Talk:Population count

task requirements change

When I entered this Rosetta Code task (for three different types of integer sequences), it never even occurred to me that the output wouldn't be labeled or titled.

So, I changed the task's requirements to included proper labeling so as to identify which numbers are being shown. -- Gerard Schildberger (talk)

To my mind, it is not really necessary that things be labeled when they are unambiguously identified by position. Otherwise we should all be using named parameters rather than positional parameters. In this case you asked for three things in order, and three separate lines of output seems quite unambiguous already. I can count to three. Or are newlines some kind of second-class citizen when it comes to whitespace? Do we label the rows in our matrices? Where do we draw the line on labeling everything? What makes a label "proper"? Do we feel compelled to put a comment on every line of code? It's easy for propriety to start looking like an obsession. Specifying exact output formats for tasks where it doesn't much matter is also a form of improper, to my mind. Not saying never, but you obviously make the tradeoff at a different knob setting than I would. Sorry I'm a grouch this morning. Sorry I can't seem to talk in longer sentences this morning. :) --TimToady (talk) 16:34, 18 March 2014 (UTC)

I thought I'd seen a way of highlighting a draft task (the requirements in this case) in some manner.   If somebody could inform me how to do that (or change it directly), I would be obliged.   As this is a draft task, my attempt should suffice in the interim. -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 14:16, 18 March 2014 (UTC)