Ralf Hemmecke wrote:
>
> > The code is equivalent given initial conditions. #listpol different
> > than 3 does not make sense for this function.
>
> No matter what. Just because nobody bothered to write some
> documentation, I have just wasted one hour of my life. :-(
Well, you got confused because:
1) the 'while' loop in original code was confusing. It is
gone now...
2) Using list to "pack" univariate gcd and cofactors. We could
try to rewrite it using separate record fields. But there
is still potential for confusion because of sepecial cases.
> And there will probably be many more hours wasted by people who come
> after us and try to understand this code. Undocumented code is a time
> sink! I'm not going to invest any more time into that.
>
> That all makes me more than sad.
Well, you imagine how things should work and if they do not work
that way you are sad. I do not count hours spend on PGCD.
I do not consider it wasted time. Simply, things take
time. And my impression is that if your purpose was
understanding PGCD, than you approached it in rather
inefficient way. First, it is unreasonable to expect
that you will immediately understand a routine inside
in isolation: the routines are part of single algorithm
and each operate in context created by other routines.
If you want to track code line-by-line you need to
start from entry point and reconstruct the context.
Second, you have running code. Running it and adding
diagnostic printouts may show what happens much
faster than static analysis of code. Third, there
is literature. While specific things about say
variable use can be only answered by code, literature
gives you general picture. Fourth, we have this mailing
list and you can ask questions here. My impression is
that when you have specific question, it typically
get answered.
--
Waldek Hebisch
[email protected]
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