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Re: A little puzzle.

From Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk>
Newsgroups comp.programming
Subject Re: A little puzzle.
Date 2022-11-22 11:04 +0000
Organization Fix this later
Message-ID <tliab3$3pa84$6@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References <875yf8nijb.fsf@bsb.me.uk>

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On 21/11/2022 8:45 pm, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
> I wonder if there are any real posters here?

Nobody here but us chickens.

>  Let's see...
> 
> I came across a trivial programming task that must have been solved a
> thousand times by other programmers, but it had never crossed my path
> until yesterday.  I must be feeling my age because I made a real hash of
> tackling it at first.  Anyway, I thought it might be of interest.
> 
> Consider any ordered measure that "wraps round" -- bearings in degrees,
> minutes in the hour, indeed hours in either the 12 or 24 hour clock.
> The problem is to determine if a given value is in the sub-range
> specified by a start and an en value.
> 
> I was specifically concerned with integer values where the sub-range
> includes the start value but excludes the end value.
> 
> Though I am not sure this merits the term "puzzle", I suggest that
> solutions be posted with some spoiler protection.  Do all the news
> readers used by programmers (or ex programmers) all respect the presence
> of a form-feed character...

Dunno. Let's find out:

Ctrl-L coming up:



> ... like this?  Because that's my favourite way, rather than posting
> lots of dummy lines before the solution.

Your problem is closely related to the very first question I was 
ever posed (in early 1982), by a friend who needed to be able to 
establish cleanly in a single expression whether a keypress was a 
digit (ASCII 48-57). The relevant dialect of BASIC didn't have 
anything like an isdigit function.

The friend was on the point of giving up on me when I handed him

                  ABS(K-52.5)<4.5

Nowadays we might render this in C as:

int inrange(int lo, int hi, int k)
{
   return (k-(lo+hi)/2)<((hi-lo)/2);
}

although of course in C the problem would be far better solved as:

int inrange(int lo, int hi, int k)
{
   return (lo <= k) && (k < hi);
}

or even as a macro.

I must confess I'm not entirely certain I have correctly 
interpreted your puzzle, which I have taken to mean "is this a 
given value in the given range", but this seems just a bit too 
easy for you to make a hash of, but I'm sure I've made hashes of 
worse. I've missed something, haven't I?

-- 
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within

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Thread

A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-21 20:45 +0000
  Re: A little puzzle. David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-11-21 22:06 +0100
    Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-21 21:21 +0000
      Re: A little puzzle. David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-11-22 09:17 +0100
        Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-11-22 11:07 +0000
          Re: A little puzzle. David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-11-22 15:17 +0100
        Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-22 11:40 +0000
          Re: A little puzzle. David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-11-22 15:26 +0100
            Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-22 15:28 +0000
              Re: A little puzzle. David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-11-22 16:30 +0100
      Re: A little puzzle. David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-11-22 09:23 +0100
        Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-11-22 11:08 +0000
        Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-22 12:54 +0000
  Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-21 17:39 -0800
    Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-22 13:00 +0000
      Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-22 05:31 -0800
  Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-11-22 11:04 +0000
    Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-22 12:53 +0000
      Re: A little puzzle. Paul N <gw7rib@aol.com> - 2022-11-22 05:01 -0800
        Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-22 05:48 -0800
          Re: A little puzzle. David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-11-22 15:31 +0100
      FFs [was Re: A little puzzle] Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2022-11-22 16:29 +0000
    Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-12-14 13:57 +0000
      Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-12-14 13:58 +0000
      Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-12-14 16:22 +0000
  Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-22 05:24 -0800
    Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-22 15:23 +0000
      Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-23 08:04 -0800
        Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-24 00:06 +0000
          Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-11-24 04:06 +0000
            Re: A little puzzle. David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-11-24 09:29 +0100
              Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-24 13:23 +0000
            Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-24 13:14 +0000
              Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-11-24 14:00 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-24 14:59 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2022-11-24 19:00 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-24 20:36 +0000
              Re: A little puzzle. Andreas <nobody@me.com> - 2022-11-27 00:38 +0100
                Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-27 00:11 +0000
          Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-24 14:51 -0800
            Re: A little puzzle. "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2022-11-25 09:30 +0100
              Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-25 01:16 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2022-11-25 11:11 +0100
                Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-25 06:26 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2022-11-25 15:59 +0100
            Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-26 16:25 +0000
              Re: A little puzzle. "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2022-11-26 19:36 +0100
                Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-27 02:03 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2022-11-27 11:02 +0100
                Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-12-01 04:30 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-12-02 00:22 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-12-02 22:30 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-12-03 02:43 -0800
              Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-27 18:38 -0800
  Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-27 02:27 -0800
    Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-27 19:23 -0800
      Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-27 22:59 -0800
        Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-27 23:03 -0800
        Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-28 07:22 -0800
          Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-28 10:20 -0800
            Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-29 04:29 -0800
              Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-29 04:50 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-11-29 14:47 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-29 17:23 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-29 09:50 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-30 01:39 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2022-11-30 11:10 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-30 02:24 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-30 06:28 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-12-01 06:55 -0800
                Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-12-02 01:54 -0800
  Re: A little puzzle. Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2022-11-28 11:20 +0000
    Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-28 07:30 -0800
      Re: A little puzzle. Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2022-11-28 17:15 +0000
        Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-29 04:03 -0800
          Re: A little puzzle. Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2022-11-29 15:03 +0000
            Re: A little puzzle. "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2022-11-29 16:13 +0100
              Re: A little puzzle. Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2022-11-29 17:37 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. "Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de> - 2022-11-29 19:02 +0100
                Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-29 10:10 -0800
            Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-11-30 03:32 -0800
              Re: A little puzzle. Julio Di Egidio <julio@diegidio.name> - 2022-11-30 06:36 -0800
              Re: A little puzzle. Richard Harnden <richard.nospam@gmail.com> - 2022-11-30 15:21 +0000
                Re: A little puzzle. Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2022-12-01 06:51 -0800

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