Rock fun!

[Soren Gregev]

Count them. My finger hovers in the air as I silently mouth out the numbers: "One mossy stone. Two mossy stones. Three mossy stones". Before I know it, these stones, scattered in random positions by a dried up creek bed enter my mind. They rearrange themselves and are transformed into pointlike objects in a row. "One tiny point. Another tiny point. Another tiny point..."

". . ."

Code Select Expand

F( " " )This is eff. Eff is a cardboard box, found by the creek. It smells of musk and water and rot. Somebody dumped it here, but it'll do. I take a stone. One moss covered stone, and place it in eff.

Code Select Expand

f(1)This is "eff 1". Eff contains one.

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f(foo)What does eff contain? I don't know. Oh foo. Let's find out.

Code Select Expand

f(foo) = {foo | foo = 1}"Eff foo contains all foo such that foo equals 1"
Oh. There was just one mossy rock inside. I forgot. Silly me.

Code Select Expand

f( f(peb) + f(foo) ) ) = { {peb | 3 < peb < 15 } {foo | foo = 1} }
I find another tiny box. So I put some pebbles inside, and put them inside the box with the rock.
eff contains 2 effs, which equal all peb such that peb is greater than 3 and less than 15 and equals all foo such that foo is equal to 1.

Now it's your turn to try it!

Evaluate this function:

Code Select Expand

newf :: func :: {
    f(peb) = { peb | 3 < peb < 15 } ;
    f(foo) = { foo | 4 < foo < 8 } ;
    newef :: f( f(peb) - f(foo) ) ;
} ;

What is the value of newf?

*Hints*

1.The operator to the left of "::" gets the value of the expression to the right of the "::".
2. Think of the boxes and the rocks.

Have fun!

[Tank]

I come here to get away from this sort of thing  

[Soren Gregev]

Are you a computer programmer Tank? Wow.

What languages do you know? You must be making a lot more money than minimum wage, although perhaps the endless amounts of computer code can get weary on the eyes... Just how much code do you go through every week?

[Tank]

Are you a computer programmer Tank? Wow.

What languages do you know? You must be making a lot more money than minimum wage, although perhaps the endless amounts of computer code can get weary on the eyes... Just how much code do you go through every week?  But I know HTML, Java, PHP and MySQL well enough to get by. I'm 51 and have been in the electronics business since I was 17. I'm just finishing a degree in Business Computing then I'm going to be looking for gainful employment as a Business Analyst of some sort, probably a requirements analyst. It's one of the few jobs that value a wide ranging business background on one side and systems/computer knowledge on the other. I also enjoy the job of taking a business requirement and turning it into a working system. I have done statistical analysis consultancy work and during 2008 made a fair pile of cash working for Tarmac building a production system in SAP that optimised the production and distribution systems in the UK. As the kids had left home and my wife could keep as afloat on a day-to-day basis I went back to school.