https://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2020/Archive/EE...

In chapter 1 they provide an example of (using Erlang syntax, completely untested so probably needs some massaging to run as I'm rusty on Erlang) this scenario, which would be deterministic in Erlang:

  counter() -> counter(1).
  counter(N) ->
    receive
      dbl -> counter(N*2);
      {inc, Arg} ->
        N1 = N1 + Arg,
        io:format("~w~n", [N1]),
        counter(N1)
    end.

  main() ->
    P = spawn(counter),
    P ! dbl,
    P ! {inc, 1}.

  relay() ->
    receive
      P -> P ! dbl
    end,
    relay(P).

  main_with_relay() ->
    P = spawn(counter),
    R = spawn(relay),
    R ! P,    % <- trouble starts here
    P ! {inc, 1}.

The work in LF lets you write this (don't ask me how, still reading) so that the relay would be logically instantaneous even if physically it wasn't, consequently the dbl message would arrive "first" by logical time and the counter would process things as in the original Erlang code.

Of course, you can make the Erlang relay behavior deterministic, but you have to add extra code to achieve it. LF apparently gives you a simpler way to get the desired determinism without having to write the extra code yourself, it's baked into its semantics.

The four attributes:

- Count: 3 in each; "all the same"

- Color: red, purple, green; "all different"

- Shape: diamonds, ovals, squiggles; "all different"

- Shading: empty, solid, striped; "all different"

So for each attribute the conditions are met, they are either all the same or all different.

What do you mean? The retirement planning with Monte-Carlo gave a better result than the base assumption of 4% returns and 2% inflation. The information MC provides let's you, when taking into account your risk threshold, whether you're satisfied with your savings or not by giving you more realistic odds of how long the money will last.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5318644 - March 4, 2013 (62 comments)

That's the opposite of what NDEBUG does. https://en.cppreference.com/cpp/error/assert

Critical bit:

> 1) If NDEBUG is defined as a macro name at the point in the source code where or is included, the assertion is disabled: assert does nothing.

It also is impossible to guarantee it unless you're the only one compiling the program. If you've built a library that others can build and relied on asserts executing for your library to be correct, you wrote a bad library.

EDIT: Neither asserts nor these C++26 contract features should be used in a way that requires that they be executed. If you do, you're using them wrong because it is valid for someone to disable them as runtime checks. If the code must run, you should use some other mechanism, I'd recommend an if statement.

What makes you so certain it's inevitable?

It was an op-ed, it's inappropriate to edit those heavily. So they either had to accept it more or less as submitted (with the usual basic editing around grammar, clarity, and typos), or not accept it. If they'd rewritten it, it would not have been an op-ed by Druckenmiller anymore, but someone else's interpretation of his submission.

This is also true of assert, though. It can be compiled out so shouldn't be used for anything that must run.

Exactly, that's why they never made music players or cellphones...

A solved problem doesn't mean it's solved within their ecosystem and making them money. You can go out and buy a Google or Amazon device to do many (or even all) of the same functions, but that's not making Apple money, and they rarely integrate well with Apple's other devices and accounts. This isn't confusing.

Your parents never taught you how to balance a checkbook? That's just basic arithmetic, are you sure you were "formed to work in an office" when you can't even manage your own finances? Sounds like you weren't formed for anything, not even basic self-care.

Trivially falsifiable statement, just read the comments in this thread:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076266

>> But their great idea to deal with the shortage is intermittent availability of power.

In other words: rationing.

Just a simple example, but the conditional branch occurs on line 14 of the generated assembly. It does a comparison (line 13) and then a conditional jump (jl, line 14).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31062369 - April 20, 2022 (45 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25012425 - Nov 7, 2020 (28 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17913668 - Sept 4, 2018 (69 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9907556 - July 18, 2015 (5 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9588316 - May 22, 2015 (5 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7926141 - June 21, 2014 (10 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1311282 - May 1, 2010 (17 comments)