Tales of the truly nerdy

[yesthattom]

In C, perl, Python and probably every modern computer language

1 << 16 - 1

looks like it should give the highest value an unsigned 16-bit int can store, but it doesn't: That would be

(1 << 16) - 1

because without parens the “16-1” is done first, and you get “(1 << 15)".

So here's the nerdy part.

I searched various open source programs on the net until I found one that had "digits << digits - digits" until I found one. I then submitted a bug report to the author asking if he had intended "(digits << digits ) - digits. He had, and thanked me for the correction.

I had never used the software, nor did I even understand what it did.