In article <h2l36k$q5...@reader1.panix.com>, kj <no.em...@please.post> wrote: > >This seemed straightforward enough, until I realized that, to be >useful to my students in their homework, this _binary_search function >had to handle the case in which the passed function was monotonically >decreasing in the specified interval... > >def _binary_search(lo, hi, func, target, epsilon): > assert lo < hi > assert epsilon > 0 > sense = cmp(func(hi), func(lo)) > if sense == 0: > return None > target_plus = sense * target + epsilon > target_minus = sense * target - epsilon > while True: > param = (lo + hi) * 0.5 > value = sense * func(param) > if value > target_plus: > hi = param > elif value < target_minus: > lo = param > else: > return param > > if lo == hi: > return None > >My question is: is the business with sense and cmp too "clever"?
First of all, cmp() is gone in Python 3, unfortunately, so I'd avoid using it. Second, assuming I understand your code correctly, I'd change "sense" to "direction" or "order". -- Aahz (a...@pythoncraft.com) <*> http://www.pythoncraft.com/ "as long as we like the same operating system, things are cool." --piranha -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
