rubys - Developer IT

Scala version of Rubys' each_slice?

- by Brian Heylin

Does Scala have a version of Rubys' each_slice from the Array class?

Rush Hour if you're not familiar with it, the game consists of a collection of cars of varying sizes, set either horizontally or vertically, on a NxM grid that has a single exit. Each car can move forward/backward in the directions it's set in, as long as another car is not blocking it. You can never change the direction of a car. There is one special car, usually it's the red one. It's set in the same row that the exit is in, and the objective of the game is to find a series of moves (a move - moving a car N steps back or forward) that will allow the red car to drive out of the maze. I've been trying to think how to solve this problem computationally, and I can really not think of any good solution. I came up with a few: Backtracking. This is pretty simple - Recursion and some more recursion until you find the answer. However, each car can be moved a few different ways, and in each game state a few cars can be moved, and the resulting game tree will be HUGE. Some sort of constraint algorithm that will take into account what needs to be moved, and work recursively somehow. This is a very rough idea, but it is an idea. Graphs? Model the game states as a graph and apply some sort of variation on a coloring algorithm, to resolve dependencies? Again, this is a very rough idea. A friend suggested genetic algorithms. This is sort of possible but not easily. I can't think of a good way to make an evaluation function, and without that we've got nothing. So the question is - How to create a program that takes a grid and the vehicle layout, and outputs a series of steps needed to get the red car out? Sub-issues: Finding some solution. Finding an optimal solution (minimal number of moves) Evaluating how good a current state is Example: How can you move the cars in this setting, so that the red car can "exit" the maze through the exit on the right?

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C# going nuts when I declare variables with the same name as the ones in a lambda

- by Rubys

I have the following code (generates a quadratic function given the a, b, and c) Func<double, double, double, Func<double, double>> funcGenerator = (a, b, c) => f => f * f * a + b * f + c; Up until now, lovely. But then, if i try to declare a variable named a, b, c or f, visual studio pops a "A local variable named 'f' could not be declared at this scope because it would give a different meaning to 'f' which is used in a child scope." Basically, this fails, and I have no idea why, because a child scope doesn't even make any sense. Func funcGenerator = (a, b, c) = f = f * f * a + b * f + c; var f = 3; // Fails var d = 3; // Fine What's going on here?

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C# functional quicksort is failing

- by Rubys

I'm trying to implement quicksort in a functional style using C# using linq, and this code randomly works/doesn't work, and I can't figure out why. Important to mention: When I call this on an array or list, it works fine. But on an unknown-what-it-really-is IEnumerable, it goes insane (loses values or crashes, usually. sometimes works.) The code: public static IEnumerable<T> Quicksort<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source) where T : IComparable<T> { if (!source.Any()) yield break; var pivot = source.First(); var sortedQuery = source.Skip(1).Where(a => a.CompareTo(source.First()) <= 0).Quicksort() .Concat(new[] { pivot }) .Concat(source.Skip(1).Where(a => a.CompareTo(source.First()) > 0).Quicksort()); foreach (T key in sortedQuery) yield return key; } Can you find any faults here that would cause this to fail?

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Building an application that includes a DB, and need recommendations

- by Rubys

I'm going to build a little system for personal use, and I want it to save data to a database. The language is going to be C#, and so I'd like to use this opportunity to get my head around LINQ to SQL. I have some DB experience and I know my SQL, but it was all in school using Access, which is giving me trouble, and so I'd like to use another DB, something that is small in size, easy to install, and should work with LINQ to SQL. The problem is: I don't know any except Access, and am looking for recommendations. To sum it up: I need a lightweight, easy to install, linq-to-sql supporting database for a small system on a home computer, any recommendations?

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C++ - Need to learn some basics in a short while

- by Rubys

For reasons I will spare you, I have two weeks to learn some C++. I can learn alone just fine, but I need a good source. I don't think I have time to go through an entire book, and so I need some cliff notes, or possibly specific chapters/specialized resources I need to look up. I know my Asm/C/C# well, and so anything inherited from C, or any OOP is not needed. What I do need is some sources on the following subjects(I have a page that specifies what is needed, this is basically it, but I trimmed what I know): new/delete in C++ (as opposed to C#). Overloading cin/cout. Constructor, Destructor and MIL. Embedded Objects. References. Templates. If you feel some basic C++ concept that is not shared with C/C# is not included on this list, feel free to enter those as well. But the above subjects are the ones I'm supposed to roughly know in two week's time. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

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Using function arguments as local variables

- by Rubys

Something like this (yes, this doesn't deal with some edge cases - that's not the point): int CountDigits(int num) { int count = 1; while (num >= 10) { count++; num /= 10; } return count; } What's your opinion about this? That is, using function arguments as local variables. Both are placed on the stack, and pretty much identical performance wise, I'm wondering about the best-practices aspects of this. I feel like an idiot when I add an additional and quite redundant line to that function consisting of int numCopy = num, however it does bug me. What do you think? Should this be avoided?

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F# - Function with no arguments?

- by Rubys

When thinking in a functional mindset, given that functions are supposed to be pure, one can conclude any function with no arguments is basically just a value. However, reallity gets in the way, and with different inputs, I might not need a certain function, and if that function is computationally expensive, I'd like to not evaluate it if it's not needed. I found a workaround, using let func _ = ... and calling it with func 1 or whatever, but that feels very non-idiomatic and confusing to the reader. This boils down to one question: In F#, Is there a proper way to declare a function with zero arguments, without having it evaluated on declaration?

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What does Ruby have that Python doesn't, and vice versa?

- by Lennart Regebro

There is a lot of discussions of Python vs Ruby, and I all find them completely unhelpful, because they all turn around why feature X sucks in language Y, or that claim language Y doesn't have X, although in fact it does. I also know exactly why I prefer Python, but that's also subjective, and wouldn't help anybody choosing, as they might not have the same tastes in development as I do. It would therefore be interesting to list the differences, objectively. So no "Python's lambdas sucks". Instead explain what Ruby's lambdas can do that Python's can't. No subjectivity. Example code is good! Don't have several differences in one answer, please. And vote up the ones you know are correct, and down those you know are incorrect (or are subjective). Also, differences in syntax is not interesting. We know Python does with indentation what Ruby does with brackets and ends, and that @ is called self in Python. UPDATE: This is now a community wiki, so we can add the big differences here. Ruby has a class reference in the class body In Ruby you have a reference to the class (self) already in the class body. In Python you don't have a reference to the class until after the class construction is finished. An example: class Kaka puts self end self in this case is the class, and this code would print out "Kaka". There is no way to print out the class name or in other ways access the class from the class definition body in Python. All classes are mutable in Ruby This lets you develop extensions to core classes. Here's an example of a rails extension: class String def starts_with?(other) head = self[0, other.length] head == other end end Ruby has Perl-like scripting features Ruby has first class regexps, $-variables, the awk/perl line by line input loop and other features that make it more suited to writing small shell scripts that munge text files or act as glue code for other programs. Ruby has first class continuations Thanks to the callcc statement. In Python you can create continuations by various techniques, but there is no support built in to the language. Ruby has blocks With the "do" statement you can create a multi-line anonymous function in Ruby, which will be passed in as an argument into the method in front of do, and called from there. In Python you would instead do this either by passing a method or with generators. Ruby: amethod { |here| many=lines+of+code goes(here) } Python: def function(here): many=lines+of+code goes(here) amethod(function) Interestingly, the convenience statement in Ruby for calling a block is called "yield", which in Python will create a generator. Ruby: def themethod yield 5 end themethod do |foo| puts foo end Python: def themethod(): yield 5 for foo in themethod: print foo Although the principles are different, the result is strikingly similar. Python has built-in generators (which are used like Ruby blocks, as noted above) Python has support for generators in the language. In Ruby you could use the generator module that uses continuations to create a generator from a block. Or, you could just use a block/proc/lambda! Moreover, in Ruby 1.9 Fibers are, and can be used as, generators. docs.python.org has this generator example: def reverse(data): for index in range(len(data)-1, -1, -1): yield data[index] Contrast this with the above block examples. Python has flexible name space handling In Ruby, when you import a file with require, all the things defined in that file will end up in your global namespace. This causes namespace pollution. The solution to that is Rubys modules. But if you create a namespace with a module, then you have to use that namespace to access the contained classes. In Python, the file is a module, and you can import its contained names with from themodule import *, thereby polluting the namespace if you want. But you can also import just selected names with from themodule import aname, another or you can simply import themodule and then access the names with themodule.aname. If you want more levels in your namespace you can have packages, which are directories with modules and an __init__.py file. Python has docstrings Docstrings are strings that are attached to modules, functions and methods and can be introspected at runtime. This helps for creating such things as the help command and automatic documentation. def frobnicate(bar): """frobnicate takes a bar and frobnicates it >>> bar = Bar() >>> bar.is_frobnicated() False >>> frobnicate(bar) >>> bar.is_frobnicated() True """ Python has more libraries Python has a vast amount of available modules and bindings for libraries. Python has multiple inheritance Ruby does not ("on purpose" -- see Ruby's website, see here how it's done in Ruby). It does reuse the module concept as a sort of abstract classes. Python has list/dict comprehensions Python: res = [x*x for x in range(1, 10)] Ruby: res = (0..9).map { |x| x * x } Python: >>> (x*x for x in range(10)) <generator object <genexpr> at 0xb7c1ccd4> >>> list(_) [0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81] Ruby: p = proc { |x| x * x } (0..9).map(&p) Python: >>> {x:str(y*y) for x,y in {1:2, 3:4}.items()} {1: '4', 3: '16'} Ruby: >> Hash[{1=>2, 3=>4}.map{|x,y| [x,(y*y).to_s]}] => {1=>"4", 3=>"16"} Python has decorators Things similar to decorators can be created in Ruby, and it can also be argued that they aren't as necessary as in Python.

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