Re: Interview question

On 30-Jun-2016 12:33 -0500, John Yeung wrote:

On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 11:22 AM, CRPence wrote:

On 30-Jun-2016 09:27 -0500, John Yeung wrote:

<<SNIP>> I suppose the verbiage of the instructions contains
cultural, educational, and linguistic biases, the same way many,
many standardized test questions do. <<SNIP>>

I suspect that their choice of the term /delimited by/ is one such
example. I eventually concluded that, most likely, they meant to
have used the term /separated by/.

IME the computing vernacular has defined the former term as fully
enclosing the boundaries [of the string of alpha characters for
this scenario], such that both beginning and end must have the
non-alpha; their example, "Automotive"->"A6e" seemed to emphasize
that intention. I consider the latter term to imply only one
boundary of the string of alpha characters, either the beginning
or the end, need be demarcated by a non-alpha; e.g. with comma
_separated_ values, wherein some of the values additionally may be
_delimited_ to avoid a reader mistaking a separator-character that
is embedded within the delimited-value, as an actual
separator-character denoting the next value.

<<SNIP>>

Are you saying that, to you, a "delimiter" is something that must
appear in pairs, with one on either side of what's being delimited;
whereas a "separator" is something that just sits between the two
items it's separating, with no requirement or implication of
pairing?

In my experience and estimation, the term "delimiter" includes the
role that commas play in CSVs, and indeed you will often find CSV
files referred to as "comma-delimited". In an Excel-flavored CSV,
the quotation mark is never *called* a delimiter, even though of
course it delimits something, in the English sense of the word
"delimit". So commas and quotes are both delimiters (broadly
speaking), but they delimit different things and have different
semantics.

Out of curiosity, which definition did you use, for the solution
you started coding? Did you ever imagine any alternatives to your
first choice? I would guess that if your first inference
was /separated by/, then no other alternative definitions were
considered.?

Same as the comma in a CSV; no; correct.

Your questions and responses confirm your point made about bias in language is apropos; that the bias of the reader can be at odds with those of the writer. I was highlighting what I considered an example.

I fully understand that the term /delimiter/ *can be* used interchangeably with /separator/.

Even so, I have a bias: that when talking about /strings/ [i.e. the context of the topic is strings], the term /delimiter/ will refer to what surrounds\encloses those strings.

Anyone who shares the same bias as the writer, that the /delimiter/ is implicitly being understood to be a /separator/, in the context of their writing, I expect would have a much simpler go at the programming task; they will not be concerned with all the conspicuous difficulties that could arise when the task is approached with an alternate view of the /delimiters/.