apollonic.net

This is from The Programmer Personality Test:

My Type: PLSC

You’re a Planner.
You may be slow, but you’ll usually find the best solution. If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

While I disagreed with the description of the first answer to the question (”planning is best done as you go”, or some such), I don’t really agree that 75% of the time should be spent on planning either. I think I actually fall somwhere in between the two extremes, but this test doesn’t really allow for that.

You like coding at a Low level.
You’re from the old school of programming and believe that you should have an intimate relationship with the computer. You don’t mind juggling registers around and spending hours getting a 5% performance increase in an algorithm.

Anyone who knows me as a programmer know that this is absolutely the case. See An Ode to C a couple posts ago (which has been floating around Usenet for years).

You work best in a Solo situation.
The best way to program is by yourself. There’s no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible.

For projects that are not too extensive, I prefer to work alone. I don’t usually program in groups for class, or on my own projects. I just like to do things my way, I guess. But let me stress, I am not afraid to work in a group when that is the best option. It’s just that for most projects I do, it isn’t.

You are a Conservative programmer.
The less code you write, the less chance there is of it containing a bug. You write short and to the point code that gets the job done efficiently.

Conservative in life, conservative in code, I guess.

I almost got struck by lightning today. I was walking down Green St. at the outset of today’s storm, when all the hairs on my body began to stand on end. Then, POW!, lightning hit something on the block (not sure exactly where it arced to). It was bright and sudden, and I had a definite flashback to being hit with IEDs in Iraq.

I walked a little faster the rest of the way home.

In other news, tomorrow is “Unofficial”, the not-quite-St.-Pat’s celebration held annually here in Chambana and heavily sponsored by the campus bars. Unfortunatly, Chancellor Hermann, as part of his continued crusade against anything that might make UIUC at all unique from the next politically correct institution of higher “education” (see the Anti-Chief ruling), has spearheaded an effort to stop Unofficial. He even seems to think he has the authority to do so.

Lobbying on his part and on the part of other Uni bigwigs has lead the Champaign city council to pass what I consider to be ill-considered, if not downright illegal, laws, giving the Mayor a sort of “emergency powers”. It has been mandated that bars are not allowed to sell shots or pitchers tomorrow. None. Explain to me again how it’s the business of the local goverment what perfectly legal beverages are sold at these establishments.

I wasn’t even planning to celebrate Unofficial this year, but now I’m going to make a point of getting a little tipsy.

May your signals all trap
    May your references be bounded
All memory aligned
    Floats to ints rounded

Remember ...

Non-zero is true
    ++ adds one
Arrays start with zero
    and, NULL is for none

For octal, use zero
    0x means hex
= will set
    == means test

use -> for a pointer
    a dot if its not
? : is confusing
    use them a lot

a.out is your program
	there's no U in foobar
and, char (*(*x())[])() is
	a function returning a pointer
	to an array of pointers to
	functions returning char

Who are the ad wizards that came up with this one?

So here’s the rundown of what’s been, well, going down:

• Rewrote Bitstream and Huffman encoder/decoder in Java, now fully integrated with my image editor (download them from the code page)
• Slept, finally
• had an intense session with JK with lots of Dew, code, and good discussion
• cleaned the apartment some

Tonight I have a study session for CS411, assuming that I manage to finish my CS421 homework. *Sigh* it never ends when you’re a CS major at UIUC.

Hopefully I’ll also have a chance to make dinner. I’m leading toward my mom’s classic marinara sauce recipe, which will be posted later if I manage to make it.

I’ve re-written most of my C++-based Bitstream library in Java, ostensibly to allow better integration with my image editor, but in reality because I still can’t find my bug.

Math Exam Status: Aced.

…I’ve spent 9 hours looking for one bug. I have literally nailed it down to 4 lines of code. The bug does not make sense. Nothing makes sense.

Goodnight.

The world takes on a certain strangeness once you approach the 36 hour mark without sleep.

The Huffman Coding system that I’ve been trying to implement isn’t working. The tree structure sets up properly, but an attempt to print it out (and by extension, to locate particular nodes) segfaults, a strange occurance considering my minimal use of pointers. In an unusual twist, I haven’t been able to find the bug even after a couple hours of searching and experimentation. I think I’ve reached the point of diminishing returns on wakefulness (and possibly well exceeded it), so after dinner I am going to crash. Unless, that is, I have a breakthrough, in which case I may have to visit the gas station for another Dew infusion.

I’ve added a Code Page to the blog, which will house various completed and unfinished bits of source. More description on the page.