2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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for values of
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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A common rhetorical maneuver at MIT is to use any of the canonical random
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numbers as placeholders for variables. The max function takes 42 arguments,
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for arbitrary values of 42.: There are 69 ways to leave your lover, for 69 =
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50. This is especially likely when the speaker has uttered a random number
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and realizes that it was not recognized as such, but even non-random numbers
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are occasionally used in this fashion. A related joke is that equals 3 for
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small values of and large values of 3. Historical note: at MIT this usage
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has traditionally been traced to the programming language MAD (Michigan
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Algorithm Decoder), an Algol-58-like language that was the most common
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choice among mainstream (non-hacker) users at MIT in the mid-60s. It
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inherited from Algol-58 a control structure FOR VALUES OF X = 3, 7, 99 DO.
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.. that would repeat the indicated instructions for each value in the list
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(unlike the usual FOR that only works for arithmetic sequences of values).
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MAD is long extinct, but similar for-constructs still flourish (e.g., in
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Unix's shell languages).
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