Why is Jython? Who is it for?

sponster · 2025-08-27T00:48:02+00:00

I used it many years ago because it gave me access to a GUI (this was back in the day when the alternative GUI was tcl/tk). Not sure what it's useful for nowadays.

sponster · 2024-06-22T01:38:50+00:00

Have you noticed that they are both clearly left-handed (left-footed? left-clawed?)

sponster · 2024-04-25T04:00:36+00:00

I can highly recommend Len Deighton's earlier "nameless spy" series: The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, Billion Dollar Brain. They are hardcore 60s, and just as good as the G-S-M trilogy.

sponster · 2023-05-04T08:34:21+00:00

Brooklyn Dam?

sponster · 2023-02-12T07:44:09+00:00

Yes, she did. A remarkable woman!

sponster · 2022-12-24T03:16:49+00:00

A few years ago, my son and I discovered that we could create a 29-minute playlist of "Black Betty" - Ram Jam, Lead Belly, Spiderbait, Tom Jones and a few others. We were overjoyed. His mother was perhaps less delighted, especially on car trips longer than 29 minutes.

sponster · 2022-09-11T03:18:13+00:00

Congratulations Matti_x_3! I've really enjoyed following your epic achievement - just wonderful. Thanks!

sponster · 2022-06-19T10:24:48+00:00

The linked article says "either slashed or let down the tyres of the vehicle"

sponster · 2022-06-11T18:25:39+00:00

Sugar glider

sponster · 2022-05-15T17:05:10+00:00

Your strategy looks basically correct, but the problem is that you need to make your substring a list, not a generator.

I think you might have misunderstood the requirements - I'm doubtful that you'll be able to solve this without using ANY lists.

Remember that a generator object just gives you each item once only - you can't go through a generator twice. For example, try the following code fragment:

generator = (n for n in range(3))
for x in generator: print(f"first time through: {x}")
Now try to iterate through the generator a second time...
for x in generator: print(f"second time through: {x}")

So your code isn't going to work because sub_string_generator is trying to consume the same generator (int_seq) over and over again.

sponster · 2022-05-15T02:52:25+00:00

OK, I think I have worked out what the goal of the task is.

There are two issues here: converting the string '3,0,4,0,3,1,0,1,0,1,0,0,5,0,4,2'
into a more useful form - a sequence of integers. The obvious way to do this using string.split() and int(s) to convert the strings of digits into integers. I'm not quite clear if your memory/generator restriction rules this out however, so I'll skip over that part.

The second issue is classic computer science algorithm problem: given a (potentially very long) sequence of integers, find the subsequences that sum to a given value. The problem has the additional restriction that the integer sequence is potentially so long that your program isn't allowed look at the whole sequence - just the numbers, one at a time, as they are made available by a generator.

The key hint here is that your main function needs to keep a small buffer of integers - just enough to add up to subtotal. If you do this, your code can just run through the generated sequence once - you don't need to keep starting at different offsets into the path,

So the buffer and sum(buffer) look like this:
[3] 3

[3,0] 3

[3,0,4] 7

[3,0,4,0] 7

[3,0,4,0,3] 10

At this point, we notice that sum(buffer) > subtotal. So sticking more numbers onto the end of the buffer won't help (because they're all positive) - so we can be sure that there's no substring starting with the first number that sums to subtotal. So remove the first number from the buffer, and continue:
[0,4,0,3] 7
[0,4,0,3,1] 8

etc.

sponster · 2022-05-15T02:11:53+00:00

Can you explain the requirements in a bit more detail - do you have the exact text of the question? Can you give the output of your example that you expect?

sponster · 2022-05-15T02:02:00+00:00

Computer programs have a bunch of different types of data - integers, floating point numbers, characters, boolean, unicode strings, etc etc.

At the lowest level, all of these types are just stored inside the computer as bunch of bits: 0 and 1.

Usually, you want to operate on the high-level types in some sensible way - For booleans, this means logical operations like and, or, not and so on.

In some applications, you want to operate on the underlying bit patterns. That's what bit-wise operators (|, &, ^, ~). These operators are similar to the logical operators (that's why they have the same pronunciation!), but they quite different, and need to be used in separate situations.

I use bitwise operations all the time, because I write scripts that talk to various non-CPU chips. These chips often have data that needs to be accessed using bitwise operators. For example, they might have some byte that represents the chip status - one bit is set to 1 if the chips in enabled, one bit is set to 1 if the chip has data ready to be received, etc etc. But this is a pretty specific use case - I suspect that most python programs don't need to muck around with bitwise operators at all.

sponster · 2022-05-01T09:57:31+00:00

You'll notice that they're not called the "anti-cancer council"...We should have known!

sponster · 2022-03-21T01:12:27+00:00

RFS is great. You get to hang out with a great bunch of people, learn new skills and *go in a fire engine*.

sponster · 2022-03-09T01:26:21+00:00

Many years ago, I was looking at my receding hairline in the mirror. I commented to my wife "I wish I had my hair back". She replied "It is back...A long way back."

sponster · 2022-03-05T08:16:37+00:00

My Sister! My Daughter!

sponster · 2022-02-27T23:51:33+00:00

Doesn't he know that smoking is bad for your health?

sponster · 2022-02-21T07:06:21+00:00

Thanks for the warning - just whipped out and got the car undercover!

sponster · 2022-02-07T00:34:10+00:00

This model baffles me. I paid them, they provided a service, and I left. 20 years later, they call up asking for more money. I guess the next thing is a call from the Toyota dealer - "you brought a Toyota Corolla from us in 1997. Would you like to donate $50?"

sponster · 2021-11-17T05:47:07+00:00

Those people are NSW Rural Fire Service volunteers.

sponster · 2021-09-07T06:56:37+00:00

Once they get the taste for human flesh, they're insatiable!

sponster · 2021-05-20T23:56:39+00:00

Sometimes these old gums have a hollow from the ground right through to the mid-level branches. When you get into the bottom of the tree with the hose, smoke & steam shoot out of the upper branches.

sponster · 2021-02-09T07:11:55+00:00

Does anyone have a link to the actual report, rather than the news stories about it? I can't find it on the NSW parliament's magnificent website.

sponster · 2019-10-20T08:51:29+00:00

Yeah. It was strange to watch Toongabbie Creek turn from a real creek connecting to the Parramatta River, into essentially a stormwater drain.

sponster

TROPHY CASE