|
yes to this 
Real programmers use butterflies
|
|
|
|
|
And when it breaks, everyone will be pointing at it.
|
|
|
|
|
I had a legacy program that had void****** as part of a sort routine.
It worked, i didn't now how.
The guy that wrote it was long gone and i spent a afternoon trying to figure out how it worked.
In the end i left it alone.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Member 14732673 wrote: In the end i left it alone.
Really wise.
Never touch a running system, unless you really know how to fix it  
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
|
|
|
|
|
That's the fun! Make a change and watch it break and fix the break is the only way to understand ancient code.
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
|
|
|
|
|
"Make a change and watch it break and fix the break is the only way to understand ancient code."
While looking for a new job!
|
|
|
|
|
Well, I didn't say put it in production. But haha, that is a potentiality.
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
|
|
|
|
|
That looks like a documentation trick to me. "I don't care what the heck is on the other side of the pointer". What was the max dereference level in the actual usage? A single level?
|
|
|
|
|
Such a right-thinking person. 
Are you implying that there are languages that don't allow this, and force you to serialize using JSON or some other drool?!
|
|
|
|
|
something like that, yes. 
Real programmers use butterflies
|
|
|
|
|
Program: Shoot in foot
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|
|
|
The one about Forth is right on the mark.
|
|
|
|
|
The C++ one is even more accurate when pointers are involved !
|
|
|
|
|
I see no danger. Better than some other techniques.
|
|
|
|
|
C# has been improving a lot in that area. You can take a Span of various types (some mostly-reasonable restrictions apply) and use MemoryMarshal.AsBytes on it to view it has a Span<byte>, then stash it in a file or whatever. It's nice.
Actually paradoxically it's nicer than in C, because in C# you can actually control the layout of fields to whatever degree you need, so you can use this for file headers that have "unaligned" fields. C# is a better low level language than C.
|
|
|
|
|
Does it mandate the endianism and take the hit on non-compliant platforms, or is it still a problem for intersystem messages?
|
|
|
|
|
Unfortunately it's always in the native endianness, with no way to control it. An attribute for that is on my wishlist.
|
|
|
|
|
The proprietary language in which I worked for many years standardized its endianism and took the hit, so intersystem messaging was easy. It was designed when memory was precious--unlike today  --so it was easy to control packing. For example, a bool was a single bit, and an enum could be packed into the fewest bits needed for its enumerators (negative values not allowed). We would only pad a field when performance was critical.
|
|
|
|
|
Hopefully people will come to their senses and switch from C# to Java, just saying.
~d~
|
|
|
|
|
Sure, and then they can't do any of this. No structs, no spans, no layout control.
|
|
|
|
|
why would I want to take a giant leap backwards?
#SupportHeForShe
Government can give you nothing but what it takes from somebody else. A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you've got, including your freedom.-Ezra Taft Benson
You must accept 1 of 2 basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not alone. Either way, the implications are staggering!-Wernher von Braun
|
|
|
|
|
Exceptionally useful - you can do a cheap encryption by clever casting - or even more convenient, what might be considered an alias for casting: union
And if one so chooses, passing ones data through a logical cuisinart is always appropriate.
If you wish great power you must take great responsibility. As always.
| Ravings en masse^ |
|---|
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
|
|
|
|
|
I use unions sometimes, but i only needed the cast in two places in the code that inspired this post, and it was all it was ever going to need.
Real programmers use butterflies
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
