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Re: revisiting a prgramming problem

Newsgroups comp.lang.forth
Date 2014-10-22 17:19 -0700
References <2ccb76c4-b929-43fe-b53e-9fd85ace01a6@googlegroups.com> <1ltvunl.g7df07breb5aN%awegel@arcor.de> <1ec33c18-07ec-40e3-89b2-8447a1db0106@googlegroups.com> <1ltw9xa.zurykc1nnwir0N%awegel@arcor.de>
Message-ID <0d608fc3-3823-407d-ba67-df4b810bd0dc@googlegroups.com> (permalink)
Subject Re: revisiting a prgramming problem
From hughaguilar96@yahoo.com

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On Tuesday, October 21, 2014 6:23:57 PM UTC-7, Alexander Wegel wrote:
> <hughaguilar96@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > The use of IF when it is not necessary, is very novice-level programming.
> 
> Well - it was meant for a novice to understand, not as an excercise in
> premature optimization - so what.

Actually, the use of gratuitous control-structures reduces readability. In general, IF statements slow down the reader's understanding of the code because he has to consider two paths, effectively the same as if he had to understand two functions rather than one --- this is made worse by nested IF statements. This point was made in "Thinking Forth" --- it has been well-known since the late 1970s.

This problem presented by Gavino is very simple. This is why I challenged Gavino to solve it himself, as his first-ever Forth program (which he didn't do --- no surprise there!). Despite how easy this problem is, Alex still managed to mess it up, using gratuitous control-structures and generally ugly Forth.

Consider this thread:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/comp.lang.forth/codejam/comp.lang.forth/3Y4w_MdYl0k/IMCaSNvF864J

Alex is a master of obfuscated Forth code --- here we have his masterpiece:

On Tuesday, May 1, 2012 10:12:25 AM UTC-7, Alex Wegel wrote:
> Here it comes - cheers,
> Alex
> 
> #! /usr/local/bin/gforth-fast
> 0 value hi
> create d 36 allot
> : wipe d 36 erase 0 to hi ;
> : +dig d hi + c! 1 hi + to hi ;
> : >dig?
>   hi begin dup while
>     1 - 2dup d + c@ = if nip true exit then
>   repeat drop false ;
> : twiddle dup >r c@ r@ char+ c@ r@ c! r> char+ c! ;
> : pars
>   bounds do
>     i c@ >dig? if drop else +dig then
>   loop d twiddle hi 2 max to hi ;
> : dig> dup 9 > if 7 + then [char] 0 + ;
> : eval
>   2dup pars 2dup bounds do i c@ >dig? drop dig> i c! loop
>   hi base ! s>unumber? drop decimal ;
> : getl pad dup 64 stdin read-line throw drop ;
> : .. ." Case #" 1 .r ." : " 1 ud.r cr ;
> : app getl evaluate 0 do getl eval i 1+ .. wipe loop ;
> ' noop is bootmessage
> app bye

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Thread

revisiting a prgramming problem gavino_himself <visploveslisp@gmail.com> - 2014-10-14 15:55 -0700
  Re: revisiting a prgramming problem hughaguilar96@yahoo.com - 2014-10-14 18:52 -0700
    Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Hans Bezemer <the.beez.speaks@gmail.com> - 2014-10-21 17:58 +0200
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2014-10-21 09:09 -0700
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Hans Bezemer <the.beez.speaks@gmail.com> - 2014-10-21 22:18 +0200
          Re: revisiting a prgramming problem rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2014-10-23 15:44 -0400
            Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "Rod Pemberton" <buzzoff@nonamewhichexists.cmm> - 2014-10-23 17:01 -0400
            Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-11-08 21:33 -0800
              Re: revisiting a prgramming problem rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2014-11-29 20:40 -0500
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-12-01 22:43 -0800
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2014-12-02 02:47 -0500
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Paul E Bennett <Paul_E.Bennett@topmail.co.uk> - 2014-12-02 11:53 +0000
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-12-02 05:23 -0800
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2014-12-02 09:01 -0500
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Hans Bezemer <the.beez.speaks@gmail.com> - 2014-10-21 22:25 +0200
          Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2014-10-21 16:10 -0700
            Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-11-08 21:41 -0800
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Hans Bezemer <the.beez.speaks@gmail.com> - 2014-10-21 22:30 +0200
          Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-12-01 22:45 -0800
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Hans Bezemer <the.beez.speaks@gmail.com> - 2014-10-21 23:04 +0200
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Mark Wills <markwills1970@gmail.com> - 2014-10-21 10:17 -0700
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "Rod Pemberton" <buzzoff@nonamewhichexists.cmm> - 2014-10-22 02:13 -0400
          Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2014-10-21 23:26 -0700
            Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "Alex McDonald" <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2014-10-22 16:18 +0100
              Re: revisiting a prgramming problem mhx@iae.nl (Marcel Hendrix) - 2014-10-22 21:27 +0200
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2014-10-24 10:30 +0000
                Optimal comparisons for m maximums from n items  (was Re: revisiting a prgramming problem) "Alex McDonald" <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2014-10-24 16:29 +0100
                Re: Optimal comparisons for m maximums from n items  (was Re: revisiting a prgramming problem) albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2014-10-25 08:27 +0000
                Re: Optimal comparisons for m maximums from n items (was Re: revisiting a prgramming problem) "Alex McDonald" <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2014-10-25 18:54 +0100
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem mhx@iae.nl (Marcel Hendrix) - 2014-10-25 13:28 +0200
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem mhx@iae.nl (Marcel Hendrix) - 2014-10-25 14:28 +0200
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem mhx@iae.nl (Marcel Hendrix) - 2014-10-25 15:17 +0200
            Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Gerry Jackson <spam@qlikz.org> - 2014-10-22 21:57 +0100
              Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2014-10-22 14:06 -0700
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2014-10-23 00:03 +0200
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2014-10-23 14:46 +0000
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2014-10-23 08:16 -0700
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "Alex McDonald" <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2014-10-23 19:21 +0100
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "Alex McDonald" <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2014-10-23 20:02 +0100
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem albert@spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2014-10-23 20:29 +0000
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Coos Haak <chforth@hccnet.nl> - 2014-10-23 22:23 +0200
              Re: revisiting a prgramming problem awegel@arcor.de (Alexander Wegel) - 2014-10-23 00:36 +0200
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Gerry Jackson <gerry@jackson9000.fsnet.co.uk> - 2014-10-24 10:44 +0100
              Re: revisiting a prgramming problem hughaguilar96@yahoo.com - 2014-10-22 17:26 -0700
                Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Michael Barry <barrym95838@yahoo.com> - 2014-10-23 00:02 -0700
          Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-11-08 23:10 -0800
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-11-08 21:42 -0800
  Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Roger Levy <roger.levy@gmail.com> - 2014-10-15 08:18 -0700
    Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Roger Levy <roger.levy@gmail.com> - 2014-10-15 08:18 -0700
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem november.nihal@gmail.com - 2014-10-15 08:57 -0700
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Gerry Jackson <gerry@jackson9000.fsnet.co.uk> - 2014-10-15 17:10 +0100
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "Rod Pemberton" <buzzoff@nonamewhichexists.cmm> - 2014-10-17 21:53 -0400
    Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Roger Levy <roger.levy@gmail.com> - 2014-10-15 08:19 -0700
  Re: revisiting a prgramming problem awegel@arcor.de (Alexander Wegel) - 2014-10-22 00:30 +0200
    Re: revisiting a prgramming problem hughaguilar96@yahoo.com - 2014-10-21 16:07 -0700
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem awegel@arcor.de (Alexander Wegel) - 2014-10-22 03:23 +0200
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "Rod Pemberton" <buzzoff@nonamewhichexists.cmm> - 2014-10-22 02:15 -0400
          Re: revisiting a prgramming problem awegel@arcor.de (Alexander Wegel) - 2014-10-22 12:52 +0200
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem hughaguilar96@yahoo.com - 2014-10-22 17:19 -0700
          Re: revisiting a prgramming problem awegel@arcor.de (Alexander Wegel) - 2014-10-23 16:10 +0200
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "Rod Pemberton" <buzzoff@nonamewhichexists.cmm> - 2014-10-22 02:14 -0400
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-11-08 23:21 -0800
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2014-12-06 02:34 +0000
      Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2014-12-27 08:00 +0000
        Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Mark Wills <markwills1970@gmail.com> - 2014-12-27 05:15 -0800
  Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2014-11-29 17:20 +0000
    Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-11-29 12:00 -0800
    Re: revisiting a prgramming problem "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2014-12-02 16:15 +0000
  Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Paul Sephton <prsephton@gmail.com> - 2014-12-02 05:06 -0800
    Re: revisiting a prgramming problem Paul Sephton <prsephton@gmail.com> - 2014-12-02 05:14 -0800
    Re: revisiting a prgramming problem the_gavino_himself <visphatesjava@gmail.com> - 2014-12-02 05:24 -0800

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