Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!news.etla.org!news.stack.nl!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed4a.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!feeder2.ecngs.de!ecngs!feeder.ecngs.de!Xl.tags.giganews.com!border1.nntp.ams.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!local2.nntp.ams.giganews.com!nntp.bt.com!news.bt.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 09:50:31 -0500 From: "Chris Uppal" Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer References: <0c8de66a-429a-4697-b575-35f37a7b6882@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: in1To10 Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 15:53:14 +0100 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.5512 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Response X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.5512 Message-ID: <6LydnRh40colG3rOnZ2dnUVZ8kqdnZ2d@bt.com> Lines: 32 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com X-AuthenticatedUsername: NoAuthUser X-Trace: sv3-4tdMo78YfxpqOjDxcgW8OW42ZVYh+KEv+GoK39g6JaD9BN9s3T7+W689TSOv0Wu+T9NzM6mCfRjTZp6!exPmxHXtZHqKGzWxO5xPzerb9GfeqJnZIsuRu4jM81OYAdXU7vMjceGondBwG93aWqgxZFdCsA== X-Complaints-To: abuse@btinternet.com X-DMCA-Complaints-To: abuse@btinternet.com X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 2610 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:29626 Eric Sosman wrote: > It's oddly interesting that at least three people have made the > same error (I did, too, but had the good fortune to catch myself > *before* posting). Since [at least] three people have fallen into the same trap, I claim that it's a bug in the presentation of the problem ;-) Specifications shouldn't be obfuscated any more (on fact less) than code. > Perhaps we're all thinking back to the days > when we took our first fumbling steps at Boolean logic, and we sort > of half-recognize the problem: "Aha!" we think, "this is somebody's > idea of a way to introduce exclusive-OR!" Then we leap ahead to > solve a problem for which XOR would be useful (we may or may not > actually use XOR), and we wind up solving the wrong problem ... In my case, I'm sure it was the speed reading thing (as you mentioned, but in my case natural rather than learned): See first 2/3 of problem; visual systems forms hypothesis as to what remaining 1/3 will be; quick scan of remaining 1/3 appears to confirm hypothesis; job [not] done [right]. All totally unconcious of course. And /impossible/ to turn off (I'm a hopeless copy editor -- or rather I lack the ability to be a copy editor at all). I did, in fact, "read" the spec several times... ...sigh -- chris