Thursday, June 28, 2012

Both True and False...

If you're a programmer, you probably think of a boolean variable as having one of exactly two distinct states: “true” and “false”.  The value of that variable is either true or false.  It can't possibly be both.

Oh, yes it can!

Well, in “C”, at least, and probably in other languages that are relatively close to machine language.

Which got me to thinking...  The rise of languages like Java, JavaScript, and C# – all of which nearly completely abstract the underlying computing machinery away – is an enabler of the current programming world in which developers can be quite successful without ever understanding how computers actually work.  With languages like “C” (or assembly language), that just isn't so...

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