Programming....

[azurelunatic]

So we're doing a tic-tac-toe board for our final in C++; yesterday we worked on displaying the board and the element numbers for each square.

I worked out an alternate way of calling the vertical and horizontal line functions than the teacher showed us. The VB teacher taught us that we ought to feel badly when rewriting code over and over, that we should do things differently -- so I worked out a bit of code that I think I could work into a reusable code, the function that I will work up as "Alternate" -- very very simple.

Using Alternate, I did some for-loop indicator black magic and got the element numbers to display without use of static variables that get reset each pass through.

Ron's way works too, of course, but mine is slightly less comprehensible, and more elegant -- mine does it automatically.

Of course, there's probably a reason his needs to work, but I'll still keep that one line in there that's my original thought, and test it each run through to see where it fails.

Comments

[spacemummy.livejournal.com]

I like the way you are into magic and programming. You are very balanced. Magic can be very systemic, so it also makes heaps of practical sense.

Chicken or ggek?

[azurelunatic]

I'd be hard-pressed to say which is deeper in my childhood conditioning, magic or programming. My mother encouraged us to use our imaginations, and my father was a programmer. Both traits have continued true...

Oddly enough, most of my magical friends are also computer friends...

Practical Sense

[azurelunatic]

There's more of an established and accepted science to programming than there is to magic, but programming concepts seem to cross-apply fairly well. And then there's a certain "unknown" aspect to certain aspects of programming -- "I'm not going to confuse you guys by trying to explain how this actually works -- just take it on faith that it does, and you'll understand someday." They call computer gurus that for a reason...

hmm. Looks like a post in the making.

Re: Practical Sense

[spacemummy.livejournal.com]

I have read that magic is self-programming.

Re: Practical Sense

[azurelunatic]

There are a lot of things that you can do with both computers and magic. Some magic is self-programming. Sometimes, though, you can get more power and control, more precise results, out of it by instructing your "program" to do exactly what you tell it to, as with C++ rather than Visual Basic.

When you accept the automatic and intuitive Visual Basic-like aspects of the Art, you also accept all the assumptions and programs built into it by those programmers before you. Sometimes this gives you results you weren't anticipating.

When you take on the power of the C++-like aspects of the Art, you have to know damn well what you're doing -- because often the Universe will accept your input and manipulations, even if erroneous, and then happily does Bad Things with them -- results you weren't anticipating.

For the most part, it is self-programming -- there are many different libraries out there, different magical systems that you may use, different programming languages, different predefined functions that just need user input, the structure is already there.

I haven't gotten down to the machine language of the universe yet. That'll be interesting.

Magical IDE

[spacemummy.livejournal.com]

I guess I just really need a good API, it doesn't have to get all GUI.

Re: Magical IDE

[azurelunatic]

?

Guess you lost me with all the abbreviations. I'm just a baby programmer yet...

Re: Magical IDE

[spacemummy.livejournal.com]

Acronyms suck-- I'm being a dork.

don't even start in on garbage collection

[spacemummy.livejournal.com]

I can see that if you are not explicit with the aim of your meta-programming, many little unforseen buggies crawl into the picture. This is exactly the subject of a script I would like to write. It has to do with space travel and the way that people create their own references in an environment where their only input is each other. I imagine that the basis for such interaction is magical and the symbol set that is used would be very elemental, having the metaphors that are archetypically wired into our brains regardless of where we choose to travel.

Re: don't even start in on garbage collection

[azurelunatic]

For reference on the topic of programming minds and worldviews, I can think of no better novel(s) than C.J. Cherryh's Cyteen, and 40,000 in Gehenna and any other of her books having to do with the created life-forms called azi.

Many of my viewpoints on the structure of mind and magic are based on these books, especially Cyteen.