• 3 Posts
  • 399 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • Write comments that explain why the code isn’t obvious just by reading it. Why did you do things the long way? What did you need to work around? Why didn’t you do the thing that anyone reading the code would expect you to do?

    Also write comments that explain the purpose of the functions you use, in case the names of those functions don’t make it clear on their own.







  • The fact that the loop is doing “find first driver matching these strange criteria” seems most obviously obscured by the pattern of assigning a value, then killing the loop or not. This strikes me as the part that makes the algorithm tedious to test, since it forces us to use a collection to test the intricacies of the inner conditions.

    Once we isolate “find first driver matching condition” from computing the condition for each driver, I consider the rest a question of personal taste. Specification pattern, composition of filters, something like that. Whatever you find easier to follow.






  • FWIW, both big chain grocery stores where I live (in Canada) mark the taxes charged on each item, albeit only with a single-character code that’s explained nearer the bottom of the receipt. I’m surprised that it’s legal anywhere in our respective countries to withhold that information.

    And indeed, even though you can see the nontaxable items clearly on the receipt, that’s not made clear at the shelves where the prices are posted. That’s where they really need to show the price including taxes.

    Some liquor stores in Canada, for example, show both prices: before and after taxes. I’ll let you guess which price is rendered in the smaller font.









  • I travel a lot now. I traveled a lot in the past. I travel across Canada now and I traveled around Europe in the past. I have traveled a lot between Munich and the western Russia border.

    I lived for three months in Reykjavík, for three months in Mazatlán, and for parts of a few years I lived a few months per year in Stockholm.