Tavern on the Meta

2:50 AM

Hey.

I'm confused about char, and I'd like to know what's going on.

Eh?

@TimStone I ran this experiment to output possible values of char, and it seems to break when char's character code hits a certain point. (I think 127).

Here's the code: ideone.com/eX65W

char is one byte, so a signed char can have values -128 to 127. If you want it to go to 255, you need to declare it as an unsigned char.

Right, but how do I check the value and make it not explode?

I'm not sure what you're asking.

3:19 AM

@TimStone I'm trying to use the increment operator on a char, combined with a for loop, to print all possible char values. When I loop beyond the overflow limit, it acts odd, depending on the IDE/OS. How do I check for overflow boundaries?

3:35 AM

if (c == 127) // incrementing this will overflow ?

@TimStone Yes, it will.

I've been discussing in the C++ lounge too.

It seems like the fix is this:

    if((int)c < 127){
        c++;
    }

Although I don't know that I need that typecast there.

@Moshe The question mark isn't questioning the code.

Oh, wait, the question mark is the last character?

raises brow

Oh, yay! I have a header included with Xcode called "limits.h"

Rebecca Chernoff

3:44 AM

limits.h?

@RebeccaChernoff Yea, defines things like INT_MIN and CHAR_MAX, so I don't need to figure them out, or guess across platforms.

And, I think I finally got it.

Rebecca Chernoff

heh

As Alf P. Steinbach mentions in the Lounge<C++> Room on SO, I shouldn't be printing a number of those characters anyway.

According to my console output, the "safe" characters to print out start at #33 and go up to #126.

Wait a cotton picking minute!

There, changed it up a bit.

Here we go, the final version of my program:

ideone.com/DYwpx

It prints from #33 through #126, which seem to be the printable characters.

4:20 AM

Hey, @Sathya

Hi @Moshe

4:41 AM

@Sathya Did you ever look into that unlock?

ducks

goes to bed - while still ducking

@Moshe I.. dropped you a link in here didn't I?

5:31 AM

@Sathya I don't recall that. I probably missed it.

@Moshe i'll search & resend later..

@Sathya Thanks.

Oh, this keyboard should be freakin outlawed: e-zkeyboard.com

7:41 AM

@Moshe wh...what? "Great for: Beginners"...I beg to differ. What happens when they get used to it and then go to a different computer (i.e. just about every other one on the planet) and it's "all wrong"? eesh.

8:29 AM

Hey @balpha

balpha

morning

morning.

Q: Proposed flag decline reasons?

9:12 AM

3

As a precursor to adding decline reasons for suggested edits we have added decline reasons for moderator flags. Because flagging for moderator attention can result in some fairly severe unilateral action by mods (suspension, deletion, rep loss, etc) these decline reasons are private. They are di...

10:59 AM

Question: Why don't vote count in my profile increase for javascript when I add javascript to a question with jquery (with my answer voted up) ? Is it cached? Will it be added later?

@genesisφ I don't think it updates straight away.

I think so

I have given 1k's upvote for one tag to my friend. It appeared immediately

Popular Demand

1:28 PM

meta.stackoverflow.com/posts/106053/revisions <-- I don't think I've ever seen an OP include "possible duplicate" in the first revision of a post... until today.

@PopularDemand hah!

@PopularDemand also, did you see this:

5

2:50 PM

hahahahah

I've got a problem. September 5th user accepted my answer and my day-reputation was 206. It's okay, the bigger problem is user reaccepted my answer and my gained "reputation" moved from Sep 5 to today - I've lost about 21 days of rep-cap consecutive days.

I know it's not a lot, but I was going for a 130-day-consecutive-cap badge and now I should do it all again. Is it fair? Can I fight against it? Could this be prevented?

@genesisφ Could ask on MSO..is a personal badge or a SE one?

@tombull both

@tombull I copied it from textbox in "quesitons/ask"

I'm just afraid of downvotes again :p

3:09 PM

Yeah, that would be downvoted into oblivion, because it's just silly, but not in a good way.

@genesisφ What badge are you talking about?

Popular Demand

3:32 PM

@tombull89 Well, yeah. It was addressed to me.

@genesisφ What do you mean, your reputation "moved"?

Also, what @mmyers said.

Just a quick question regarding that keyboard which shall-be-outlawed. Am I correct in asserting that the current QWERTY layout is designed based on which characters are used most frequently?

And what are some of the other common keyboards, and why are the laid out as such?

@RebeccaChernoff - You seem like a big keyboard advocate, do you have any thoughts?

@Moshe There's an old story that the QWERTY layout was designed to keep typist from hitting the typewriter keys so quickly that they would jam. I don't know whether or not that's true, but that's what some Dvorak advocates say.

@mmyers So what are some effective arguments against an ABCDEFG keyboard?

The Dvorak layout was tested and found to be superior to QWERTY in the 1940s or 50s. The test was run by Mr. Dvorak himself, but I'm told he didn't affect the results in any way.

@Moshe ABCDEFG is great for hunt-and-peck, but for touch typing, you really want common letters to be accessible and you want common letter pairs to be split between hands. For example, "the" would take measurably longer to type if the "h" were struck by the left hand also.

It sounds like somebody needs to read an article on typewriters and typewriter design

3:42 PM

@jcolebrand Indeed. Professor, would you like to recommend one? I'm starting with the Wikipedia article.

it's one thing to have some pour knowledge into your ear, it's another to learn it yourself

I learned all of this in the manual of "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" 20 years ago ;P

there's all sorts of things to consider, like mechanical construction of typewriters in the 1920's

I stutter when I type..

I should do a blog post on this, for myself, although I'm sure these articles exist.

3:43 PM

it wasn't exactly easy to pop out consistent little letters that didn't wear down to a nub

they went through probably six major styles of typewriter head design

And, of course, different languages have different common letters, so the QWERTY and Dvorak layouts are most common only in English-speaking countries.

each was frought with it's own little problem, and most people either riffed on each other's designs (keeping things consistent but evolving) or they tried wacky shit

but no matter what, there was a problem of people who were too fast jamming heads together

@jcolebrand Where can I find this information? As you said, I want to learn it for myself.

it was plausible with DVORAK and happened less often with QWERTY

there are other designs that are better for even faster typers, because sometimes even the QWERTY design locked up

had we had electronic input interfaces in the 1920's, I think chorded would've taken off faster

I'm considering teaching myself chorded typing, but I haven't gotten any of the equipment, so it's mostly an example of "yeah, I should do that"

@Moshe I have no clue, it's been 15 years since I cared to learn, and I've read about ~6000 magazines and ~2000 books and ~3 encyclopedias since then.

Heh, nice amount of material there.

3:46 PM

I absorb everything I touch, I suggest investing in a local library and learning everything they have to offer

you do happen to have some of the world's foremost at your disposal

go cross town on a saturday and ask the front counter people where are some good books on typewriter history

if I lived there ... they would know me by name

Heh, the librarian in my neighborhood did know me by name - almost all of them must've recognized me in high school. I was there way to often.

Yeah, but you're onto bigger and better worlds

and you have the world's foremost library downtown

GO THERE

If you don't I shall beat you soundly round the shoulders with my cane

It's one of my meccas that I shall surely visit one day

Along with the LoC

The Library of Congress is cool, but if you're only there for 30 minutes, there's not much to do other than looking at their traveling exhibits.

I would rather spend about a month there

not sure what, just kinda finding ways to get in trouble

I was hoping to get a 30 minute visit in in December ...

Oh, there are lots of ways to get in trouble. Most of them involve rare books.

3:53 PM

@jcolebrand Which library were you referring to?

/me plays dumb instead of thinking for a moment

@Moshe For starters one with lions out front

@jcolebrand Ooooh, thaaaaat one.

Since you're not keen on folks knowing where you live I try and allude to the city more than make outright references

I think I've been there once before, actually.

Last time I was at the LoC, they had an original Gutenberg Bible and the Waldseemüller world map, the first one which labeled this continent as America.

3:54 PM

@Popular removed from the date I had 206 daily rep & when it get reaccepted, I received it back but with today's date

@mmyers Earned 200 daily reputation 150 times
Legendary

@mmyers nice

Hey, it's @Zypher!

howdy

@Zypher I enjoyed the last podcast, thanks for that.

Now, I must be finishing this app for a client, or I'd be planning to fail.

@genesisφ You know the days don't have to be consecutive, right? All you've lost is (potentially) one rep-cap day.

3:56 PM

Tschuss

@mmyers fail

Zypher

@Moshe thanks! it was fun.

@genesisφ Unknown command or file name

@mmyers die();

I was answering to the night

for NOTHING

@genesisφ no you weren't

You were answering to GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

3:59 PM

@jcole sorry for community :)

@jco yes, sorry, forgot that point ;)

If all you wanted was another scrap of #FFCC00 by your name, then you're one day further from it, yes.

4:16 PM

I love FFCC00000000000000000000000000000000000000ld.

wtf is ffcc00?

#FC0 makes a lot more sense

ah, a gold badge, I gotcha

hah

5:06 PM

Oh dear, I seem to have designed some NHibernate weirdness into this app O_o.

Q: "This answer has been awarded bounty worth 50 reputation by " - missing username? Time?

6:35 PM

Has anybody clue?

0

I've just found one post which has awarded bounty from nobody on this answer. HTML code looks like <span class="bounty-award" title="This answer has been awarded bounty worth 50 reputation by ">+50</span> I have found nothing about bounty in history, even timeline has no evidence a...

bug bounty

Looks like it might be related to sock puppetry.

Q: User keeps getting banned, yet keeps making new accounts to ask questions

ErrorErrorError is very problematic guy

14

This user: http://stackoverflow.com/users/761669/errorerrorerror Keeps making new accounts. He/She just asked another question here: change source of calendar...How to do it with a button? Using a new username. I know it is the same user because they admitted on chat to making more than one ac...

support multiple-accounts ban

Q: What is This Writing Standard Called, and Where Can I Look Up The Exact Details?

8:20 PM

@jcolebrand - Are you still active on EL&U?

0

My English Instructor said that he wants us to submit a heading and a header on our essays, taking on the following form. - The first page only should have our name, his name, the date, the subject (not necessarily in that order) in the top left. - The top right of every page should have our l...

writing writing-style

@Mos Camel Title Changed

@genesisφ Thank you.

No worries

Is there a reason that it's off topic?