Matt Taylor

If you find this interesting, definitely consider checking out contraction hierarchies. One of the early algorithms used by mapping software to enable calculating fastest routes between any pair of places. It's exact, and it's orders of magnitude faster than graph search algorithms like Dijkstra. This webpage has a very intuitive graphical explanation of how it works: https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/contraction-hierarchies/ (I had the joy of implementing this in Python with OSM data a few years ago. Planning a three hour car trip with software I wrote and having it come back with the same path recommended by Google Maps in a matter of milliseconds was a very rewarding feeling.)

This reminds me of one of my favourite articles. Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses. https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

Good place to drop the fantastic "falsehoods developers believe about addresses" [0] And my favourite case of interesting address numbers in the US, menomonee falls, which includes addresses such as "W162N7420 Tamarack Trail" [1] 0: https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… 1: https://goo.gl/maps/J8s2yMKConwJMg727

Falsehoods programmers believe about visitors to national parks: 1. everyone has a phone that has a camera 2. everyone has a phone that has internet access 3. everyone's internet access works at all times 4. everyone's phone has charge at all times ... etc Sorry that was a bit mean but I couldn't help it :) If you're not familiar with the format, there's a number of "falsehoods programmers believe about X" articles, for example: - https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-ab… - https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… For what it's worth I don't think it's a huge ask to request visitors to carry their rubbish away with them when they visit somewhere like this. If you managed to bring it out there you can surely take it back.

>> An example of another comment is 一円. Normally this would mean "one yen", but it also means "the area surrounding", and is a note in the CSV that should be removed from neighborhood names, except for exactly one neighborhood in Shiga where that's actually the name (〒522-0317). Reminds me of the town called Street. https://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=Street,+Somerset There's more great examples of Japanese addressing quirks in Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Addresses. https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

Absolutely agree with the "one of those assumptions" bit. See http://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods-programmers-believ… for a great list. (And related, see https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… for more about addresses.)

You've probably seen these lists, but in case you haven't, I think they're great: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-abo… https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

If we really aspire to be an information-driven culture who makes informed decisions about important topics, we really ought to curate lists like these down to actual informed discussions on the items in the list. Printing out a list of "falsehoods" littered with personal opinions and calling them "demonstrable" [1] without a shred of evidence is not going to contribute to general knowledge. There may be some utility in getting me thinking, but for the most part I just find it self-aggrandizing. For what it's worth, I do find this [2] format much more helpful. I'd very much rather see valid counterexamples proving a sweeping statement false than yet another sweeping statement that happens to cover a few sweeping statements. Of course, the above is my personal opinion and may not be shared by the rest of the community, but please can we do better than curating a list of lists we agree with? [1] https://chiselapp.com/user/ttmrichter/repository/gng/doc/trunk/output/… [2] https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

† Some Addresses: * https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… * 2013: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5791489 * 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8907301 * 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24926417

Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

ooh, this reminds me of Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses... https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

Here you go (2013): https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… Also: the awesome-falsehood collection: https://github.com/kdeldycke/awesome-falsehood

Reminds me of "Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses" [0] [0] https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

You need a / at the end of the URL https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

Relevant? -> "Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses" (https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… Discussed on HN here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8907301

> 123 1/2 Some St There's a similar "falsehoods" list devoted to addresses, which mentions fractional numbers: https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… Apparently, there are even street names that contain fractions, such as "43rd ½ St". Imagine the problems of living at "123 ½ 43rd ½ St"!

See also: The Biggest Smallest PNG https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38908956 And "The smallest 256x256 single-color PNG file, and where you've seen it" https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/smallest-png/

There's a real-world application for this sort of things - many raster slippy maps send represent empty ocean with carefully optimised single-colour PNG files [1] (of course, vector maps are a different matter) [1] https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/smallest-png/

Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses: https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

Obligatory: https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

For those who haven't seen this before, the ones you should look at first are: Falsehoods about Names https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-ab… Falsehoods about Time https://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods-programmers-belie… Falsehoods about Addresses https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

Was hoping this would be a collection of resources like - Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names[0] - Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses[1] - Falsehoods programmers believe about time [2] etc. Was a bit disappointed to realize it is more standard foundational papers on various CS topics. 0. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-ab… 1. https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… 2. https://gist.github.com/timvisee/fcda9bbdff88d45cc9061606b4b923ca

https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… Someone had to do it :)

From "Falsehoods programmers believe about addresses" at https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… : > A zip code corresponds to a single city > Mike Cohen reports zip code 33334 covers 3 cities: Oakland Park, Wilton Manors, and Fort Lauderdale, all in Florida.

For Databases, it takes me a concious effort to not go to at least 3rd NF. Except for addresses/names/telephone numbers, I have been burned by ANY assumption I made. Those, I tend to just store as something like char(255) nowadays by default, unless business requirements force me to split it up, but even then, after voicing my concerns. Edit: reading up on the addresses falsehoods again, 255 may not be enough. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-ab… https://github.com/google/libphonenumber/blob/master/FALSEHOODS.md https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

https://www.worldpress.org/Americas/592.cfm claims “From where the Chinese restaurant used to be, two blocks down, half a block toward the lake, next door to the house where the yellow car is parked, Managua, Nicaragua.” was a valid address at some time, and claims that works, in Nicaragua. Looking at Apple or Google Maps, it seems at least the major streets do have names (¿nowadays?), though. (Via https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

So a house number can be a fraction? That's something that should be added to https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre…

https://www.mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addre… ... Final falsehood: Each person has exactly one address. Same goes for phone numbers, citizenships, passports, etc.

The falsehood that it is correct to treat ZIP codes as one would treat numbers is on the list. * https://mjt.me.uk/posts/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-addresses… (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5791489)