Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble

[elfs]

Sometimes, what I do feels like incantation. I wanted a word count on my "working directory" displays, which I maintain using python scripts. Once upon a time, this would have taken me a few lines. Maybe ten or so. And then I learned Ruby. I learned the difference between a fold, a filter, and a transform. And I learned when to do which.

def wc(f): return Numeric.sum([len(i.split()) for i in open(f, "r") if i])

I don't get paid enough for knowing this stuff.

Comments

[funos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, stuff like list comps and map and filter do feel like magic at times. Not because they are incomprehensible, but because they are so wonderful!

I guess the same was said of for loops when one moved to them from assembly.