blintson

People tend to score comments based on who says it as well as what is said. Simple change I think could improve signal-noise ratio: Make username invisible until after an upvote, or disable upvoting after viewing the username.

This is something that's been bothering me since I've learned C. Take the following code:

  *(int*)pointer_param = bar;

In the above code the two * operators do two different things:

1. Converts variable type to pointer.

2. References value found at address.

What was the historical reason for using the * operator for both things? Memory? Is it easier to write a compiler for? Is there something I'm missing?

EDIT:Code, also, It seems like a lisp version would be much easier to write a compiler for and to write; i.e.

(define (address-ref (float_pointer_cast pointer_param)) bar)

Is there some reason that the C-version is easier to write a compiler for/optimize than the lisp?

There's only so many transformations of bits people will pay money for. Do you ever worry we'll run out?

First I was going to ask how long you think a function should be, but there are lots of cases where using short functions is convenient.

Instead I'd like to ask what's the longest you'll let a function get in a given language before you break it up? Why?

I have very little experience coding commercially, but I try and never let any function get >1 screenfull, which is 50 lines for me.