Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • Egads, something is amiss. I hit quote on Lynn's last post and it quoted Gail's post one prior to Lynn's!

    -- You can't be late until you show up.

  • If you want a weird programming language, look at Whitespace.

    Is that band still touring? I thought they broke up.

    __________________________________________________

    Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain. -- Friedrich Schiller
    Stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. -- Stephen Stills

  • [font="Verdana"]Check out this chunk of code, posted by Adam Machanic on Phil Factor's blog:

    SELECT

    UPPER(RIGHT(LEFT(@@VERSION,2),1))+SUBSTRING(MiR,1,15%6)+RIGHT(LEFT

    (CONVERT(VARCHAR,[c6[[447]),4),1)+CHAR(CAST(STUFF(ZuB,2,0,REPLICATE('0',

    1))AS INT))+(SELECT(SUBSTRING(name,3,1))FROM[master]..[sysdatabases]

    WHERE(dbid)=(SELECT(MIN(dbid))FROM[master]..[sysdatabases]))+COALESCE(

    SUBSTRING([c6[[447],0^1034,((15-10)/5)-1),SPACE(1))+LEFT(SPACE(1)+RIGHT(

    [rD9 005],LEN([rD9 005])-(ASCII('9')-ASCII('0'))),2)+SUBSTRING([556 X10.]

    ,2,1)+RIGHT(REVERSE(rNNNNNNoPZZ),1)+SUBSTRING([rD9 005],7,1)+[64]+CHAR

    (ASCII(RIGHT(REVERSE(MiR),1))-14)+RIGHT(MiR,1)+CHAR(ASCII(LEFT(MiR,1))

    -(ASCII(LEFT(REVERSE(MiR),1))-ASCII(LEFT(MiR,1))))+CHAR(ASCII(LEFT(

    (SELECT(SUBSTRING(REVERSE(rNNNNNNoPZZ),3,2))x00R),1))-4)+RIGHT(LEFT

    ([c6[[447],6),2)+RIGHT([556 X10.],1)+('?')FROM(SELECT(STUFF(SUBSTRING(

    DB_NAME(1),3,2),2,0,CHAR(32))),CONVERT(VARCHAR,low+high-1)FROM[master]

    ..[spt_values][xR234]WHERE((xR234.type)='P')AND(xR234.number)=105)

    [x4401C6](MiR,ZuB),(SELECT TOP 1(0x72723668626C6C4D78785A3437),name,

    (TYPE_NAME)FROM[master]..sysobjects,master..[spt_datatype_info]WHERE

    CONVERT(varbinary,name)=(0x730070005F004D00530072006500740072006900)

    +(0X6500760065005F007000)AND(ss_dtype)=(34)ORDER BY(id))[889R U]([c6[[447],

    [rD9 005],[556 X10.]),(SELECT(MIN(SUBSTRING(name,6,5))), MAX(RIGHT(name,

    1))FROM[master]..[syscolumns]WHERE(name)=CONVERT(varchar,0x646174615F707265636973696F6E

    ))MxxxxxB01(rNNNNNNoPZZ,[64])

    [/font]

  • Bruce W Cassidy (5/6/2009)


    [font="Verdana"]Does anyone remember a language called Algol? I believe that in the original form, it had no concept of "reserved words", so it was perfectly valid to write expressions like:

    if if then then else else

    Of course, you could really confuse matters with:

    if else then if else then

    ... Or was that PL/1?

    Bring back PROLOG, I say!

    [/font]

    Yup, I do. Algol/68 was the first language we were taught at school. And no, you couldn't do that, I guess.

    What was quite (not so) funny was that we had to do our assignments on mark-reading sheets with pencil (these things that look like Lotto tickets, just in A4 size). One character per column. Lots of pages to get the mainframe to do basically nothing but add up two numbers. Then you would submit it to the teacher, and if you didn't make smudges by using an eraser to correct an error in column 15 of line 20 on one of the sheets he would in his absence of mind pour his coffee over the stack at home while watching Kojak, then haul the stuff to the data centre. Three weeks later you get one of these wide endless paper printouts back (remember those, fabulously, marvelousl, incredibly fast printers, just a bit finicky if paper wasn't properly slotted in) saying "SYNTAX ERROR IN LINE 1." :w00t:

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A little knowledge is a dangerous thing (Alexander Pope)
    In order for us to help you as efficiently as possible, please read this before posting (courtesy of Jeff Moden)[/url]

  • Bruce W Cassidy (5/6/2009)


    Jan Van der Eecken (5/6/2009)


    What is DDL?

    [font="Verdana"]It's a spray that you apply liberally to rid yourself of unwanted pests. :w00t:[/font]

    You meant "Posts"?

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A little knowledge is a dangerous thing (Alexander Pope)
    In order for us to help you as efficiently as possible, please read this before posting (courtesy of Jeff Moden)[/url]

  • [font="Verdana"]Algol 68 was a later revision to the language. However, it may have been the first version of PL/1. Been, er, 20 years since I looked at either, so memory is a bit rusty.[/font]

  • Great feature, [] works even for multi-line:

    CREATE TABLE [

    ] ([.] INT, [

    ] INT, [ ]]

    ] INT,"""" INT)

    INSERT INTO [

    ] SELECT 1, 2, 3, 4

    SELECT []]].[

    ], [,].[ ]]

    ] [[], [,].["],[[[

    ].[

    ],[,].[.]

    FROM [

    ] []]], [

    ] [[[

    ],[

    ] ","

    DROP TABLE [

    ]

  • Lynn Pettis (5/6/2009)


    Bruce W Cassidy (5/6/2009)


    [font="Verdana"]Does anyone remember a language called Algol? I believe that in the original form, it had no concept of "reserved words", so it was perfectly valid to write expressions like:

    if if then then else else

    Of course, you could really confuse matters with:

    if else then if else then

    ... Or was that PL/1?

    Bring back PROLOG, I say!

    [/font]

    I taught myself Algol when the teachers went on strike while I was in high school back in '76. I don't remember it not having the concept of reserved words. I remember you had different routines to print numerics and text. I found it to be an interesting language, and preferred it to Fortran. It also made learning Pascal, Modula-2, and Ada much easier.

    I'd love it if someone came out with PROLOG.NET. I had the Borland Turbo Prolog and found it a fun language to play with as well.

    Quoting worked now. Anyway, thanks Lynn. I was in HS back then too. At least I know I have someone here somewhere around MY age. And I remember all the languages. I thought FORTRAN was pretty cool. Pascal and PL/I as well. I remember in college (still the "hippie" days) taking FORTRAN, card punches/readers as well. I swear the prof I had was a "love" child, small, skinny, white, male, Afro, mustache, head band. I can picture it like yesterday. But, hey, we we're cutting edge at the time - and thankfully still pretty close to that edge. Thanks for the flashback, or maybe it was all that LSD 😉 - (look it up youngsters, reference Timothy Leary!).

    -- You can't be late until you show up.

  • tosscrosby (5/6/2009)


    Egads, something is amiss. I hit quote on Lynn's last post and it quoted Gail's post one prior to Lynn's!

    It happens if someone's posted a reply since the page you're viewing was rendered. Known bug.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • RBarryYoung (5/6/2009)


    Grant Fritchey (5/6/2009)


    Lynn Pettis (5/6/2009)


    sorry, crushed you will be.

    I don't know. I met Barry at the PASS Summit last year. He sounded a bit like Darth... an avuncular friendly Darth, but Darth none the less.

    Great. Now I have to go look up "avuncular" just so I can tell if Grant is really dissing me!

    🙂

    After you look it up... will you still be sure?

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • Bob Hovious(5/6/2009)


    If you want a weird programming language, look at Whitespace.

    Is that band still touring? I thought they broke up.

    "Here I go again on my own"

  • Bruce W Cassidy (5/6/2009)


    [font="Verdana"]Check out this chunk of code, posted by Adam Machanic on Phil Factor's blog:

    SELECT

    UPPER(RIGHT(LEFT(@@VERSION,2),1))+SUBSTRING(MiR,1,15%6)+RIGHT(LEFT

    (CONVERT(VARCHAR,[c6[[447]),4),1)+CHAR(CAST(STUFF(ZuB,2,0,REPLICATE('0',

    1))AS INT))+(SELECT(SUBSTRING(name,3,1))FROM[master]..[sysdatabases]

    etc.

    etc.[/font]

    Am reminded of a story a senior programmer told me years ago about how he was given a COBOL program written by an old assembler expert. All the paragraph and section names were binary numbers (P000000000001, P000000000010, P000000000011, P000000000100, etc.). And of course the logic was full of GO TO DEPENDING ON. statements. Apparently the original author took umbrage at the new guy changing the names to use more natural language.

  • OK, new avatar. This is what I ask myself when I look in the mirror.

  • From the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary:

    1 : of or relating to an uncle

    2 : suggestive of an uncle especially in kindliness or geniality

  • Alvin Ramard (5/6/2009)


    And Flo?

    Nothing to hide. Just updated my profile picture 😉

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