The Evolution of a Python Programmer

Aleksandar Micovic — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:42:09 +0000

A while back, clever snippets of code portraying how different people programming in Python went about solving the same problem, appeared on the internet. Needless to say, it was pretty funny and despite its popularity, not many people seem to know of it when I bring it up. Being as lazy as I am when it comes to these sorts of things, I am blogging about it now. Almost three years later. It has been posted and reposted dozens of times, but full of geek pride, I can proudly say that I helped create it by correcting some of the mistakes in the original. How’s that for major geek cred?

The original is right here, if you’re interested.

Newbie Programmer

def factorial(x):
    if x == 0:
        return 1
    else:
        return x * factorial(x - 1)
print factorial(6)

First Year Programmer (Studied Pascal)

def factorial(x):
    result = 1
    i = 2
    while i <= x:
        result = result * i
        i = i + 1
    return result
print factorial(6)

First Year Programmer (Studied C)

def fact(x): #{
    result = i = 1;
    while (i <= x): #{
        result *= i;
        i += 1;
    #}
    return result;
#}
print(fact(6))

First Year Programmer (Read SICP)

@tailcall
def fact(x, acc=1):
    if (x > 1): return (fact((x - 1), (acc * x)))
    else:       return acc
print(fact(6))

First Year Programmer (Python)

def Factorial(x):
    res = 1
    for i in xrange(2, x + 1):
        res *= i
    return res
print Factorial(6)

Lazy Python Programmer

1
2
3

def fact(x):
    return x > 1 and x * fact(x - 1) or 1
print fact(6)

Lazier Python Programmer

1 2	f = lambda x: x and x * f(x - 1) or 1 print f(6)

Python Expert Programmer

1 2	fact = lambda x: reduce(int.__mul__, xrange(2, x + 1), 1) print fact(6)

Python Hacker

import sys
@tailcall
def fact(x, acc=1):
    if x: return fact(x.__sub__(1), acc.__mul__(x))
    return acc
sys.stdout.write(str(fact(6)) + '\n')

EXPERT PROGRAMMER

1 2	from c_math import fact print fact(6)

BRITISH EXPERT PROGRAMMER

1 2	from c_maths import fact print fact(6)

Web Designer

def factorial(x):
    #-------------------------------------------------
    #--- Code snippet from The Math Vault          ---
    #--- Calculate factorial (C) Arthur Smith 1999 ---
    #-------------------------------------------------
    result = str(1)
    i = 1 #Thanks Adam
    while i <= x:
        #result = result * i  #It's faster to use *=
        #result = str(result * result + i)
           #result = int(result *= i) #??????
        result = str(int(result) * i)
        #result = int(str(result) * i)
        i = i + 1
    return result
print factorial(6)

Unix Programmer

import os
def fact(x):
    os.system('factorial ' + str(x))
fact(6)

Windows Programmer

NULL = None
def CalculateAndPrintFactorialEx(dwNumber,
                                 hOutputDevice,
                                 lpLparam,
                                 lpWparam,
                                 lpsscSecurity,
                                 *dwReserved):
    if lpsscSecurity != NULL:
        return NULL #Not implemented
    dwResult = dwCounter = 1
    while dwCounter <= dwNumber:
        dwResult *= dwCounter
        dwCounter += 1
    hOutputDevice.write(str(dwResult))
    hOutputDevice.write('\n')
    return 1
import sys
CalculateAndPrintFactorialEx(6, sys.stdout, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL)

Enterprise Programmer

def new(cls, *args, **kwargs):
    return cls(*args, **kwargs)
 
class Number(object):
    pass
 
class IntegralNumber(int, Number):
    def toInt(self):
        return new (int, self)
 
class InternalBase(object):
    def __init__(self, base):
        self.base = base.toInt()
 
    def getBase(self):
        return new (IntegralNumber, self.base)
 
class MathematicsSystem(object):
    def __init__(self, ibase):
        Abstract
 
    @classmethod
    def getInstance(cls, ibase):
        try:
            cls.__instance
        except AttributeError:
            cls.__instance = new (cls, ibase)
        return cls.__instance
 
class StandardMathematicsSystem(MathematicsSystem):
    def __init__(self, ibase):
        if ibase.getBase() != new (IntegralNumber, 2):
            raise NotImplementedError
        self.base = ibase.getBase()
 
    def calculateFactorial(self, target):
        result = new (IntegralNumber, 1)
        i = new (IntegralNumber, 2)
        while i <= target:
            result = result * i
            i = i + new (IntegralNumber, 1)
        return result
 
print StandardMathematicsSystem.getInstance(new (InternalBase, new (IntegralNumber, 2))).calculateFactorial(new (IntegralNumber, 6))

Recursively Removing .svn

Aleksandar Micovic — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:51:45 +0000

I recently started working on an assignment that required me to copy some code from another repository. I did just that, but had a little trouble trying to add the new stuff to my new repository. After about a minute or two I realized that all of the newly copied old code still had the hidden folder .svn…in every directory. I was copying an OS kernel, so there were quite a bit of these .svns sticking around. They needed to go if I was going to add any of my code into my repository.

How did I remove them? Like this.

find . -name .svn -print0 | xargs -0 rm -rf

Aleks' Domain » Programming