food for thought - swift 5 released - bottom types, string interpolation, and stuff.

[Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa)]

On 4/12/19 7:03 AM, Walter Bright wrote:
> On 4/11/2019 11:14 PM, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) wrote:
>> But here's the problem: That's your superpower. It's enviable, it's 
>> impressive, but it's absolutely NOT shared by the vast majority of 
>> GOOD programmers, let alone rank-and-file ones.
> 
> Knowing what (x & 1) is is a superpower? 

No. Like I said, I know what it is too, so do tons of programmers. But 
there's a big difference between possessing that knowledge vs having it 
internalized at a glance so deeply that a mere glace mentally registers 
as "is this an odd/even number". The former is common, and such people 
have to do a mental translation step (even if they're not always aware 
they're doing it). The latter, where no mental translation is even 
needed, does occur, but it's not especially common, even among good 
programmers.

Naturally I can't say this for sure, but based on your arguments, it 
sounds like you may very well be in the latter, uncommon category, 
meaning you would posses the genuine benefit of lacking a mental 
distinction between "& 1" and "evenness". In effect, it's mean you see 
straight through to the core truth (analogous to rain man's counting, 
hence the allusion to "superpowers").  If so, then that's fantastic, and 
I can certainly understand why you would balk at an isOdd/etc. It's just 
like how I would balk at anyone wrapping "x++" syntax with a 
"x.increment()" function. Like most with C-like experience, I look at 
"x++" and I instinctually "see" an increment, thus abstracting it would 
be pointless.

But understand that such lack of mental distinction between "& 1" and 
"evenness" isn't common, even among good programmers with low-level 
experience. And that distinction is exactly what high-level languages 
are all about: Not mixing high-level intent from from mechanical 
implementation in order to cope with the human brain's difficulty at 
handling different levels of abstraction simultaneously.

If for you, they're the same level of abstraction, that's great. For 
most, it isn't.