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i'm a talker what can I say?
But yes, I breathe chaos. I mean, have you seen my code? 
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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honey the monster, codewitch wrote: have you seen my code
Yes, it reminded me of Thai traffic in terms of frequent pile-ups, no one observing traffic light signals, or speed limits 
Actually, I am a fan of your work, and its ambition, even though I can't understand it ... yet. It's great thing to love what you do, to be deeply involved. Van Gogh said: Quote: "I'm an artist: it's self evident that word implies looking for something all the time without ever finding it in full. It is the opposite of saying: 'I know all about it. I've already found it.'
I remain fascinated by the (very old) methodology of "Decision Tables," which, I am sure you know, is one way to describe a grammar, or state machine.
The problem that intrigues me is: given a set of "rules" like this:Quote: Airfare
Infant passengers under two years old are offered a discount of 80% on domestic flights Infant passengers under two years old are offered a discount of 70% on international flights.
Youth passengers (between two and sixteen) are offered a discount of 10%, for any kind of destination.
Frequent flyer enjoys a discount of 20%.
For international flights, passengers are offered 15% discount if they travel during off-seasons.There would be no discount for international flights, except that when the passenger is an infant passenger or when travelling during off-season.
Passengers who make reservation five months before their journey are offered a discount of 10%.
Frequent flyer enjoys a discount a 15% by making reservation five months before their journey.
The amount of discount is accumulated.
The maximum amount of discount for infant passengers is 80%
The maximum amount of discount for non-infant passengers is 20%
While a decision table (or a gigantic nested if/then/else) for this can be designed any number of ways, how do you parse/analyze ... in code ... the factors with the most discriminatory power, and the factors that can be omitted in evaluation based on the key factors. I scan the rules, and, intuitively, see 'age as the key factor, but, damn if I can articulate exactly how that intuitive response comes into play.
I show this rule-set to intermediate students; their responses, in terms of what is most significant, vary widely.
cheers, Bill
«Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?» T. S. Elliot
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You need to establish your input alphabet first.
Age is one input. Another is time of travel. Another is area of travel (international v domestic)
consider it a tuple.
maybe i'm forgetting something as i am out of coffee at the moment.
But that tuple there is your input you can feed to a state machine.
Normally my inputs are chars most of the time but they don't have to be. =)
anyway, i see this as a state machine. Your accept states have the discount encoded as a percentage, and the different paths that are taken depend on the value of those tuples, with each transition being able to be on one of the tuple's members. So each arrow above it has a predicate like an age range or a destination region.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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I "borrowed" that rule set from: [^]. Feel free to use, if you wish, as an example your code can parse ... when your code ever reaches the point of ... whatever.
The key issue here, for me, is the factor-analysis that leads to the decision table with least complexity, and most robustness, and one that can be verified as handling all possible inputs (given reasonable constraints on inputs).
imho, this problem is a single-dimension workflow: other problem spaces that involve back-tracking, 'undo, handling asynchronous events that may occur in any temporal order ... have other "dimensions."
«Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?» T. S. Elliot
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BillWoodruff wrote: The key issue here, for me, is the factor-analysis that leads to the decision table with least complexity, and most robustness, and one that can be verified as handling all possible inputs (given reasonable constraints on inputs).
That's why i suggested a state machine. They're kind of self optimizing if you can construct one as an NFA - all you have to do is do a powerset expansion on it then remove duplicates from the result. Any ambiguities are then easily determinable from the resulting set of accepts. The math behind it is all sound and verified for i don't know how long.
As long as your input sets are constrained to a deterministic, finite alphabet, your FA machine should do the job.
And as far as this
BillWoodruff wrote: s a single-dimension workflow: other problem spaces that involve back-tracking, 'undo, handling asynchronous events that may occur in any temporal order
A DFA doesn't "backtrack" but an NFA does, virtually. The upshot is you can conceptually backtrack but the resulting state machine will not, once you do the powerset to turn an NFA into a DFA which makes it more predictable and efficient.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the theory of finite and deterministic automata. I am interested in the analysis of complex rule sets leading to simple-as-possible code "engines."
Having once been kind-of a social scientist, I do have some experience with factor analysis.
One thing I am sure of is that, given a well-formed decision table, I could write code to turn that into an interactive system.
cheers, Bill
«Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?» T. S. Elliot
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finite state machines resolve directly to jump tables.
so think like:
a switch case with a bunch of goto cases in it, mapping the logic out.
the code is pretty simple.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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... and now I have taken a big step ahead.
No more scratching my head over any details.(Almost) no more masking and wrapping that thing up like an old mummy. Even that did not prevent the Super Soaker (TM) of an airbrush from finding the tiniest fold in my paint mask and squirt about half a litre of paint through it per second.
UH-1E 151886, now in color[^]. Plus some of my 3D printed parts.
How do you like the color? The Marine Corps did not fly around in ugly army olive drab. It had to be 'medium field green' and I had to mix up quite a lot of it.
There still is enough to do. First, I got to clean up all the spots where the Super Soaker (TM) blasted its way through the masking tape. Then spray on the bigger insignia with paint masks and (sigh) the Super Soaker (TM). Apply the smaller decals (including the 'fuel dick drain'). And then comes my last chance to mess things up royaly: detailing and weathering.
So, how do you like it? It's still a bit boring right now. With more details and some 'dirt' it will look far better. or it's finally ruined.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Bell-issimo !
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Thanks!
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Nice...
Technician
1. A person that fixes stuff you can't.
2. One who does precision guesswork based on unreliable data provided by those of questionable knowledge.
JaxCoder.com
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Thanks!
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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I like it! 
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Thanks!
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Thanks! My coworker in the office next door is from Vietnam and will go there for his vacation in a week. Perhaps he will bring back some original dirt to mess up the underside. It will not get any more authentic.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Nice job.
I've always envied people who could do quality model building. When I was a kid I didn't have the patience. As an old fart, I no longer have the dexterity in my hands (arthritis).
Software Zen: delete this;
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so I have a parser that's a state machine (FA) that drives another state machine (PDA), which controls another state machine (FA) using tables generated by traversing a state machine (FA) to compute viable prefixes.
It's states all the way down. This is clunky or at least hectic, but oddly elegant at the same time.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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When you reach fifty states, you've got to get a stupid haircut.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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oh crap.
and now i have a song stuck in my head
There is a bowl cut template mapped with a billy can
Mega morn scissoring a topiary lego man
Mini-ramp cowlick
Good ship snot nose
Lap rain water out of pigeon hill potholes
Rat brain, shovel green peas offa butterknife
Racoon hat, moon boots all summer-type
Felt pressure at the center of the dog show
Better off blending
Sweater—off Waldo you
Wanna see a genome mutate?
Cut a page boy ‘til it bring home a Cube tape
Poof, screw-face wriggle out a chop shop
Home-brewed Kool-aid,
disavowing Osh Kosh
Simulating television
Little rowdy rock snob
Bobble-headed shredder playing top-heavy hop scotch
You realize you only got a week
‘til you catch him with a set of sh**ty clippers in the sink
Like bzzzzt, m*****f***ing bzzzzt, bzzzzt
Racing Stripes - YouTube[^]
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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That's some state of the art...
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it's rather stately.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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I have always thought that all we build is electronic Rube Goldberg machines. This process is built on that process that is built on that process and that command and that machine on that mainframe from 1970 that one person sort of understands.
To err is human to really mess up you need a computer
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i won't argue with that. =)
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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Can I just say I love the github extension for visual studio?
it has got its quirks but it works miles better than the old solutions i've used.
and thanks microsoft, for getting your source control features under control somewhat. VS2017 is loads better at that than the bad old days of like VS2008 and such.
When I was growin' up, I was the smartest kid I knew. Maybe that was just because I didn't know that many kids. All I know is now I feel the opposite.
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