OPEN "filename.txt" FOR BINARY AS #1
PRINT INT(LOF(1) / 5.1)
CLOSE #1
I was born in the early 80s. My father was a programmer then and would read Computer Weekly magazine. They'd have regular competitions to write simple programs, which would be marked for things like speed, complexity and accuracy. My father told me about a time the challenge was to write a word counter. He walked me through the basic ideas, like looping through characters and counting spaces. But what about the multiple spaces between paragraphs and hyphenated words? It wasn't as simple as it seemed. He was setting me up to appreciate the winner. No for loops, no exceptions, just divide the file size by 5.1, the average length of a word in the English language.
He really laid a seed in me with that story. How intriguing that, as long as the file wasn't too small, such a simple trick could compete on accuracy with more "correct" solutions. I saw that programming wasn't just a mechanical task but one of creativity, flair and surprise.
Using the name touch for a command that silently wipes out the content of existing files sounds like a very bad idea. The real touch command doesn't do that of course.
tombh | 6 hours ago
May I add my own:
I was born in the early 80s. My father was a programmer then and would read Computer Weekly magazine. They'd have regular competitions to write simple programs, which would be marked for things like speed, complexity and accuracy. My father told me about a time the challenge was to write a word counter. He walked me through the basic ideas, like looping through characters and counting spaces. But what about the multiple spaces between paragraphs and hyphenated words? It wasn't as simple as it seemed. He was setting me up to appreciate the winner. No for loops, no exceptions, just divide the file size by 5.1, the average length of a word in the English language.
He really laid a seed in me with that story. How intriguing that, as long as the file wasn't too small, such a simple trick could compete on accuracy with more "correct" solutions. I saw that programming wasn't just a mechanical task but one of creativity, flair and surprise.
susam | 4 hours ago
Mine was: FD 100
gavinmorrow | 3 hours ago
Me too! I started with the comic book series Secret Coders. It taught Logo with a bunch of plot mixed in. Super fun.
donio | 3 hours ago
Using the name
touchfor a command that silently wipes out the content of existing files sounds like a very bad idea. The real touch command doesn't do that of course.isagalaev | 4 hours ago
I always preferred
outlinetoborderfor CSS debugging as it doesn't change the size of the box.tonyarkles | 2 hours ago
POKE 36879, __