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User:Mwn3d/Word mincing: Difference between revisions
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I've noticed a couple instances of people getting too technical. Maybe people are trying to be cute. Maybe they're trolling. Maybe they're just computer programmers and (like computers) they try to take everything literally. In any case, such rigidity gets in the way of lots of things, and I have decided to voice my opinions about some of the more prominent "arguments" as I notice them. The basic advice for these situations is usually "[[wp:Stripes (film)|lighten up, Francis.]]"
==Function vs. Subroutine vs. Method vs. whatever term your language uses for it==
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==Random vs. Pseudo-random==
I don't think there is a language out there that has a true random number generator built in. When we say "random" in a task we probably mean "pseudo-random". That's just what people call it because saying "pseudo-random" is a mouthful. Unless the task is to create a pseudo-random number generator or receive truly random numbers from a true random number generator (random.org or something), these words are also interchangeable.
==Print (in the console) vs. print (on paper) vs. print (on a window) vs. show vs. display==
This is sort of like random/pseudo-random. In general, this means print to standard output (wherever that goes). In tasks which are about printers or GUIs it should be made obvious in the task description which one is required.
Also, it is ''very'' good practice to show example use and output from an example (where there is output to be shown). Some tasks (like [[Singly-linked list/Element definition]]) simply don't have output, so it doesn't need to be shown. Tasks which require calculation or generation of something should have output shown pretty much no matter what. If the output is long (in bytes, not necessarily number of lines), consider making a separate page for your example and linking to it from the task page (a la [[99 Bottles of Beer/C++/Object Oriented]] and [[99 Bottles of Beer#An object-oriented solution]]).
==Run forever vs. hardware limits vs. "infinite"==
These all basically mean "don't add any new mechanisms for stopping the program". Programs which "run forever" should just keep calculating and spitting out answers until some outside force (OS, hardware limits, cosmic radiation, a blackout, 2012, etc.) stops the program. There should be nothing added to the program that would make the user able to end it cleanly.
More to come as I see/remember similar situations.
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==print and display==
I know I have been questioned about how to write a task and mean "It is also a requirement of the task to show your output in some meaningful way that doesn't tax the RC servers, on this page as part of a languages submission"
I would prefer to just use the phrase "print and display". --[[User:Paddy3118|Paddy3118]] 08:39, 17 April 2011 (UTC)
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