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From: The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: TeX and Pascal [was Re: The joy of FORTRAN]
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 2024 10:56:03 +0100
Organization: A little, after lunch
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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



-- 
Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.
  – Will Durant