[Brazosvalley-pm] Meeting tonight at Chilis

Mon May 15 12:32:05 PDT 2006

   I'll be there.  Well, unless I'm plannning on it
until 6 PM and then between 6 and 7 I totally forget
about it.  I tend to be an absent minded professor.

   BTW I though about something that may be an interesting
topic for some meeting and a way to learn a bit.
I wonder what you guys think of this.  We could hold
a code review, where we go through some existing code
line by line looking for what the author has done already
and what could be improved regarding performance, correctness,
robustness, style, etc.  That can be VERY informative.
For example I have a script I'd been working on for about
5 years now, a pretty simple script, and though I've
been a Perl professional for some time and know my stuff
pretty well, I'm sure you guys, looking at the code with
a fresh pair of eyes, could easily point out 100 places
in the code where I could have done something better.
I know I still spot things every so often even though
I've looked at the code thousands of times.  There are
also tricks I already used in the code that may be
interesting to some people.  For example, I faced a problem -
I had an operation that needed to query an external server,
which would take at least two seconds.  Given the application,
I couldn't allow more than one second for the operation.
I couldn't speed up the operation and I couldn't wait
any longer than one second for it to run, so I found a way
to run a two second long, yet even though it takes two
seconds to run it finishes after just a few milliseconds.
A ghood trick, that one.

   Actually that trick reminds me of another possible topic.
We could have a challenge.  Everybody codes up a script to
solve a simple problem posed in the challenge and then we
compare solutions and learn from each other.  One interesting
challenge was one I came across a few years ago on a local
radio station.  One of the stations here, 99.5 I think, used
to have "the telephone game".  In the telephone game, the DJ
would choose a secret word,for example, "program".  They would
then look at the numbers on the telephone key pad that represented
those letters and give you the numbers IN RANDOM ORDER.
So for the word "program they might say the numbers were
7, 6, 2, 4, 6 and 7.  Each number could represent three or
for different possible letters, so you don't know which
letters are actually used, and they aren't given in order,
so it's a very hard challenge.  Even with a hint giving the
general type of word it often took 30 minutes or more for
someone to call in with the correct answer.  I wanted to win
the prize as often as possible, so I wrote a simple script
that would solve the puzzle in under two seconds on my 500Mhz
machine.  I'd dial in as soon as he started reading the numbers
and by the time he answered the phone my script give me all
of the English words matching those numbers, from which I
would choose based on the hint.  It would be interesting to
see how other people would go about writing something like
that and how fast we could get it to run.  As I said, mine
ran in less than 2 seconds, I don't remember exactly how
fast it was.
--
Note - So that we can better serve you, please mention
the  site name or URL that you are referring to in all emails.

Ray B. Morris
support at bettercgi.com

Strongbox - The next generation in site security:
http://www.bettercgi.com/strongbox/

On 05/15/2006 02:03:17 PM, Jeremy Fluhmann wrote:
> Just wanted to remind everyone of the "meeting" tonight.
> 
> 
> 
> Chili's on Texas Ave. (1063 Texas Ave., College Station,
> 979-696-4261)
> 
> 7:00p
> 
> 
> 
> They don't take reservations, so I'm just supposed to call them when
> I'm
> on my way and they'll setup the table(s).  It'll be under 'The Perl
> Group'.  The mailing list has 10 people on it right now, but I know
> not
> everyone will make it.  I'm not expecting a grand turnout, but I'm
> hoping to at least get some things established for the group and have
> the opportunity to meet some of you.  I'll send a summary of what was
> discussed to the list and everyone, especially those that weren't
> able
> to attend, can comment and make suggestions.
> 
> 
> 
> If you plan on attending, please let me know so that I can have a
> better
> estimate to give Chili's when I call.  So far I have three people for
> sure.
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Jeremy
> 
> 
> 
> Jeremy Fluhmann
> Programmer/Analyst
> Memorial Student Center
> Texas A&M University
> 979-845-8893
> jeremy at msc.tamu.edu
> 
> This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential. If
> you
> are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
> disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this
> information is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail
> transmission
> in error, please notify me by telephone or via return e-mail and
> delete
> this e-mail from your system.
> 
> 
> 
> 

> _______________________________________________
> http://brazosvalley.pm.org
> Brazosvalley-pm mailing list
> Brazosvalley-pm at pm.org
> http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/brazosvalley-pm
> 