Re: Octave and cargo cult programmingHello

[Thomas Weber]

On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 09:27:49AM -0400, Judd Storrs wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 19, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Thomas Weber <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > The example is in the documentation, under "Broadcasting and Legacy
> > Code". If you have code that relies on catching the mentioned error, you
> > can either change Octave's default behaviour or you can change your code -
> > but you cannot run previously working, _unchanged_ code with the
> > _default_ Octave behaviour.
> >
> > And actually I don't think Sergei was wading through Octave's source
> > code to find something to criticise - I bet he has previously working
> > code that doesn't work anymore.
> >
> 
> Seriously? That example is a completely synthetic tautology. I insist that
> anyone typing anything remotely similar to that example (let alone *rely*
> on it) should have their keyboard license revoked--even if broadcasting
> didn't exist! 

I will repeat it again: Octave has broken previously working code. It
doesn't matter if you like the code, its style or the editor it was
written with - it worked before and doesn't work any longer. 

> If destroying that type of code is a "strategic failure", I don't want
> to be on the right track. 

ROFL. You and I have no idea why code was written as such. It can easily
happen that everyone involved agrees that a solution is bad, but still
the best option in a specific situation.

And btw, what is so bad about this kind of code?

> The only time issues with broadcasting come up is when developing new
> code or by sending invalid input. If there was any actual broken
> legacy code, it's time for specifics and evidence.

WTF? Sergei has broken code or why do you think he posts here? If a
warning appears now about broadcasting, earlier versions of Octave have
errored out. In other words, he expected and dealt with the error. I
don't need to see any code, the examples are trivially created - if it
broadcasts now, it was an error earlier. And people obviously expected
and dealt with these errors.

        Thomas