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The Linnaeus Awards

I'm starting a new category here: the Linnaeus Awards. Candidates must be examplars of Linnaean Taxonomy:

The method, the soul of science, designates at first sight any body in nature in such a way that the body in question expresses the name that is proper to it, and that this name recalls all the knowledge that may, in the course of time, have been acquired about the body thus named: so that in the midst of extreme confusion there is revealed the sovereign order of nature.

So, if you encounter a trout in the wild, you don't call it a "trout". You call it an "Oncorhynchus (mykiss) aguabonita masculinus trescenti-septi-squamatic duodecim-annus-natis...", stuffing every conceivable attribute of the object into its name.

Categories

1. Longest Name. Names which are mashed together because of formalLanguageIdentifierRestrictions or natürlichsprachemodifizierdiarrhöe might get bonus points.
2. Most Dimensions. Names which incorporate knowledge from varied axes, the more the better.
3. Most Abstract. Placing the number-of-scales-on-a-fish into its name is fun, but for real "sovereign order" you need to incorporate the vocabulary of the taxonomy itself into the name. For example, a function in a spreadsheet program named, "SpreadsheetProgramAdditionFunction". Bonus points for including terms from ontology, taximetrics, or metaphysics.

Feel free to nominate additional candidates here or email: linnaeus@aminus.org.

Today's nomination:

RequestProcessorFactoryFactory

From org.apache.xmlrpc.server

Factory-factories are not new. But this one goes a step further with some of its "implementing classes":

• RequestProcessorFactoryFactory.RequestSpecificProcessorFactoryFactory
• RequestProcessorFactoryFactory.StatelessProcessorFactoryFactory

...and genuflective attributes like:

• RequestProcessorFactoryFactory.RequestProcessorFactory.getRequestProcessor(XmlRpcRequest)

But it doesn't stop there; the copy nominates itself:

There is nothing magic about the request processor: It may very well be a POJO. The RequestProcessorFactoryFactory is passed to the AbstractReflectiveHandlerMapping at startup...

Passing a factory-factory to an abstract-anything makes this a good candidate. Using the phrase "nothing magic" with a straight face catapults it to the top.

I recently had to test output that consisted of a long list of dicts against an expected set. After too many long debugging sessions with copious print statements and lots of hand-comparison, I finally got smart and switched to using Python's builtin difflib to give me just the parts I was interested in (the wrong parts).

With difflib and a little pprint magic, a failing test now looks like this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python25\lib\site-packages\app\test\util.py", line 237, in tearDown
    self.assertNoDiff(a, b, "Expected", "Received")
  File "C:\Python25\lib\site-packages\app\test\util.py", line 382, in failIfDiff
    raise self.failureException, msg
AssertionError:
--- Expected

+++ Received

@@ -13,4 +13,3 @@

 {'call': 'getuser101',
 'output': {'first_name': 'Georg',
            'gender': u'Male',
            'last_name': 'Handel',
            ...}}
 {'call': 'getuser1',
 'output': None}
 {'call': 'getuser101',
 'output': {'first_name': 'Georg',
            'gender': u'Male',
            'last_name': 'Handel',
            ...}}
-{'call': 'getuser101',
 'output': {'first_name': 'Georg',
            'gender': u'Male',
            'last_name': 'Handel',
            ...}}

...and I can now easily see that the "Received" data is missing the last dict in the "Expected" list. Here's the code (not exactly what I committed at work, but I think this is even better):

import difflib
from pprint import pformat


class DiffTestCaseMixin(object):

    def get_diff_msg(self, first, second,
                     fromfile='First', tofile='Second'):
        """Return a unified diff between first and second."""
        # Force inputs to iterables for diffing.
        # use pformat instead of str or repr to output dicts and such
        # in a stable order for comparison.
        if isinstance(first, (tuple, list, dict)):
            first = [pformat(d) for d in first]
        else:
            first = [pformat(first)]

        if isinstance(second, (tuple, list, dict)):
            second = [pformat(d) for d in second]
        else:
            second = [pformat(second)]

        diff = difflib.unified_diff(
            first, second, fromfile=fromfile, tofile=tofile)
        # Add line endings.
        return ''.join([d + '\n' for d in diff])

    def failIfDiff(self, first, second, fromfile='First', tofile='Second'):
        """If not first == second, fail with a unified diff."""
        if not first == second:
            msg = self.get_diff_msg(first, second, fromfile, tofile)
            raise self.failureException, msg

    assertNoDiff = failIfDiff

The get_diff_msg function is broken out to allow a test method to call self.fail(msg), where 'msg' might be the join'ed output of several diffs.

Happy testing!

1) Copy this list into your blog, with instructions.
2) Bold all the drinks you’ve imbibed.
3) Cross out any items that you won’t touch
4) Post a comment here and link to your results.

OR

If you don’t have a blog, just count the ones you’ve tried and post the number in the comments section.

1. Manhattan Cocktail
2. Kopi Luwak (Weasle Coffee)
3. French / Swiss Absinthe
4. Rootbeer
5. Gin Martini
6. Sauternes
7. Whole Milk
8. Tequila (100% Agave)
9. XO Cognac
10. Espresso
11. Spring Water (directly from the spring) Soda water, too!
12. Gin & Tonic
13. Mead
14. Westvleteren 12 (Yellow Cap) Trappist Ale
15. Chateau d’Yquem
16. Budweiser
17. Maraschino Liqueur
18. Mojito
19. Orgeat
20. Grand Marnier
21. Mai Tai (original)
22. Ice Wine (Canadian)
23. Red Bull
24. Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice Once a week!
25. Bubble Tea
26. Tokaji
27. Chicory
28. Islay Scotch
29. Pusser’s Navy Rum shudder
30. Fernet Branca
31. Fresh Pressed Apple Cider
32. Bourbon
33. Australian Shiraz
34. Buckley’s Cough Syrup
35. Orange Bitters
36. Margarita (classic recipe)
37. Molasses & Milk
38. Chimay Blue
39. Wine of Pines (Tepache)
40. Green Tea
41. Daiginjo Sake Of course
42. From the department of redundancy department: Chai Tea
43. Vodka (chilled, straight)
44. Coca-Cola
45. Zombie (Beachcomber recipe)
46. Barley Wine
47. Brewed Chocolate (Xocolatl) Does Abuelita count?
48. Pisco Sour
49. Lemonade
50. Speyside Single Malt
51. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
52. Champagne (Vintage)
53. Rosé (French)
54. Bellini
55. Caipirinha
56. White Zinfandel (Blush)
57. Coconut Water
58. Cerveza Corona es lo mejor...
59. Cafe au Lait
60. Ice Tea
61. Pedro Ximenez Sherry
62. Vintage Port
63. Hot Chocolate
64. German Riesling
65. Pina Colada
66. El Dorado 15 Year Rum
67. Chartreuse
68. Greek Wine
69. Negroni
70. Jägermeister
71. Chicha
72. Guinness
73. Rhum Agricole
74. Palm Wine
75. Soju
76. Ceylon Tea (High Grown)
77. Belgian Lambic
78. Mongolian Airag
79. Doogh, Lassi or Ayran
80. Sugarcane Juice
81. Ramos Gin Fizz
82. Singapore Sling
83. Mint Julep
84. Old Fashioned
85. Perique
86. Jenever (Holland Gin)
87. Chocolate Milkshake
88. Traditional Italian Barolo
89. Pulque
90. Natural Sparkling Water
91. Cuban Rum
92. Asti Spumante
93. Irish Whiskey
94. Château Margaux
95. Two Buck Chuck
96. Screech
97. Akvavit
98. Rye Whisky
99. German Weissbier
100. Daiquiri (classic)
     and I'll add:
101. Rompope