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From: Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: TeX and Pascal [was Re: The joy of FORTRAN]
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2024 18:07:24 -0700
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The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 01/10/2024 17:37, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>> On 2024-10-01, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> 
>>> On 01/10/2024 15:57, Pancho wrote:
>>> 
>>>> In essence just because you can do something clever, doesn't mean you
>>>> should.
>>> 
>>> That is what I loathed about compscis. As practising software engineers
>>> we specialised in 'good clean workmanlike well documented and structured
>>> code'.
>>> Our job was to get the puter to do its job in the most understandable
>>> and maintainable way.
>>> Not to impress people with the elegance complexity and
>>> incomprehensibility of our  REGEX statements.
>> 
>> Or recursion.  I've noticed that CS weenies are obsessed with recursion,
>> to the point of using it gratuitiously Just Because.
>> 
> The only program I recall using it on was a bit of fun where I created a 
> maze.
> I set a worm to munch out a tunnel with the limitations being it must 
> never eat a hole to the existing tunnel, or the spaces walls. Except at 
> the maze exit.
> 
> So at every coordinate, it randomly picked a direction, and tried to 
> munch. If it couldn't munch it would try another direction. If there was 
> no possible direction, it exited the recursed function. If there was a 
> possible new coordinate, it called itself with the new co-ordinates.
> 
> I think that is the *only* time I have used it.
> 
> Its very good for exploring all possibilities until they prove futile.
> 
> That's probably why CompSci like it,. They are the sort of academics who 
> end up in government
> 
> 
> 

I use it a lot for processing trees. It’s really the only technique that
makes sense. Otherwise I try to avoid it.

-- 
Pete