Code dump

Coding is art, so I'll start it off w/ this:

static void Process(int count)
        {
            for (int i = 1; i < count; i += 2)
            {
                int iSquared = (i * i);

                if (((iSquared) - 1) % 8 == 0)
                {
                    int result = ((iSquared - 1) / 8);
                    Console.WriteLine(i + "^2 = " + iSquared + " - 1 = " + ((iSquared) - 1) + " / 8 = " + result);
                }
                else
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("false");
                }
            }
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

I started a bit of a ruckus with these few lines, discussion:

• Here (my initial post on my weblog)
• Here (Math major, now works for Microsoft)
• Here (more in depth explanation)

This is a replacement for boost::lexical_cast, for when you can't use boost. (C++)

template <typename T>
T lexical_cast(const std::string& s)
{
    std::stringstream ss(s);

    T result;
    if ((ss >> result).fail() || !(ss >> std::ws).eof())
    {
        throw std::bad_cast();
    }

    return result;
}

Its surprising to see code that has even been as far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like.

I saw this elegant piece of code at DevDays Toronto (no, I'm not smart enough to come up with code like this). It's in C/C++, and it's replacement for strcpy:

while(*p++=*q++);

Unfortunately, due to strong type casting and bounding checks, it doesn't quite work for Java. The closest you can get is this:

while((p[i++]=q[j++])!=0);

...which is nowhere as elegant, and the lack of null terminated Strings in Java means it's pretty pointless. Oh well, you really shouldn't be using strcpy anyways, but this is still pretty elegant.

Could somebody please post some instructions for how to use X.Static's code?
I like playing around with Triangular numbers from time to time.
I find them useful in designing some types of games as well.

I did try sticking it in a bat file but that didn't seem to work, as whenever I opened it it would only flash on the screen for a moment before disappearing.

It needs to be compiled into an executable, which I might be nice enough to do for you :-).

Statics code is in C#, you can download the Express version of Visual Studio.

And kwogger, there in't really a choice in C, you have to use strcpy (which is usually just implemented by your code).

Anyone doing anything w/ F#? That's my next language I'm gonna tackle, it has a really promising premise behind it, plus it's based of ocaml which I always had a strange fascination with. I actually just like functional programming in general, mutable typing drives me crazy some times.

Someone I played TF2 with once suggested Clojure, which is functional. F# looks too meh.

Don't forget if you're a college student, MS wants to get you addicted to their shit from the very start: Dreamspark. Sponsored by MS, lotsa free MS programming software.