Talk:Words containing "the" substring

Trivial task

This seems to me to be just a trivial subtask of String matching. Can we have more original tasks and less pointless busywork please? Thebigh (talk) 09:36, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

The Rosetta Code task  String matching  doesn't handle a dictionary,   and because this task uses a dictionary,   there are   (or should be)   more concerns such as (possible extra) whitespace   (either tabs and/or leading/trailing blanks,   and/or double words)   in the dictionary as well as handling caseless searches   (although the particular dictionary specified has no capital letters in it,   nor duplicate words).   Another restriction is the situation when a word in the dictionary that is too short   (as per the task requirements).   Also, a minor detail is counting the number of words found and also possibly showing the number of words found (searched) in the dictionary.     -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 17:13, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

<quote>doesn't handle a dictionary</quote> So? <quote>this task uses a dictionary</quote> So? <quote>whitespace ... double words ... in the dictionary ... caseless searches</quote> So? The dictionary to use was specified. Which makes all of that completely besides the point. <quote>counting the number of words</quote> Where is there ANY mention or requirement to count the words?

Those are all incidental and peripheral to the task. It also doesn't specify to power your computer on first. I suppose I should look forward to the task "Turn on your computer then find words containing "the" substring" because "Thatss completetly diffent!!1!1" Sheesh. --Thundergnat (talk) 17:48, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

I agree. Finding a substring of a string is just problem 2 of String matching, and reading in a dictionary first is a trivial addition- especially since so many of the recent tasks involve reading in the same dictionary. Thebigh (talk) 18:20, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

I'll try to answer the   "So?"   queries as politely as possible and keep my answers as civil as possible, ignoring your use of a strawman augment.   The addition of reading/processing the words in a dictionary (file) is somewhat trivial,   but it is part of the task,   and part of Rosetta Code's purpose is to compare how different computer programming languages (and programmers) implement even small requirements, albeit maybe somewhat trivial,   but not incidental.   I don't know what the author of this task considers incidental,   but I won't say that he considers it trivial or not.   As trivial as it seems,   it is necessary to read/process the input file (the dictionary) and it is one of the task's requirements (although implied),   but different computer programming languages could do it much differently and/or simply;   SAS  and  APL   come to mind.   I don't understand the need to mention your non sequitur comment about powering on your computer first.   Furthermore, I never said nor implied that the showing the number of substrings found was a task requirement.   It's common sense   (but not required)   to either show a running index count of the words found   (especially if the number of words found isn't easily countable),   or a summary total at the end of the displayed list,   but that is something the programmer decides to implement  (or not).     -- Gerard Schildberger (talk) 19:11, 6 December 2020 (UTC)