 weapon: 8,000gp [weapon]",
>      90,"Specific weapon [minor specific weapon]",
>      100,"Special ability [minor special weapon] and roll again",
> }),
>
> (that's Pike; in Python it'd be a list, or maybe a tuple of tuples),
> and denormalizes it into a lookup table by creating 70 entries quoting
> the first string, 15 quoting the second, 5, and 10, respectively. So,
> with a bit of preprocessing, a lookup table (which in this case is an
> array (list), but could just as easily be a dict) can be used to
> handle inequalities. But this is because lookup tables can be treated
> as data, where if/elif/else blocks have to be code; there are roughly
> 42 million such lookup tables in the code I snagged that from, and
> having code for each one would work out far less manageable. Normally,
> you'll want to render inequalities with code as if/elif.

Heh. I've done pretty much exactly the same thing to implement an engine[1] to 
draw from the random tables on Abulafia[2] which have nearly the same structure. 
It scales up reasonably well beyond d100s. It's certainly not a technique I 
would pull out to replace one-off if-elif chains that you literally write, but 
it works well when you write the generic code once to apply to many tables.

[1] http://rollmeup.mechanicalkern.com/
[2] http://www.random-generator.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
  that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
  an underlying truth."
   -- Umberto Eco

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Thread

New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python John von Horn <j.h69@btinternet.com> - 2013-11-09 07:08 -0600
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> - 2013-11-09 05:22 -0800
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Joshua Landau <joshua@landau.ws> - 2013-11-09 13:27 +0000
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Jonathan <jtcegh@gmail.com> - 2013-11-09 14:44 -0800
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 10:29 +1100
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com> - 2013-11-10 00:50 +0000
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 11:54 +1100
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Neil Cerutti <neilc@norwich.edu> - 2013-11-11 15:30 +0000
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Thomas Rachel <nutznetz-0c1b6768-bfa9-48d5-a470-7603bd3aa915@spamschutz.glglgl.de> - 2013-11-10 13:24 +0100
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-11-09 13:41 +0000
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Jussi Piitulainen <jpiitula@ling.helsinki.fi> - 2013-11-09 16:24 +0200
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 01:27 +1100
    Sandboxing Python [was Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python] Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-11-09 15:25 +0000
      Re: Sandboxing Python [was Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python] Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 02:32 +1100
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2013-11-10 08:47 +0000
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 20:22 +1100
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Ian Kelly <ian.g.kelly@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 04:39 -0700
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 22:43 +1100
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-11-10 12:12 -0500
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-11 10:29 +1100
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2013-11-10 19:13 -0500
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-11-09 07:38 -0800
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-11-09 10:56 -0500
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-11-09 08:30 -0800
        Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Rick Johnson <rantingrickjohnson@gmail.com> - 2013-11-10 21:36 -0800
          Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Roy Smith <roy@panix.com> - 2013-11-11 09:01 -0500
            Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2013-11-11 07:14 -0800
            Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2013-11-11 21:05 -0500
            Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2013-11-12 14:38 -0800
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python John von Horn <j.h69@btinternet.com> - 2013-11-09 14:19 -0600
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2013-11-09 14:39 -0600
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Mark Janssen <dreamingforward@gmail.com> - 2013-11-09 12:33 -0800
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Ned Batchelder <ned@nedbatchelder.com> - 2013-11-09 12:54 -0800
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Mark Janssen <dreamingforward@gmail.com> - 2013-11-09 13:21 -0800
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Mark Lawrence <breamoreboy@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-11-09 21:01 +0000
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Tim Chase <python.list@tim.thechases.com> - 2013-11-09 15:20 -0600
  Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python lorenzo.gatti@gmail.com - 2013-11-11 02:09 -0800
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-11 21:39 +1100
      Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2013-11-11 11:17 +0000
        Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-11 22:32 +1100
        Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Mark Janssen <dreamingforward@gmail.com> - 2013-11-11 14:29 -0800
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Robert Kern <robert.kern@gmail.com> - 2013-11-11 11:53 +0000
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-11 23:07 +1100
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Joshua Landau <joshua@landau.ws> - 2013-11-11 20:50 +0000
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2013-11-12 09:21 +1100
    Re: New user's initial thoughts / criticisms of Python Joshua Landau <joshua@landau.ws> - 2013-11-12 01:53 +0000

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