Thursday, November 13, 2008

Random book meme thing from the Django planet

"A syntax error occurs when the string of input tokens is not a sentence in the language." From Modern Compiler Implementation in Java, Appel.

I've spent a pretty frustrating 24 hours+ (sleep included) trying to grade a ridiculous exam, so I felt like doing something silly. From Eric Florenzo's blog (et al):

  • Grab the nearest book.
  • Open it to page 56.
  • Find the fifth sentence.
  • Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
  • Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

My quote was dumb. Too bad that book was the closest, instead of the Dragon book (or the only non-textbook in vicinity, Chainfire by Terry Goodkind)...I think it's time to rearrange my shelf.

6 comments:

James said...

"'Rather like trying to dismount in midgallop while racing along a ridgeline,' the tall prohet said." Funnily enough, from Phantom by Terry Goodkind, which I assume is later in the series? I actually couldn't get into it (maybe I should start at the beginning?)

saiyr said...

SPOILERSSSSS yeah, from the beginning is probably better. Can't really tell since I haven't read Phantom, yet, but if you don't like the first book you probably won't like the rest.

Unknown said...

"Fibonacci numbers are related to the golden ratio Φ and to its conjugate Φ', which are given by the following formulas:"

I'm at work and CLRS was closest :(

saiyr said...

Yeah, Chainfire was actually the farthest away from me. It comes after CLRS, TAPL, the Dragon book, and the one I quoted (maybe not in that order).

Anonymous said...

"Since the instruction consists of a single word containing both an opcode and an 8-bit offset, the queue advances, another program word is fetched, and execution continues with the next instruction."

I think mine may actually be worse than yours. I ended up grabbing a microcontroller assembly reference manual =\

G said...

"Cigarettes are brought round, stacked in a large lacquer box like artillery shells in a crate."

Well that sucks.

(Cryptonimicon by Neal Stephenson)