Scheme - Computing Industry shams

Author

Computing Industry shams

Xah Lee

2005-05-08, 3:58 am

Let me expose one another XXXXing incompetent part of Python doc, in
illustration of the Info Tech industry's masturbation and ignorant
nature.

The official Python doc on regex syntax (
http://python.org/doc/2.4/lib/re-syntax.html ) says:

--begin quote--

"|"
A|B, where A and B can be arbitrary REs, creates a regular expression
that will match either A or B. An arbitrary number of REs can be
separated by the "|" in this way. This can be used inside groups (see
below) as well. As the target string is scanned, REs separated by "|"
are tried from left to right. When one pattern completely matches, that
branch is accepted. This means that once A matches, B will not be
tested further, even if it would produce a longer overall match. In
other words, the "|" operator is never greedy. To match a literal "|",
use \|, or enclose it inside a character class, as in [|].

--end quote--

Note: =E2=80=9CIn other words, the "|" operator is never greedy.=E2=80=9D

Note the need to inject the high-brow jargon =E2=80=9Cgreedy=E2=80=9D here =
as a
latch on sentence.

=E2=80=9Cnever greedy=E2=80=9D? What is greedy anyway?

=E2=80=9CGreedy=E2=80=9D, when used in the context of computing, describes a
certain characteristics of algorithms. When a algorithm for a
minimizing/maximizing problem is such that, whenever it faced a choice
it simply chose the shortest path, without considering whether that
choice actually results in a optimal solution.

The rub is that such stratedgy will often not obtain optimal result in
most problems. If you go from New York to San Francisco and always
choose the road most directly facing your destination, you'll never get
on.

For a algorithm to be greedy, it is implied that it faces choices. In
the case of alternatives in regex "regex1|regex2|regex3", there is
really no selection involved, but following a given sequence.

What the writer were thinking when he latched on about greediness, is
that the result may not be from the pattern that matches the most
substring, therefore it is not =E2=80=9Cgreedy=E2=80=9D. It's not greedy Py=
thon
docer's ass.

Such blind jargon throwing, as found everywhere in tech docs, is a
significant reason why the computing industry is filled with shams the
likes of unix, Perl, Programing Patterns, eXtreme Programing,
=E2=80=9CUniversal Modeling Language=E2=80=9D, XXXXing shits.

----
A better writen doc for the complete regex module is at:
http://xahlee.org/perl-python/pytho.../module-re.html

See also: Responsible Software Licensing
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/...le_license.html

Xah
xah@xahlee.org
=E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/

Mark McIntyre

2005-05-08, 8:56 am

On 7 May 2005 16:40:01 -0700, in comp.lang.c , "Xah Lee"
<xah@xahlee.org> wrote:

>Let me expose one another XXXXing incompetent part of Python doc,

if you really must speak in tongues, at least do it in private.

now fsck off already.

--
Mark McIntyre
CLC FAQ <http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html>
CLC readme: <http://www.ungerhu.com/jxh/clc.welcome.txt>

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xah@xahlee.org

2005-05-10, 8:59 pm

HTML Problems in Python Doc

I don't know what kind of system is used to generate the Python docs,
but it is quite unpleasant to work with manually, as there are
egregious errors and inconsistencies.

For example, on the =E2=80=9CModule Contents=E2=80=9D page (
http://python.org/doc/2.4/lib/node111.html ), the closing tags for <dd>
are never used, and all the tags are in lower case. However, on the
regex syntax page ( http://python.org/doc/2.4/lib/re-syntax.html ), the
closing tages for <dd> are given, and all tages are in caps.

The doc's first lines declare a type of:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

yet in the files they uses "/>" to close image tags, which is a XHTML
syntax.

the doc litters <p> and never closes them, making it a illegal
XML/XHTML by breaking the minimal requirement of well-formedness.

Asides from correctness, the code is quite bloated as is generally true
of generated HTML. For example, it is littered with: <tt id=3D'l2h-853'
xml:id=3D'l2h-853'> which isn't used in the style sheet, and i don't
think those ids can serve any purpose other than in style sheet.

Although the doc uses a huge style sheet and almost every tag comes
with a class or id attribute, but it also profusively uses hard-coded
style tags like <b>, <big> and Netcsape's <nobr>.

It also abuse tables that effectively does nothing. Here's a typical
line:
<table cellpadding=3D"0" cellspacing=3D"0"><tr valign=3D"baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id=3D'l2h-851' xml:id=3D'l2h-851'
class=3D"function">compile</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>pattern</var><big>[</big><var>,
flags</var><big>]</big><var></var> )</td></tr></table>

If Python is supposed to be a quality language, then its
documentation's content and code seems to indicate otherwise.

This post is archived at:
http://xahlee.org/perl-python/re-write_notes.html

Xah
xah@xahlee.org
=E2=88=91 http://xahlee.org/

Keith Thompson

2005-05-10, 8:59 pm

xah@xahlee.org writes:
> HTML Problems in Python Doc
[snip]

+-------------------+ .:\:\:/:/:.
| PLEASE DO NOT | :.:\:\:/:/:.:
| FEED THE TROLLS | :=.' - - '.=:
| | '=(\ 9 9 /)='
| Thank you, | ( (_) )
| Management | /`-vvv-'\
+-------------------+ / \
| | @@@ / /|,,,,,|\ \
| | @@@ /_// /^\ \\_\
@x@@x@ | | |/ WW( ( ) )WW
\||||/ | | \| __\,,\ /,,/__
\||/ | | | jgs (______Y______)
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\//\/\\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
========================================
======================

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <*> <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

CBFalconer

2005-05-11, 4:01 am

xah@xahlee.org wrote:
>
> HTML Problems in Python Doc
>
> I don't know what kind of system is used to generate the Python docs,
> but it is quite unpleasant to work with manually, as there are
> egregious errors and inconsistencies.

PLONK for egregious cross-posting of off-topic nonsense.

--
"If you want to post a followup via groups.google.com, don't use
the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on
"show options" at the top of the article, then click on the
"Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson

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