New: Book Report: Beautiful Code Chs 17-21

Another Level of Indirection / Diomidis Spinellis

I'm not exactly sure what I was supposed to get out of this essay. "Function pointers can be useful."? OK, the point of these essays was not to instruct me; the point was that people would write about beautiful code. Still, I keep hoping to learn things.

Update: I got an email from someone claiming to be Diomidis Spinellis:

My point was that layering abstractions is an elegant design that can bring about powerful synergies. Obviously I didn't make it too clear. Pointers are just a mechanism for implementing this policy.

Cheers,

Diomidis

Python's Dictionary Implementation / Andrew Kuchling

Because Python uses dictionaries for just about everything, it has some interesting use cases. I liked the Special Accommodations section here; I also liked the discussion of the Free List.

Multidimensional Iterators in NumPy / Travis E. Oliphant

This essay mostly lost me. It explained the problem OK, but then it started talking about the solution and the special data structures useful for that solution... and just lost me.

A Highly Reliable Enterprise System for NASA's Mars Rover Mission / Ronald Mak

"Middleware... java beans..." I'm sorry, my brain just went into emergency shutdown mode. Skipping to next chapter.

ERP5 / Regerio Atem de Carvalho and Rafael Monnerat

It's a flexible content management system. That's good, because no two people can agree on how they want their content management system to work. I didn't pay much attention to this chapter, though.

Labels: ,

Posted 2008-01-27