# What HOLY BLOOD WARS exist in your profession? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 14, 2013, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300 "2013-05-14T07:08:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/61 "2013-05-15T22:47:15Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > It entirely depends on what games you are playing. First person shooters, world building games, and strategy games - all best on the PC. Lengthy RPGs? Work just fine on the controller. Maybe. I have yet to play a game that wasn’t better, IMVHO, because I had all those mappable keys to establish my own control pattern. I really don’t have any horse in the race. I have always played my games on a PC, because I always have a 95%+ performance system for the work I do. So it’s no issue to keep a powerful, fully updated system around. I understand the convenience of consoles… but in the end, five-button mash just doesn’t translate to satisfying game play for me. Example: Batman: Arkham Asylum is a game I love everything about… but after an hour of “combat” via mashity-mashity-mash, I just don’t care any more. Everything else is a side issue for me. We have a Wii, XBox, XBox360 and NES (8-bit) upstairs that get quite a workout by kids who also play a lot on their PCs. But fine-granularity control is a deal breaker for me. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/62 "2013-05-15T22:47:55Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > Oooh, comment etiquette reminds me of another one. I’ve met several programmers who very much despise comments, and argue that if you need to comment your code, you’re a terrible programmer and need to write better, clearer code. > > For the record, this is one I vehemently disagree with. While I agree that overcommenting or “obvious commenting” (time=Now // sets the time to now) is a real problem, I disagree with the notion that all code must be inherently intuitive, even when done right. Sometimes the “right way” to do things is just naturally unintuitive without a comment, especially if you’re optimizing. Gawd yes on that one. I ain’t much (aint no more for that matter) but “we” did first principle physics simulations. The code per say wasn’t that “fancy” but geezus, having to look at every line of code and recognize that this was equation X, or part of equation X, or subroutine that did mathematical part Y would have been a nightmare for anyone other than the guy that wrote the shit in the first place. You’d almost have to redirive/come up with again every damn math equation/approximation. IMO you almost couldn’t over comment that shit. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/63 "2013-05-15T22:57:31Z")
> [@Student\_Driver](#): > > One that is hopefully about to end with the new FDA ruling: whether or not to sell Plan B while it’s still available from behind the counter. Some chains still allow individual pharmacists to choose whether or not to stock it, or to not sell it even if it’s carried in-store (where another pharmacist in the same store may have a completely different opinion. My pharmacy has 3 full-time pharmacists, all of whom willingly sell it; many of our “floater” pharmacists, however, refuse, and if they happen to be the head pharmacist on duty at the time, they enforce their preference. There have been a few heated discussions over it at my store, and i imagine it’s much the same at other pharmacies. > > Of course, once it goes OTC, dissenting pharmacists may simply deactivate replenishment at store level and simply not carry it on the shelves, so it may continue to be an issue. When Plan B came out, the hospital where I worked decided to keep it in the ER, and our director called a meeting to see if we had any (his words) conscientious objectors, although he didn’t need to know right then. One did speak up - a woman who spent 99% of her time doing clinical duties and probably wouldn’t have handled it anyway. Another pharmacist said he sometimes did relief work in a college town about an hour’s drive away, and said that their Planned Parenthood clinic, which did not do abortions, would write prescriptions for Plan B with 11 refills. You need a prescription for insurance coverage, which is why this is done. Anyway, he had a real problem with that because he was concerned that some women might use it as Plan A. I couldn’t imagine someone actually doing that, because the side effects can be dreadful. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/64 "2013-05-15T23:13:06Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Gawd yes on that one. > > I ain’t much (aint no more for that matter) but “we” did first principle physics simulations. The code per say wasn’t that “fancy” but geezus, having to look at every line of code and recognize that this was equation X, or part of equation X, or subroutine that did mathematical part Y would have been a nightmare for anyone other than the guy that wrote the shit in the first place. You’d almost have to redirive/come up with again every damn math equation/approximation. IMO you almost couldn’t over comment that shit. I’ve seen some really bad math comments before, say you have w = 3\*(x\*x) + 4 I’ve seem some people do this: // Adds four to three times the square of x Of course, the actually useful bit on information would be // This sets the weight’s value to the derivative of the function we used above (x^3+4x) I think a lot of comment opponents are used to seeing the former type of comment, and come to the conclusion that comments are “useless” if you have good variable and function naming conventions. And they’re right, good style should absolutely be used instead of the former type of comment. However, good comments should be used to fill in the gaps in your code. Things that are precalculated outside of the program, weird leaps in logic, unintuitive caching schemes, [crazy but powerful optimizations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duff's_device). Hell, I’ve used comments just to remind myself why I’m passing in certain arguments at this step and not others. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/65 "2013-05-16T00:47:36Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > After 30+ years in publications, I no longer argue the one-v-two period space thing; I just hit my macro key to strip all extra spaces from any work document submitted. Sometimes there are thousands because the same people arguing for “two” are using multiple spaces and tabs to position things on the page as well. And MY macro would fix your obvious one-space error. I DECLARE BLOOD FEUD, BARBARIAN! AROOOOOGHA! Duel of improperly-formatted forms at dawn! Don’t forget to bring your second… (space). ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/66 "2013-05-16T01:58:34Z")
can’twealljustbelikethejapaneseandchineseetcandhavenospacesorcapitals? ---
**Author:** ![phi2dao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/6de8d8/32.png) [@phi2dao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phi2dao)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/67 "2013-05-16T02:54:05Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > can’twealljustbelikethejapaneseandchineseetcandhavenospacesorcapitals? Don’t even get me started on Japanese spacing. It just barely works because Japanese has three different alphabets. I don’t honestly care how many spaces you put where, but there had better be at least one. Capitals, on the other hand, are totally unnecessary. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/68 "2013-05-16T03:26:59Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Regarding the “one or two spaces after period?” rule, I do want to mention that the one-space people are provably, measurably wrong about one of their primary assertions – that it makes no difference visually because of modern kerned fonts. Is there an html entity for double-width blank space? (Like, an en-space and/or an em-space?) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/69 "2013-05-16T03:35:14Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I’ve seen some really bad math comments before, say you have > > w = 3\*(x\*x) + 4 > > I’ve seem some people do this: > > // Adds four to three times the square of x Comments like that betray that the coder is an unrepentant COBOL programmer. How about this: Comment each line with // followed by the same code written in COBOL. Then, let the compiler have a command-line option to compile THAT instead. 😛 Here is my case for the judicious use of detailed comments: When I write some code to deal with some obscenely obscure nit-picky detail that no reviewer (not even myself a year from now) would be able to make head or tails of. Example: I wrote code to format cash register receipts on the receipt printer, designed to be flexible over many makes and models of printer. (I invented a printcap-like database for this!) Certain lines were indented two spaces (just because I thought it looked better – so there!) but one particular model only printed 38 spaces to a line instead of 40, and I had to make a special case to NOT indent those lines on that printer. Now pile on a variety of other ridiculously nit-picky details like that. No way anyone could make head or tails of all the logic involved (or the constants involved) without ridiculously nit-picky comments. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/70 "2013-05-16T13:37:12Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > One that used to exist was case citations - the old guard used to insist that every case cited in a factum or reproduced in a casebook be from a “proper” printed case citation service, and not from a computer database like Quicklaw. So, if you were using Quicklaw, you had to go and find a cited version of the same case, rather than just slapping the Quicklaw version into your casebook. > > This one appears to have mostly fallen by the wayside. I’ve never even heard of that one - maybe a regional difference. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/71 "2013-05-16T14:00:20Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Is there an html entity for double-width blank space? (Like, an en-space and/or an em-space?) No. HTML strips all whitespace down to a single displayed space; you have to insert hard spaces manually if you want to push things around that way. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/72 "2013-05-16T14:02:47Z")
> [@Noelq](#): > > And MY macro would fix your obvious one-space error. Since the path is: Manuscript (your hands) Processed MS (my hands) Typeset document (my hands) Prepress (my hands) Printed, HTML or PDF goods (my hands) …you might as well just learn to love that single space. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/73 "2013-05-16T15:46:13Z")
I know of no doctrinal disputes in my field of actuarial practice. However we are in the midst of a _turf war_ which fits the jihadist spirit of the OP. The Society of Actuaries (SOA), home of life actuaries who work in pensions and life insurance, is attempting to muscle in on the turf of the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), home of property and casualty insurance actuaries. The SOA is designing its own exam and credentialing process for P&C actuaries. I am _frightened_ by the intensity with which some of my colleagues are reacting to this. (For analogy, imagine if the Catholic Church were to publish its own authorized edition of the Quran.) I have visions of this ending Herbert Kornfeld-style with heads rammed into pulp in the photocopier. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/74 "2013-05-16T16:02:15Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I actually was a data forensics consultant for a while, and ultimately got fired because I thought the coding standards were stupid, and wouldn’t shut up about it. > > Long story short, the manager consultants thought it would be a grand idea to come up with some Byzantine and ornate coding standards- 3 spaces here, a capital letter, etc… and I asked why we didn’t just modify the standards to match one of the available SQL formatters- we could both format it absolutely consistently and save ourselves the trouble of manually fucking around with such mind-numbing crap. > > I got told they didn’t like those standards… they liked the look of the other ones. I told them it was patently dumb, and I didn’t go get a BS, MS and MBA to spend hours obsessing over retarded stuff like this, if I can get a program to do it for me. I also said that I thought it was unethical and lame to charge our clients upwards of $300 per hour for us to do this crap if we could have a program do it in seconds. They did NOT like to hear that. > > Ultimately, I think my insubordination put me on the chopping block first when layoffs came, but overall, I’m better off for it. > > So I do have some experience with what you’re talking about, and still think it’s retarded to do it by hand. Well, dang… that sounds outright… errr… ethical. No wonder they laid you off! Glad you landed on your feet. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/75 "2013-05-16T16:54:24Z")
> [@Capt\_Kirk](#): > > I will steal your gaff tape and I know you will steal mine, so fair is fair. Keep your mitts off my Sharpie or I will stab you with it. I deal with that by buying gray duct tape from CostCo at 2 rolls for $7 rather than that $14 a roll stuff from a theatrical supply place. And half of my Sharpies have been ruined by my brother who apparently presses hard enough to engrave the letters into the writing surface. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/76 "2013-05-16T17:35:35Z")
Math education. Traditional rote-learning of pure math vs. Progressive constructive-learning of applied math. Lots of heated arguments in departmental planning meetings over that. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/77 "2013-05-16T19:18:37Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Since the path is: > Manuscript (your hands) > Processed MS (my hands) > Typeset document (my hands) > Prepress (my hands) > Printed, HTML or PDF goods (my hands) > > …you might as well just learn to love that single space. I’m sorry. Blood Feud has been declared. NO statements aside from “Gaarrgh!” or “Stab! Stab!” are acceptable. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/78 "2013-05-16T19:24:00Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > It entirely depends on what games you are playing. First person shooters, world building games, and strategy games - all best on the PC. Lengthy RPGs? Work just fine on the controller. > > And I don’t have to upgrade my system like I’d have to keep upgrading my PC just to keep up with the games. > > I don’t have to search for patches. If there are updates to the game, they download automatically. > > I don’t have to install games (unless I want to). I just pop in the games and play. > > See, that’s what I don’t get. I freely admit some games are better on the PC - I play Minecraft exclusively on the PC, and I even have a Steam account. The graphics are better on the PC too…but for people to say I have no reason to play on a console whatsoever, that’s wrong. There are reasons to play it. > > Right now I am working and going back to school at the same time. I have limited time to play, and when I do, I want to just pop a disk in and play. I don’t want to have to mess around with settings or figure stuff out, or install. I just want to play it. I think the reason most PC gamers do this: :rolleyes: to post like yours, isn’t that we can’t fathom why someone would play games on a console. The answer to that question is fairly straightforward. It’s that most console gamers can’t fathom why you’d play on a PC, and so start making assumptions about the platform that are based on ignorance. Let’s take your post for example: Controller Vs mouse and keyboard - this is a non-issue. PC’s have had gamepads since the 90’s. It’s not about console vs PC, it’s about preference. And yet, time and time again, console gamers think that a certain type of game plays “better” on a console simply because of gamepads, when the reality is that they would play just as well on a PC with a gamepad, and in fact some genres really don’t translate all that well without a mouse and keyboard. System upgrades - this is a big one. Find any gaming forum where some console gamer is calling PC gamer’s elitists, and their main argument comes down to the supposed constant upgrading. They usually try and make it soudn like you need to spend $500 a month or your games won’t work. This is nonsense. PC gamers rarely HAVE to upgrade, but they do tend to WANT to upgrade. The reason I’m not rocking my PC build from 2007 is that I now have a 2560x1440 monitor, I don’t want to run my games at 720p or less on that thing. I also enjoy games at 30+ FPS - 60 being my comfort zone for FPS games, and I like feeling immersed in the game world, and pixelated textures, outdated lighting, jaggies dancing merrily, input lag, and screen tearing aren’t conducive, TO ME, personally, to an immersive gaming experience. I could absolutely still be rocking my 2007 gaming PC today - but I’m not interested in a console-like experience. Not that being a PC gamer and rocking a 2007 PC is a bad thing either. It’s all about option, options that PC gamers have, and console gamers don’t have. Which I realize is fine by them. Cool beans, but Pc gamers appreciate these things. Patch updates: Automatic patching is not only a PC game staple now a days, it’s handled BETTER than on consoles, and has been for many years. Installing games: Most of us download them - which would imply installing them I guess. Not sure what the issue is here, specially since several console games now require installations as well, or simply don’t look very well or offer all features without an installation. I guarantee you that I was playing several games before many console gamers got to thanks to preloading and a gaming system that is quick as wildfire 🙂 What’s worse, spending a few minutes installing, or literally spending HOURS stuck on loading screens on current consoles? Which brings me to your last point: Limited playing time. The notion that it’s simpler or faster to start game son consoles vs a modern PC, or that indeed you get to spend more time actually playing games on a console vs a PC is ludicrous. You cannot beat the .5 seconds it takes my PC to wake from sleep, and the other 2 seconds it takes for me to click my game on Steam and for it to load up. you just can’t. On top of that 99.5% of my game time is spend playing the game, vs the 20% you lose stuck behind interminable loading screens. Consoles rule the roost when ti comes to simplicity of ownership. It’s easy to purchase one, it’s easy to use one and maintain one, and since there are huge corporations behind them, they tend to get a lot of really cool exclusive games. The rest is just fanboyism. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/79 "2013-05-16T19:31:38Z")
> [@Capt\_Kirk](#): > > I am happy with a digital or analog console. Give me a primitive 02R or 01V and I might consider murder but other than that all good. > > Roll my cables wrong and I will fire you, yesterday. If you cannot roll cables you have no place on my stage and are useless. > > I will steal your gaff tape and I know you will steal mine, so fair is fair. Keep your mitts off my Sharpie or I will stab you with it. > > **Capt** Is someone goign to actually say HOW you’re supposed to roll the cables? I want to know! ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-holy-blood-wars-exist-in-your-profession/658300/80 "2013-05-16T21:03:58Z")
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