Format Specifiers
Programming languages use format specifiers to control the formatting of numbers and text. We look at their invention in FORTRAN I, adoption in BCPL, and three innovative attempts to include them in ALGOL60.
Recent posts
Page Ranges
In my earlier post on interviewing, I discussed aspects of a coding interview question that I thought provided better signal on the candidate than algorithmic-focused questions. In this post, I’ll provide an example fairly open-ended interview question, a solution, and a transcript between the interviewer and interviewee as an example for analyzing signal.
Infinite Race
Infinite Race is a mathematical racing game. Two players compete to move their piece the greatest distance along the number line by choosing how the dice will fall. However, the rolls must fit a distribution perfectly, so the player’s luck must revert to the mean. The strategy is to select a sequence of moves which allows one player to break free of the pack.
Update to Game of Ur Background
I’ve made an update to the Game of Ur - Background post. A reader took up my challenge to find a closed form solution for the number of valid game placements and found a solution.