I'm sure there's a perfectly logical and reasonable explanation for this, but I think it's really funny, even endearing, that a compiler can't say something like "uh you missed the decimal point" and instead has to say "You understand not what you ask, mortal! Nothing in EXISTENCE can do the kind of math you're proposing! It would rip the fabric of the universe apart...may god have mercy on your soul."
Don’t follow me if
- *threateningly* she/her
- discord.com/users/mammonmachine
I wrote and directed WE KNOW THE DEVIL and HEAVEN WILL BE MINE. I also wrote for NEON WHITE and I currently work at game company doing game things.
You must log in to comment.
in reply to @mammonmachine's post:
in reply to @mammonmachine's post:
i work a lot in matlab where i run into a slightly different version of this all the time because it has several internally incompatible ways of storing values. if you try to copy or operate between them it'll tell you stuff like "can't convert "cell" to "double"." but then there's a function that converts cell to double, so it's actually saying you have to type that explicitly. and it's easy to forget to do that because i'm a human and i think a number is a number, but a computer isn't as smart as me
honestly, as picky as it is, i rather appreciate that it's like "yo, i'm not sure if you meant to do it this way, so i'm gonna double check in the most obtuse and specific way possible".
I used to hate errors like this but over time I came to realize they catch a lot of really stupid math typos that I wouldn't have intended otherwise.
also it's not C++ STL template errors. those are for when you've angered some eldritch gods accidentally and it's just like i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm fixing it i'm fixing it
It actually does feel like a big milestone that I can actually read and understand what this error report is telling me and why it’s the literal truth of what the computer would interpret what I wrote as. It feels a bit like reading one’s first picture book, sounding out every word.
i tend to explain programming as the act of laboriously explaining simple tasks to a very literal-minded baby
the upshot is that said baby will do precisely what you say
the downside is that said baby will do precisely what you say
it's a way of thinking that a lot of people have trouble wrapping their heads around, and does a lot to explain why we design things the way we do.
Random question, I thought you posted a couple months ago about something you found helpful for learning to code, a site or an app or something, but I can't exactly remember and nothing's coming up. I feel like I remember the words Creative Code being part of it, but that's not getting hits. Ring any relevant bells?
This was probably Coding Train, or anything related to Processing!