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Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 21:58:29 +1100
Subject: Re: loop
From: Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com>
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:68868

On Mon, Mar 24, 2014 at 9:04 PM, Marko Rauhamaa <marko@pacujo.net> wrote:
> Once in college, we were given assembly programming assignments. The
> textbook defined an imagined 18-bit CPU and an instruction set.
>
> A fellow student was given the task to write a subroutine that
> calculates the factorial of the argument. He went through the trouble of
> creating a loop with multiplication etc. I argued (in vain) that his
> solution is "wrong" from all angles; he should have implemented his
> subroutine with a simple lookup table since 18 bits can only take a
> handful of input values (0 through 8).

The task was "calculates". If the task was "returns", then the lookup
table would be correct. :)

ChrisA