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The Weird and The Wonderful

   

The Weird and The Wonderful forum is a place to post Coding Horrors, Worst Practices, and the occasional flash of brilliance.

We all come across code that simply boggles the mind. Lazy kludges, embarrassing mistakes, horrid workarounds and developers just not quite getting it. And then somedays we come across - or write - the truly sublime.

Post your Best, your worst, and your most interesting. But please - no programming questions . This forum is purely for amusement and discussions on code snippets. All actual programming questions will be removed.

 
RantRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? PinPopular
Member 1456470917-May-20 20:49
Member 1456470917-May-20 20:49 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Leo5617-May-20 21:36
Leo5617-May-20 21:36 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Steve Naidamast18-May-20 2:50
professionalSteve Naidamast18-May-20 2:50 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Jalapeno Bob22-May-20 9:22
professionalJalapeno Bob22-May-20 9:22 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
johnywhy23-Oct-21 3:57
johnywhy23-Oct-21 3:57 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Fred283417-May-20 20:51
Fred283417-May-20 20:51 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
johnywhy8-Dec-22 20:29
johnywhy8-Dec-22 20:29 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
lopatir17-May-20 20:52
lopatir17-May-20 20:52 
The major problem with your idea is "Human understandable"

you didn't define the audience, and saying "everybody" is not the answer.

my old mother trying to use a DVD player - one with not that many buttons:
"how do I make it go"
"press the 'Play' button."
"you mean this one '|> Play', with a triangle on it."
"yes."
"what does the triangle mean?"
and that's not even adding in complications of her first language being English.

Let's look at your concise [anti] example
ADD YEARS TO AGE.
MULTIPLY PRICE BY QUANTITY GIVING COST.
SUBTRACT DISCOUNT FROM COST GIVING FINAL-COST.
ahh the layman says, I see.
but then the accountant
it's all wrong, you've mixed up terms, "'cost' is purchasing, 'price' is selling."  "price times quantity is selling price, not even 'nett cost' let alone 'cost'"

understandable to some, an abject failure to others, even the programmer and his audience spoke a different language - probably should fire the project manager for that stuffup.

Consider the image they placed on the Voyager space probe: the guy/gal in a circle with arms and legs stretched out in a circle - supposedly according to experts 'understandable' by anything that finds it. There's people on Earth, the very concept it's meant to represent that look at that and scratch their heads.

Early explorers would encounter 'natives [perhaps chanting] and shaking their spears'
- in some cases it meant 'go away, this is our [special] place, any closer we will attack'
- in others 'welcome strangers [yes we have weapons but we are choosing not to use them so be nice]'

Sorry, but "Human Understandable" is not possible, not without defining/limiting the audience and even the language.' Does say a Lithuanian farm hand that's never gone outside know what 'city' means? Even pictures don't help, how long were Egyptian hieroglyphs - pretty plain to the people of the time of writing - undecipherable before the Rosetta stone was found?

short answer is: it's impossible
pestilence [ pes-tl-uh ns ] noun
1. a deadly or virulent epidemic disease. especially bubonic plague.
2. something that is considered harmful, destructive, or evil.
Synonyms: pest, plague, CCP

GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
johnywhy22-Oct-21 7:57
johnywhy22-Oct-21 7:57 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Lorenzo Bertolino17-May-20 20:59
professionalLorenzo Bertolino17-May-20 20:59 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Richard Deeming18-May-20 1:28
mveRichard Deeming18-May-20 1:28 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
KateAshman17-May-20 21:57
KateAshman17-May-20 21:57 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
kalberts17-May-20 22:48
kalberts17-May-20 22:48 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Richard Deeming18-May-20 1:33
mveRichard Deeming18-May-20 1:33 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
kalberts18-May-20 4:30
kalberts18-May-20 4:30 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Richard Deeming18-May-20 4:39
mveRichard Deeming18-May-20 4:39 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
kalberts18-May-20 20:59
kalberts18-May-20 20:59 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Richard Deeming18-May-20 23:40
mveRichard Deeming18-May-20 23:40 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
kalberts19-May-20 6:55
kalberts19-May-20 6:55 
GeneralRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Richard Deeming19-May-20 7:31
mveRichard Deeming19-May-20 7:31 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Stuart Dootson18-May-20 0:59
professionalStuart Dootson18-May-20 0:59 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
BryanFazekas18-May-20 2:21
BryanFazekas18-May-20 2:21 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
W Balboos, GHB18-May-20 2:35
W Balboos, GHB18-May-20 2:35 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
Member 1181677618-May-20 3:47
Member 1181677618-May-20 3:47 
AnswerRe: What's the Most Concise, Human-Understandable Practical Language? Pin
sasadler18-May-20 8:51
sasadler18-May-20 8:51 

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