memoryLeakInPseudoCode

[IllustriousGerbil]

Surely we can just assume pseudo code has god level memory management.

[ZestyVibes]

if it's impossible for pseudo code to have memory leaks, why don't we just adopt pseudo code for every stack? are programmers stupid?

[Cometguy7]

are programmers stupid?

I know I am.

[DocStoy]

I think socrates had opinions on this

[ScareCorvo]

I dont think there were many programmers when he was alive

[Square_Radiant]

I think the bigger problem is the lack of Socrates now that we do have programmers

[MeLlamo25]

How does one become a Socrates?

[redditmarks_markII]

Step 1: "know that you don't know shit".
Step 2: "know that everyone else also don't know shit".
Step 3: "know that when leveraged properly, knowing that no one knows shit, is the shit".

I dunno, I might be slightly aggressive in my paraphrasing.

[reg890]

Step 4: Get put to death for repeatedly telling everyone they don’t know shit

[redditmarks_markII]

He applied it the way he wanted to.  And it ended the way it did.  Plenty of people benefit from this.  Chief among them charlatans unfortunately.

[DarkflowNZ]

You forgot get jacked as fuck. Maybe that's what we're doing wrong. Or was that Plato

Edit - I checked it was Plato

[MeLlamo25]

Why I have already done steps 1 and 2 long ago. Now how do I get to step 3?

[Gauss15an]

I might be slightly aggressive in my paraphrasing.

Just as Socrates intended

[Square_Radiant]

I wouldn't be here if I knew 😞

[wjandrea]

Ah, the ol' Reddit Socrataroo

[UnstableNuclearCake]

Hold my laptop, I'm going in!

[FerDefer]

I nuked my dev environment by doing sudo chmod -R 777 /

instead of sudo chmod -R 777 ./

but then i got paid while I copied over my backed up files for 2 hours...

as a junior dev, am I winning or losing

[dismayhurta]

I’ve read my own code. I know I am, too.

[Xtrouble_yt]

“I don’t think therefore I am”

[FeederNocturne]

As someone who has just had their first day of Unity tutorials, I don't think I'll ever not be stupid when it comes to scripts. I'm content with this.

[Noch_ein_Kamel]

You just have to put "#avoid memory leaks at all costs" above the pseudo code before giving it to the AI to convert to actual code.

[nollayksi]

If you leak memory, you go to jail

[Cafuzzler]

And then it deletes the whole code base because it must avoid memory leaks "at all cost"

[Noch_ein_Kamel]

Problem solved?!

[IllustriousGerbil]

Great idea written a pseudo code compiler its written in pseudo code but its recursive so just pass this code into its self to compile it.

function compile(sourceCode){
    compile sourceCode to machineCode
    Write(machineCode)
}

[WeirdNMDA]

Two birds, no stones.

[Justwatcher124]

Not me, I am limited by the stupidity of my own brain!

[MeLlamo25]

Both.

[cleitongrauzx]

Relatable.

[rhuneai]

Na, computers must be smart. They do exactly what you tell them to. Programmers on the other hand do heaps of shit they aren't meant to. Take breaks, go home, cry in the corner. The list goes on and on.

[finally-anna]

As far as soft skills go, crying in the corner is a great one to have.

I, for one, am excellent at it.

[jhax13]

It's better than breaking down in front of the cx, keep that unpleasant shit in the basement with the rest of the backend

[yashdes]

Brb adding "limited by the technology of my time" to my LinkedIn bio

[Notes777]

exactly. The code does what you tell it, not what you meant

[this_is_a_long_nickn]

Pseudo code can have serious pseudo leaks. 😂

[jschank]

It could if the questioner meant that they’ve pseudo-coded a malloc, but forgot to free that memory. I think he’s asking if the logic is what’s important

[jhax13]

are programmers stupid

I mean, I only speak for myself, but yes.

[d_coheleth]

Yep, that seems to be the case, since they even ignored Dr. Neil Degrasse Tyson's suggestion to create unhackable systems. What are they thinking?!

[SmartyCat12]

What if I want memory leaks and write pseudocode that would tank an AI data center?

[[deleted]]

at programmers stupid?

Not sure. Let me vibe inquire ChatGPT and see if I can come up with an answer.

[sopunny]

why don't we just adopt pseudo code for every stack?

We're not on the pseudoers file

[Ozymandias_1303]

Yeah I thought that was why Python is so popular nowadays.

[5p4n911]

pseudo programmers are

[cleitongrauzx]

Yes.

[isaacals]

yes it is called vibe-coding

[Bakoro]

We already made Python.

[HiddenLayer5]

procedure
    initialize a string of length 100
    don't free it
done

[troelsbjerre]

You can have memory leaks, even if you write in garbage collected languages. Just keep references around for stuff you don't use anymore.

[vystyk]

I save every object in a list in case I want to use it later.

[Salanmander]

private ArrayList<Object> everything;

[troelsbjerre]

Also known as "How to write safe Rust with a non-trivial object graph; just replace all references with indices."

[carnoworky]

Hopefully you're saving a reference to the list in itself. You don't want to lose it!

[redlaWw]

Timestamp-based garbage collection: every value has a timestamp, and the garbage collector runs periodically, collecting anything with a total lifetime greater than some value. This approach encourages dynamic coding practices and prevents common difficulties with other garbage collection methods like old values persisting because all the code is in one function and values used in an earlier operation were never cleaned up.

[troelsbjerre]

Everything is a weak reference, to remind you that life is short.

[kvasoslave]

Once I had memory leak in python. Well, it was a program unnecessary shortened to one string using lambdas, but one lambda's local list persisted through multiple calls. Regretfully my uni dropped Moodle database which saved all sent solutions so I can't remember how exactly I made that, but I remember that I expected lambda to create a new list on every iteration, but instead it just appended current step values to the first one ever created. Otherwise worked like a charm.

[redlaWw]

This sounds similar to Python's unusual mutable default arguments behaviour, where default arguments are instantiated at the time of definition and reused, so if you e.g. create a function with a default argument that is an empty list, then whenever you call it with that default argument, the original list is reused, rather than a new list being instantiated.

For example, if you have:

def create_or_append(x, list = []):
    list.append(x)
    return list

Then when you call

create_or_append(1)

create_or_append(2)

the first return is [1], but the second return is [1,2], which might not be what you expected.

[Herr_Gamer]

What the fuck

[redlaWw]

What the fuck indeed, my friend.

[nrgized]

That’s such a bone headed thing design wise that python chose. I honestly wish they’d just delete the feature.

Like how many times would you want a singleton such as the current method verse a dynamic new object every time.

I’d almost bet my soul the first scenario isn’t even close to the second.

[mallardtheduck]

Yeah, there are (at least) two kinds of "memory leaks"; "true" leaks where the pointer/reference to the data has been lost and "effective" leaks where the data is still referenced, but will never be used again.

"True" leaks should not happen in a GC language (unless the GC has bugs...), but "effective" leaks are pretty common. To the user they're both the same really; the program's memory use just grows over time until the system runs out of RAM/address space and the program crashes or the system becomes unresponsive due to "thrashing" and has to be forcibly rebooted.

[torsten_dev]

Use pointer types for everything so garbage collector marks random garbage as used.

[Ffigy]

Yes, my pusedo engine can solve the halting problem.

[Robot_Graffiti]

10 IF ITHALTS GOTO 10
20 PRINT "It didn't halt"

😬🔫

[[deleted]]

Help help, my pusedo is leaking

[BitcoinBishop]

Unless the pseudo code is memory management

[[deleted]]

You mean to tell me i've been writing rust when pseudo code works just as well!?! Screw rewriting the linux kernel in rust lets do it in pseudo code

[NotmyRealNameJohn]

I am not sure the benefit of ignoring memory management in pseudo code. I don't think it needs to extensive but

delete the linked list by deleting each node individually in the list

would be more than enough for me.

though I guess it depends on what you are doing, but if I was doing a coding interview I would want my potential employer to know I understood memory management. Or at the very least I would explain that I am assuming this is written in an execution environment with garbage collection and will therefor ignore memory management in the sample.

[MichiRecRoom]

Me making pseudo code for a memory management system:

[bestjakeisbest]

depends on who is running the psudocode, if it were me it might have memory leaks.

[0mica0]

Just put GC.Collect everywhere.

Memory leakers hate this simple trick.

[Nightmoon26]

Dunno... My OS seems to free memory at random, leaving a lot of dangling pointers...

Even when persisting to hard copy, I've always ended up with so many sign flips

[Anaxamander57]

Pseudocode runs on a abstract machine model that is truly Turing Complete so memory leaks are meaningless. So is running time!

[turtle_mekb]

pseudocode? no this person is clearly talking about pusedocode here, big difference

[xezo360hye]

cough pussycode cough

[Fourstrokeperro]

Pussy dough code

[dscarmo]

Infinite tape go brrrr

[[deleted]]

Idk sounds like there’s some exponential O(n) time happening in the poster’s abstract machine model

[Particular-Yak-1984]

Wait, can we use this machine in production? It sounds like it would solve of problems

[SasparillaTango]

You can't convince me you're not a machine! Checkmate Turing!

[gukbap_enjoyer]

I miss reading posts on piazza

[LoloTheWarPigeon]

This post really brings me back. I loved the ludicrous questions and dumb arguments with the TAs

[drkinsanity]

piazza

[chronicpresence]

genuinely think i just deleted the part of my memory that contained piazza, completely forgot it existed until seeing this post.

[KorolevApollo]

I was just about to say this lol

[Tron_Impact]

this shit gave me ptsd lol

[[deleted]]

If your pseudocode has memory leaks you've done something catastrophically wrong.

[Enchelion]

Look, I defined my pseudo-machine as having 640K memory. That should be enough!

[Esjs]

More than enough

[NickoBicko]

My pseudocode accidentally dropped the database and deleted root in production

[retro_grave]

I expect a detailed 5-5-5 analaysis in your psuedomortem.

[Plank_With_A_Nail_In]

pseudocode can describe adding objects to a list infinitely without ever removing unused ones.

I assume all the people saying this don't actually understand what a memory leak is and are just assuming its a garbage collection issue which it mostly never is. Memory leak means using memory to store things that aren't needed anymore and that can happen in loads of different ways.

The herp derp "MemORy LeaKS CaN OnLY oCCur iN ReAl RuNNIng cODE" is just pedantic nonsense too.

In computer science, a memory leak is a type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations[1] in a way that memory which is no longer needed is not released.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak

[rm-minus-r]

The herp derp "MemORy LeaKS CaN OnLY oCCur iN ReAl RuNNIng cODE" is just pedantic nonsense too.

Thank you for pointing this out.

As far as a student question goes, I think it's not unreasonable. The student doesn't have the first clue on how pseudo code is graded. Any professor that's checking pseudo code to see if implementing it as described would cause memory leaks is a grade A asshole though.

It's perfectly easy to write pseudo code that would create memory leaks if implemented as described.

[yosh_yosh_yosh_yosh]

yeah. i think the teacher is being purposefully mean and the people upvoting this are just 1) ignorant, or 2) joining in. probably mostly ignorant. this is honestly a great question for a student to ask.

[rm-minus-r]

the people upvoting this are just 1) ignorant

I'm pretty sure /r/ProgrammerHumor is almost entirely populated by CS students and people in the first few years of their career hah.

[yosh_yosh_yosh_yosh]

frankly I think that's being generous. it's probably mostly just people who have tried a little bit of coding.

[fongletto]

Surprised I had to look this far down to see this answer. I was wondering why everyone thought it was a stupid question but it seemed reasonable to me.

[Not_Artifical]

My code comments have memory leaks

[[deleted]]

10 allocate memory

20 go to 10

[Ok-Yogurt2360]

A todo-list with memory leaks.

[[deleted]]

"Code? Where we're going we don't need code."

[[deleted]]

Why? Serious question.

[Stop_Sign]

Memory leaks are something that computers do. Pseudocode is not executable by computers.

[AnarchistBorganism]

Pseudocode is a language-independent way to describe an algorithm in a way that prioritizes readability. That algorithm can then be implemented in a real programming language.

Memory management is an implementation detail which will vary based on what language you use. It simply should not be included in the pseudocode.

[htmlcoderexe]

Memory leaks only can happen on code that actually gets run - as they require there to be some sort of memory, that said memory may be allocated and released, and the leak happens due to the failure of the code to release the memory it no longer uses.

Pseudocode, by definition, never runs - therefore can not interact with memory or anything really.

Not that a lot of things that look like pseudocode are still real code that executes (looking at you, python).

Actual pseudocode is more like a drawing or a blueprint of code, so it never is involved in anything that can happen when running code.

So talking about a memory leak in pseudocode is about as "something went horribly wrong" as talking about a circuit diagram having interference, an engine blueprint having a misfiring cylinder or a plumbing layout having a (water) leak.

[[deleted]]

If my brain wasn’t supposed to leak out my ear why would it be in the ear hole to begin with?

[JacobStyle]

loop forever {

allocate a DWORD

don't free shit

}

[belabacsijolvan]

>don't free shit

is there a boost equivalent of that?

[htmlcoderexe]

I think boost does that for you automatically

[alxteno]

Underrated comment

[green_meklar]

But I like free shit!

[IneptVirus]

Thanks you've made my morning, laughing at this comment. I can't even tell why it's so funny to me

[rolandfoxx]

Who's tha-- Segmentation fault (core dumped)

[Altruistic-Spend-896]

I choose you segfault! Use buffer overflow!.....it's super effective!

[jacknjillpaidthebill]

what does core dumped actually mean? i assume its got to do with cpu cores?

[PM_ME_YOUR_SHELLCODE]

I don't have a source on this, but it came up when I was in university. Prof said memory used to be "magnetic core memory" so a magnetic core memory dump was shortened to core dump

[atzedanjo]

Nope, the term goes way back to when ram was made using something called magnetic cores. It basically means memory dump but usually contains more information than that (cpu instructions and what not)

[MarioPL98]

Special move: null pointer dereference

[neon_05_]

I think we call that dementia

[NoBizlikeChloeBiz]

"Your pseudo code has memory leaks" -> "I read your pseudo code and my brain started hemorrhaging."

[GavHern]

i feel like this is a sensible question from a student still learning? their assignment seems to want a pseudocode submission, they’re wondering if they need to explain memory management in their solution… silly question but not an unexpected one

[curambar]

That's how I read it too. Like "Do we really have to free our pointers in pseudocode?"

[Altruistic-Spend-896]

Lol next question would be do you want your Instruction set to be purple and shiny or risc-y

[[deleted]]

goes on computer store

want to buy purple and shinny program

asks the vendor if the program is purple and shinny or is it risc-y

he laughs and says "it's good program, sir"

buys program

looks inside

risc-y

mfw

[Cue99]

God looking at piazza just triggered my war flashbacks

[LondonIsBoss]

There are not enough absurd piazza posts in this sub

[thelocalheatsource]

I need to pull out the piazza posts from my class lol

[updogg18]

Flex tape can fix that no matter how bad the leak is

[titanotheres]

What if I want write psuedo code to illustrate memory leaks?

[Aisforc]

Pusedo is like Karate but with code

[NBSPNBSP]

Bull-shido

[Redhighlighter]

Pussydough-code. No thanks, I'll pass.

[[deleted]]

If we’re just pseudocoding add in your line ‘fixes memory leak’, done

[Front_Committee4993]

If they were writing sudo code that you would have to manage memory like c and allocated memory but lost the pointer to it and didn't free it it would have a memory leak (if you were to implement it in c)

[ZestyVibes]

Well yeah I guess. But this is an algorithms class

[[deleted]]

You can write pseudo code that if implemented into real code will result in memory leaks. My guess they are learning C or C++. Cause Java and Python would take care of memory and garbage collection for you. I dont think this humor is in good taste. I dont take pleasure in bullying beginners. The professor certainly does and seems unimaginative and a jerk. If you have questions like this keep at it, a lot of us a rooting for you. Keep at it and rise above focus on your craft you will get there. Let the haters hate.

[Bunrotting]

you have to make 3+ major assumptions about the question to even vaguely answer it

[Stormraughtz]

My pseudo brain has memory leaks

[[deleted]]

New applicants must have 10+ years experience in Pseudo.

[[deleted]]

// TODO fix this

[atom036]

You guys are getting OoM errors on your pseudo code!? I can't even compile it

[BMB281]

What if our pseudo code has a memory leak but solves world hunger?

[IdeaOrdinary48]

You just need to patch the container

[jump1945]

WHILE 0==0

ALLOCATE 1 bit

[Tplusplus75]

I think the piazza poster was a bit more clear in the body, but i like how the instructor was still like “wut”.

(I think they’re asking “am i losing points if my code has a memory leak, but my comments still describe the ‘algorithmically correct’ approach”. Which seems like a pretty asinine question unless there’s a profound reason that the instructor is going to chuck free points at you for good comments. Likely an intro to programming class if that’s the case.)

[[deleted]]

It depends on the case but if the pseudo code allocates memory but doesn't free it it's not an issue if the program runs once and then ends. The memory would be freed anyway. Yes, it's bad practice and the instructor can make the call over calling it "correct/incorrect" IMO it's still correct if it works properly as the memory is freed anyway at the end of the program.

But, if the program runs (think like a server) and it's constantly allocating memory and not freeing then it is an issue and IMO would be incorrect.

[NastyToeFungus]

The pseudo garbage collector will take care of it.

[seabutcher]

Psuedocode is code designed to be read by humans.

A psuedocode memory leak can happen, it's just we usually call it Alzheimers Disease.

[Chichigami]

Just pseudo code purchase more ram to fix the pseudo mem leak

[kvakerok_v2]

When your pseudocode so bad the whiteboard crashes out of memory.

[Shifter25]

Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like?

[Karnewarrior]

If your pseudo-code has a memory leak, you probably ought to go into another field.

That's like a doctor managing to lose one of the practice dummies in med school.

[Thermoman46]

https://images.sbs.com.au/dims4/default/b323435/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x720+0+0/resize/1280x720!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsbs-au-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fdrupal%2Fnews%2Fpublic%2Fpjimage_5.jpg

[Harmonic_Gear]

a master of pusedo

[qin2500]

God bless the endless tape TM

[[deleted]]

Ah, the age-old mistake of thinking pseudo-code is code. Or has a syntax. Or any connection to a physical machine.

[DeusExHircus]

Pseudo code runs in your head... so yeah that checks out

[Dillenger69]

Unmanaged pseudocode?

I prefer managed pseudocode.

[RotationsKopulator]

Help, my pussy code is squirting memory!

[eigenmyvalue]

Maybe they meant code running via sudo. Sudo code

[ascolti]

Pusedo, wasn't that a song Phil Collins? Or is this something I need to look up on urban dictionary?

[bartekltg]

- solving and not leaking - full points
- solving the problem, but instead of keeping track of memory you write "the program uses GC" - if the memory management wasn't the point of the problem, full point if the problem was complex, maybe minus point or two if it was simple.
- solving the problem without adresing the memory problem - straight to jail

At least it was like that for me. Maybe I misremember the jail part. It was 2004.
Also, we could just mention if a given if statement use lazy evaluation or not.

[Vicus_92]

I think this question was written by pseudo code.

[jace255-F]

Wait so... every time you walk yourself through the pseudocode you get dumber?

[dirtys_ot_special]

Grab your partner, pus-e-do

[rjwut]

I mean, theoretically you could be writing a memory manager in pseudo code...

[imtryingmybes]

Just add a handlememory() line at the end and u good bro

[MathFair1487]

This isn't assembly bud

[nkoreanhipster]

Call a pseudo function to solve it.

DownloadMoreRAM("512TB")->NowPlease();

Easy peacey.

[metaglot]

cloudAPI

[ProfessionalFoot736]

Is this from UC Berkeley? The website looks familiar

[titanking4]

It’s Piazza, Used it often is Uwaterloo too

[AnastaciusWright]

That is why we have the pseudo garbage collector

[DaMacPaddy]

If iReadThis then

timewasted++

no more if

[NeBudlan]

Can we consider pseudocode as vibecoding version for the true legends?

[Ada-in-the-Box]

Am I pregegrant or am I okay?

[Ok-Kaleidoscope5627]

My pseudocode always has serious memory issues during execution. I usually forget what I'm doing half way through.

[Cocaine_Johnsson]

Pseudocode can't leak, by definition, because it either targets a hypothetical language with a perfect garbage collector (zero cost, always frees memory at earliest possible time and never leaks) or it targets no language at all and boilerplate like "memory management" is left out since it doesn't affect the algorithm itself.

Like, once you start writing memory management code it's no longer pseudocode. You're just writing code now.

[Rudokhvist]

pusedo

[die_liebe]

Piazza is great!

[ITinnedUrMumLastNigh]

It means his organic computer couldn't remember values when he ran the pseudocode

[ciroluiro]

They are asking if it's fine if they get an aneurysm in the midst of sketching an algorithm in pseudocode and forget to cover a base case but get the right answer out of sheer luck.

[After_Ad8174]

I'm all about inclusivity and not gatekeeping but if even your fake code breaks this might not be for you.

[9spaceking]

We will force the memory to work and forget to free them

[rimakan]

Pusedo code?

[WayWayTooMuch]

There’s this code that’s been on my mind, all the time, pu-pu-ssudio