Type safety means that the compiler will validate types while compiling, and throw an error if you try to assign the wrong type to a variable. Some simple examples: // Fails, Trying to put an integer in a string String one = 1; // Also fails. int foo = “bar”; This also applies to method … Read more
Code coverage is a measurement of how many lines/blocks/arcs of your code are executed while the automated tests are running. Code coverage is collected by using a specialized tool to instrument the binaries to add tracing calls and run a full set of automated tests against the instrumented product. A good tool will give you … Read more
I assume entropy was mentioned in the context of building decision trees. To illustrate, imagine the task of learning to classify first-names into male/female groups. That is given a list of names each labeled with either m or f, we want to learn a model that fits the data and can be used to predict … Read more
A Y-combinator is a “functional” (a function that operates on other functions) that enables recursion, when you can’t refer to the function from within itself. In computer-science theory, it generalizes recursion, abstracting its implementation, and thereby separating it from the actual work of the function in question. The benefit of not needing a compile-time name … Read more
Usually, I replace a recursive algorithm by an iterative algorithm by pushing the parameters that would normally be passed to the recursive function onto a stack. In fact, you are replacing the program stack by one of your own. var stack = []; stack.push(firstObject); // while not empty while (stack.length) { // Pop off end … Read more
Two’s complement is a clever way of storing integers so that common math problems are very simple to implement. To understand, you have to think of the numbers in binary. It basically says, for zero, use all 0’s. for positive integers, start counting up, with a maximum of 2(number of bits – 1)-1. for negative … Read more
Variable scope When you declare a local variable, that variable has a scope. Generally, local variables exist only within the block or function in which you declare them. function() { var a = 1; console.log(a); // works } console.log(a); // fails If I try to access a local variable, most languages will look for it … Read more
If you think about the Greek roots of the term, it should become obvious. Poly = many: polygon = many-sided, polystyrene = many styrenes (a), polyglot = many languages, and so on. Morph = change or form: morphology = study of biological form, Morpheus = the Greek god of dreams able to take any form. … Read more
Tries, also known as prefix-trees or crit-bit trees, have existed for over 40 years but are still relatively unknown. A very cool use of tries is described in “TRASH – A dynamic LC-trie and hash data structure”, which combines a trie with a hash function.
Lambda comes from the Lambda Calculus and refers to anonymous functions in programming. Why is this cool? It allows you to write quick throw away functions without naming them. It also provides a nice way to write closures. With that power you can do things like this. Python def adder(x): return lambda y: x + … Read more