Re: Programmer's unpaid overtime.

From: Edward G. Nilges (spinoza1111_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 12/10/03 

Date: 10 Dec 2003 05:28:27 -0800

Programmer Dude <Chris@Sonnack.com> wrote in message news:<3FD6553D.E86B4360@Sonnack.com>...
> "Edward G. Nilges" wrote:
>
> > Its x**n, which is x**n+0, which is technically polynomial.
>
> x^n is already a polynomial.
>
>
> > By polynomial' (polynomial prime) I mean polynomials of sufficiently
> > low rank.
>
> [snicker] You do realize you're talking to people who really DO
> understand this stuff, don't you? And we know you're just making
> this stuff up.

[snickerdoodle]: see below
>
>
> > x**2 can be mathematically transformed by a degenerate operation into
> > a polynomial by adding zero.
>
> It already is. Polynomials have the basic form: ax^0 + bx^1 + cx^2

HA HA HA HA HA

Wolfram research: "A polynomial is a mathematical expression involving
a sum of powers in one or more variables multiplied by coefficients."

In this definition, the polynomial is not restricted to rank 2.

I find you a most amusing fellow. Just before you were thrown out of
high school, like my former classmate Ted Nugent, you were probably
working on the subset of polynomials of rank 2.

 

> ....
> If any of the constants (a, b, ...) are zero, that term vanishes.
> If any constant is one, that term reduces to x^n.
>
> Basic HS algebra, Ed.

Which you haven't mastered.

To the ignorant, the use of concepts in a manner independent of
authority is either wrong or so basic as to be beneath contempt: but
this is merely a symptom, of the way in which a class-based society
really needs people, including "programmer" "dudes", to learn just
enough to perform some job...and NO more.

As a result, these people are gratified to "receive" a Medicare bill
that "provides" prescription drug coverage on alternate Tuesdays
during a gibbous moon.

As a result, 70% of these people believe that Saddam Hussein is in
league with Osama bin Laden and Road Runner.

>
>
> > Chris on the other hand believes that you can "do" tokenizing without
> > having the courage to apply the theory,..
>
> Wrong again. It's *because* I do understand the theory that my versions
> blew the doors off yours (AND were far more maintainable and readable).

What understanding have you displayed above? You have made the
incorrect claim that "Polynomials have the basic form: ax^0 + bx^1 +
cx^2".

Quite apart from your nonstandard notation, which lists the exponents
in the wrong order, you have made the WRONG STATEMENT that polynomials
are restricted to a highest power of two.

As a teacher, I could not ask you to write a C program for polynomial
addition. Your solution would be restricted to three terms and
probably would not even bother to sort the terms by rank. And I
shudder to think of how you'd handle unmatched exponents as are found
when adding ax^4+ax^2+c and bx^3+d+c.

[Hint: if you'd ever had to program a match merge you'd know how: but,
of course, now we done be gots SQL and Join so the outlook is bleak:
the prognosis is grim."

A polynomial, FYI, is of the form

     K(n)x^n ... K(2)x^2 + K(1)x^1 + K(0)x^0

where K(i) is a constant.

And if terms are missing, or the exponents are out of sequence, the
normalized expression is STILL a polynomial. Since ax^3 can be
transformed into normal form it is a polynomial. Since ax^(bx^3)
cannot be normalized it is not a polynomial.

The game in optimizing unacceptably slow code becomes (1) make sure
that the execution time formula maps to a polynomial of small rank n
and (2) reducing n to 1.

I am quite obliged to you for this post. You have giving me stunning
confirmation of your limitations and of the fact that many corporate
programmers are both math-anxious (where the anxiety emerges in
mathematical "flaming") and ignorant of math.

You have shown yourself, in fact, incapable of handling a symbolic
expression which contains iteration, since you were able only to
specify a polynomial of rank 2.

This error is of a piece with your claims about using Concat within a
loop, for your knowledge consists of insufficiently generalized
symbols and is in fact a tradesman's knowledge: the knowledge of an
officious and nasty little clerk whose world has become some little
office.

I would suggest that you buy and read Kolmgorov et al's book
Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning. First printed in the
Soviet Union in 1963, this book is accessible to the working man
because it is informed by a Marxist philosophy of mathematics which
realizes that mathematics is emergent from the struggle for existence,
which you may be losing.

This book has been reprinted by Dover and it shows how to use
mathematical symbols properly and in a way that can be applied to
practical problems.

As it is, you confirm's Willem's low regard for working people and
programmers.

For shame! For shame!
>
> > Chris wants to run benchmarks and he thinks they prove things.
>
> In this case they proved that your code sucked.
> Other tests demonstrated that it was, in fact, broken in design.

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