She/He | genderconfused | no-idea-sexual | i-dont-know-romantic | 23yo | definitively not french (that would be awful) | mi kama sona e toki pona | I'm also on the fediverse : @[email protected]
Given the following declaration and initialization:
auto x = 'a';
what is the type of x?
x is a char
x is a short
x is an int
x is a long
x is something else
this won't compile because auto isn't a C keyword
this won't compile for some other reason
(see results)
Remaining time: 2 days 1 hour
There are two correct answers here:
Under C99, C11, and C17 (GCC/Clang flags "-std=c99", "-std=c11", or "-std=c17"), the answer is "this won't compile for some other reason".
Under C89, C95, and C23 (GCC/Clang flags "-std=c89", "-std=iso9899:199409", and "-std=c23"), the answer is int.
Why? A few reasons:
auto is, in fact, a keyword. It has been since C89, and since K&R before that, and since B before that. It is a storage-class specifier (like static or thread_local or constexpr) and means "automatic storage duration"; AKA "this variable is freed at the end of the enclosing scope", AKA "this is a stack variable". Automatic storage is the default storage class for local variables (of course), and also only valid for local variables, so prior to C23 specifying it was always redundant.
Prior to C99, variable declarations without a type were implicitly given the type int.¹ Thus, in C89 and C95, this declaration is equivalent to auto int x = 'a';
From C99 until C23, this won't compile, but only because variable declarations without a type are illegal. auto is still a legal storage specifier. The relevant GCC/Clang diagnostic is -Wimplicit-int.
In C23 this declaration becomes legal once again, because a variable declared with the auto storage specifier and without a type (a so-called "direct declarator") now performs type inference. This is equivalent to writing auto typeof('a') x = 'a';
"But wait," you might ask, "why is x an int, if its type is inferred from its initializer? Isn't 'a' a char?" Nope! That's the case in C++, but confusingly, character literals in C have the type int, and thus so does x. We would have to write auto x = (char)'a'; to declare x to be a char.
¹A remnant of this behavior persists: writing unsigned, signed, short, long, or long long is equivalent to writing unsigned int, signed int, short int, long int, or long long int.
HOLY SHIT GUYS, I WAS INSPIRED BY THIS POST TO TRY MAKE THE SONG AND YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE SCREAM I SCRUMPT WHEN I DRAGGED THE TRAINING AUDIO OVER THE BACKING TRACK AND IT LINED UP PERFECTLY
I just finished watching "We were dangerous" (2024). It's very strange at first. The movie is a drama about very hard topics, yet it shows a lot of very happy scenes. In fact, at times, the way it's shot is reminiscent a feel-good teen movie. Also the fact that the movie is narrated by the abusive matron is unexpected.
Do you have any advice for someone else who is in the very beginning stages of the "life is a precious gift rapidly escaping me, I have to change to become someone better and be happy before I've wasted all of it" transition? I'm tired of losing so much life and joy to grief and trauma and I also want to start creating and seeing and enjoying as much as I can for my tiny time as a carbon based lifeform but it's overwhelming to say the least
Actively seek out things that inspire wonder
Look for the good parts. There are good parts. There are interesting parts. There will always be good and interesting parts.
Treat yourself kindly. This one is difficult.
Do things out of ridiculous whimsy.
Practice cog itive behavioural exercises to self-examine and address beliefs and behaviors that are causing suffering.
Don't argue when people compliment you.
Don't rush yourself, and don't assume it'll be like this forever when you have a backslide. These things happen. Over time, they happen less.
Be honest with the people you love and trust.
Tell people how much they mean to you and what you like about them.
Help others and find satisfaction in being the stranger that did something good
Consider speaking to a medical professional, my antidepressants and anti-anxiety medical took some time to figure out but life is WAY better.
Have a silly little craft or hobby.
Let yourself be bored sometimes. Stand outside in the rain and let yourself get wet. Go on a walk. Put your phone in a different room and wander off. Meet up with a friend and go on a long walk together to nowhere in particular
Start doing things because you want to and it feels good, not just because you think it's something you should say yes to.
Say yes to things.
Take a random day of the week and go into a store or a business you've never been in before.
Compliment strangers when something about them is striking.
Read books and watch movies that make you feel the exact right amount of ecstatic and embarrassed, and make all the silly noises about it.
Collect scraps of fabric and little trinkets and all the little textures and colours you love and stash them in a shoebox or something like a tiny dragon's hoard.
Start a collection of something small and inexpensive. Like corks.
Make food with ingredients you've never used before
Make long lists of all your favorite things- flowers, bugs, songs, foods, places
Start a trash-book to fill with scraps of neat wrappers and bits of paper and colored fabric from old ruined clothes
Imagine yourself as a alien from a dead and barren world who has just arrived on this planet for the very first time and imagine how excited you would be by every little thing
Cannot recommend enough that you befriend a creature
prescriptive harm reduction - how we shame our own
buckle up folks i jave Thoughts and this is gonna be a long one. i've noticed a trend within the scene that i've coined "prescriptive harm reduction" or PHR for short, which seems to be on the rise. this phenomenon affects many types of people: trans people who DIY and people who use drugs come to mind first, but can be easily extended to self-harmers, gamblers, sex workers, or even urbexers. basically anyone engaging in dangerous practices is susceptible to say or fall victim to this line of rhetoric
full essay under the cut
WHAT IS PHR?
PHR fundamentally comes from a good place: you want people to exercise best practices. the catch is treating this advice as gospel, which leads to the shaming of people who don't or are unable to keep with so-called "common sense'" due to one reason or another.
example of PHR with drug use:
person 1: i want to take another ecstasy pill tonight, i took one last weekend and it felt great. do you think the effects will be the same?
person 2: absolutely don't, you need at least 6 weeks for your serotonin levels to go back to normal.
why it fails:
person 2 is right, but is also deeply unhelpful. they don't explain why serotonin being low is bad, and they aren't speaking from personal experience. person 1 has no idea if person 2 has ever done ecstasy, or if they're simply repeating something they heard once. they also pointedly aren't answering person 1's question.
BETTER, BUT NOT PERFECT
to avoid coming across as prescriptivists, a lot of people compensate by taking a "but in the end you can do whatever" approach, which is slightly less shameful but doesn't offer guidance. sure, it's your body, but you need to be aware of what you're doing to it.
example of imperfect harm reduction with trans diy:
person 1: i have limited hrt ampules so i've been saving doses in my fridge with the synringe method, but i forgot one for a month. do you think it's still safe to inject?
person 2: i wouldn't recommend it, usually they're only 100% safe for a week. but hey, your body your choice if you wanna try it.
why it's inadequate:
person 2 is not giving any explanation as to why person 1 might be engaging in potentially harmful behaviour. they are also once again not speaking from personal experience. while they are warning person 1 this might not be a good idea without outward judgement, they aren't giving the necessary information for person 1 to make a properly informed judgement.
BEST PRACTICES
now that we've talked about what not to do, how should we approach value-neutral harm reduction? my first advice: when someone asks you something you don't have experience with, simply be honest and say you don't know. give them some ideas, sure, but make it clear this isn't necessarily true. if possible, redirect them to someone with relevant knowledge.
if you DO know, emphasise you lived experience. this is crucial to making the asker feel less alone, especially when it comes to unhealthy coping mechanisms.
example of best practices with salf-harm:
person 1: i've been cutting a lot lately even though i was clean for years. i don't know why and it makes me feel ashamed.
person 2: i don't really get it, but i heard using clean blades and using a highly hydrating cream can lessen the scarring. person 3 knows more about the subject than me, though.
person 3: yeah relapsing is normal, and i'm honna be real i don't always use clean blades even though i should. finding a good therapist has made it way less frequent for me, but i know that's not an option for everyone. i still go through months of not doing it but i can't help it in periods of high stress, so try to think about what's been going on in your life lately that might be affecting you... also the shame itself often made me cut more so it might be hard but try to hide them less. i've found a lot of the shame is self-inflicted and 99% people don't care.
why it's preferable:
person 2 gives basic advice while making it clear they're coming from an outside point of view, and redirects person 1 to person 3 who actually has firsthand experience with the subject. person 3 reassures person 1, and also makes it clear they aren't perfect in their practice. they offer the most common solution while acknowledging it may not be accessible to person 1. they stress that even professional help isn't a magical cure, and encourage person 1 to figure out the cause or their issue even by themself. they also mention their own relationship to shame, which person 1 brought up.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
the idea of "harm reduction" can be used to shame people who don't live within the bounds of what is considered "healthy" or "safe", and while my examples were simple conversations with people it needs to be said this sort of rhetoric is very often used by medical and legal institutions.
by shaming our siblings for their unhealthy or dangerous habits we are directly playing into social normative ideas, and building strong communities starts at understanding shaming each other for unsafe proactives (may they be heavy drug use or simply not checking security's schedule before exploring the local abandoned hospital) is in fact playing right into their hands.
My ex wife and I are devastated. Every day we wake up at 5am and search for him in the streets. Our son. We search all day, looking for him in bushes, under cars, in the neighbors' garages. I always feel like he's right around the corner. I keep thinking he will come back home. We set humane traps for him all around my apartment complex, using a giant lollipop as bait, as that is the snack children like the most. I feel fucking hollow. Come home, my son. Come home.
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