Bertrand Meyer's technology+ blog
Software engineering, programming methodology, languages, verification, general technology, publication culture, and more
Sites
Tags
ACM Advance Alias Aliasing AutoTest Beethoven Breakthroughs Conferences Design by Contract Dijkstra DOSE Eiffel EiffelStudio Error ETH Frame problem Google Ground-breaking Hoare Hype ICSE IEEE Introduction to programming Invariant ITMO Java Loop Loop invariant Methodology Microsoft Word Microsoft Word MOOC Publication Research Robotics SCOOP Standards Style Technology Touch of Class Translation Turing VAMOC Void safety WirthCategories
- Administrative (2)
- Agile (7)
- Algorithms (7)
- Computer science (92)
- Concurrency (27)
- Conference (27)
- Design by Contract (32)
- Distributed software development (7)
- Education (38)
- Eiffel (50)
- Empirical Software Engineering (19)
- Essay (19)
- Eulogy (2)
- Europe (3)
- Formal methods and proofs (36)
- General technology (42)
- History (3)
- Language design (29)
- Limerick (3)
- Master, please explain (5)
- Memoir (1)
- Music (2)
- Numerics (2)
- Object technology (20)
- Personal (8)
- Photographs (1)
- Policy (13)
- Politics (8)
- Positions (4)
- Privacy (1)
- Prize (2)
- Programming techniques (53)
- Publication announcement (17)
- Publications (17)
- Puzzle (3)
- Reading notes (5)
- Recycled (3)
- Requirements (2)
- Research evaluation (20)
- Robotics (3)
- Security (2)
- Seminar (8)
- Software engineering (160)
- Software process (31)
- Software verification (48)
- Software design (34)
- Standardization (3)
- Talks (5)
- Testing (10)
- Theory (24)
- Uncategorized (2)
- User interface design (6)
- Video (2)
- Writing and style (16)
Recent Comments
- The understated breakthrough (2)
- Bertrand Meyer: Seeing this only now, sorry. So true. And not just Japanese companies. Even — can you believe...
- wpardijr: Dear professor Meyer, And seven years later, for the /same/ mysterious and unsubstantiated security risks,...
- Об опыте иностранца, говорящего по-русски (2)
- Bertrand Meyer: OK, sometime…
- bybor@yandex.ru: Would you mind telling a story of how you learned Russian? what was your motivation and how did it...
- From our “Problems you would like to have” department (2)
- mischael: I don’t think Germans and optimism are meant to be used in the same sentence. Disclaimer: I’m...
- Bertrand Meyer: Or coffers and optimism both running thin.
- Danke sehr! (2)
- Bertrand Meyer: There is no video, but I am writing up the presentation (very late) for the proceedings.
- Jim Plamondon: Where can I find the video of the talk online?
- In English this time: a Marseillaise for our age (2)
- Jim Plamondon: Australia’s national anthem is much more subtly racist. My favorite verse is this: While other...
- Accurately Analyzing Agility (1)
- @khanmjk: Hi, I recently completed your book. Thank you for sharing your insights, it is much needed! Too often...
- The understated breakthrough (2)
Archives
- September 2017 (1)
- June 2017 (5)
- May 2017 (1)
- March 2017 (1)
- December 2016 (1)
- November 2016 (2)
- September 2016 (2)
- May 2016 (1)
- February 2016 (1)
- October 2015 (1)
- September 2015 (1)
- July 2015 (4)
- March 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (2)
- January 2015 (2)
- December 2014 (2)
- September 2014 (5)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (1)
- June 2014 (4)
- May 2014 (2)
- April 2014 (2)
- March 2014 (4)
- February 2014 (1)
- January 2014 (5)
- November 2013 (4)
- October 2013 (5)
- September 2013 (2)
- August 2013 (4)
- July 2013 (1)
- May 2013 (12)
- April 2013 (3)
- March 2013 (2)
- February 2013 (9)
- January 2013 (4)
- December 2012 (8)
- November 2012 (4)
- October 2012 (7)
- August 2012 (1)
- July 2012 (4)
- June 2012 (1)
- April 2012 (3)
- March 2012 (3)
- February 2012 (4)
- January 2012 (4)
- December 2011 (3)
- November 2011 (4)
- October 2011 (3)
- September 2011 (1)
- August 2011 (4)
- July 2011 (5)
- June 2011 (6)
- May 2011 (3)
- March 2011 (1)
- November 2010 (3)
- October 2010 (3)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (2)
- June 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (3)
- April 2010 (3)
- March 2010 (1)
- February 2010 (1)
- January 2010 (4)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (1)
- October 2009 (5)
- September 2009 (1)
- August 2009 (17)
- July 2009 (1)
Get RSS feed
Meta
Eiffel Software
Expertyze
Home page at ETH
Informatics Europe
LASER summer school
Undefined until you tell us
In theory the next number can be anything, without having a clearly defined function it’s impossible to precisely predict which number could come up in series.
For the less theoretical approach the value for 6 would be 36, which could the imply the function f: x -> x^2
Now, am I too bold to guess a 36?
OK, I’ll bite…
The function is only defined for the domain values for which you have specified a result. Outside this domain, the result is undefined – strictly a precondition failure, as this is a partial function.
Am I warm? :-)
You can guess anything. My guess is square root of -3. It’s as valid as your guess, since the true answer is whatever function professor Meyer has in mind.
I guess since the question is what is the value for 6, then we can rule out a precondition violation.
my guess is that the function is y = x * x % 4294967296