Re:Go 2, here we come
by dekhn on Thursday November 29, 2018 @03:27PM
(#18563646)
don't most people compute the mean iteratively when they need to do this? Sure, it goes unseen, but programmers on systems like this are expected to understand the math model and write tests.
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Systems like what? My expectation is no, most people make mistakes.
I mean, in C and other low-level languages unlike python, it's generally assumed you have a basic understanding of the machine model and the consequences of arithmetic in limited types.
If most people make mistakes, they should self-select to languages which have properties that protect them from their ignorance. for example, I mostly program in Python using longs so I don't have to worry about overflow.
What kind of "long" are you referring to? Most programmers would think of a C long, int64, not a Python long, bigint.
Maybe people ought to self-select, but that would mean they'd need the training or experience to recognize what they don't know. It's often the most ignorant people that believe they have the most expertise.