In normal parlance, “if and only if” rules out that something could also happen as a result of other circumstances. EG, if you fall out of a plane, you will lose your glasses. But there are other conditions that would lead to the same result.
In code, the alternative would be to have a different if statement that executes identical code. Or *cough* ~you could use a jump statement to execute literally the same code.~
bstix@feddit.dk 1 month ago
The “only” part implies exclusivity, which may be false, because other things might run the code anyway.
IF “I can see the sun” THEN “It’s day.”
Nothing wrong about that. However if we make it exclusive:
IF AND ONLY IF “I can see the sun” THEN “It’s day.”
That’s obviously wrong. I can actually not keep the day away by sitting with closed eyes in my mothers basement with the curtains shut.
“Only if” might make sense in a legal contract, but there’s no way a piece of code can stop other pieces of code from calling the same functions.
adj16@lemmy.world 1 month ago
But that’s not how if statements in code work. So what you’ve said isn’t wrong, but the premise of this meme is completely off
bstix@feddit.dk 1 month ago
Yes sure. Code is logical stepwise. By including the “only if” it implies that other stuff is taken into account, which it isn’t at that moment in code.
I mean, I don’t need to extend the implications of an IF statement. It already does exactly what it says.
Anyway , “fuzzy logic” does exist for people who want “sometimes if”. It’s useful in certain cases. I’ve only ever considered it in music production, where things very often get to the point of complexity where it makes a (sometimes) useful difference.