Dividing by zero for fun and profit

It's monday, and I'm back from vacation, feeling like I'm wasting my time and inevitably falling victim to the great cycle of life, money and everything. while (42) { }. Fortunately, I have sweet, sweet sarcasm on my side.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be about dividing by zero.

In python, it's a great way to find if a certain code path deep inside your call stack is really getting called, and when. You get to write one line which results in a noisy exeption, so your pain and confusion is properly turned into a Traceback.

    class ReturnStatement(Statement):
        def __init__(self, returnee):
            1/0
            super(ReturnStatement, self).__init__(returnee, '<return>')

"Oh. This time the exception never fired. I was sure this was supposed to be executed."

That's the kind of thought you are supposed to get, or something among the lines of:

"There, the exception.. Then why is this @!$# method not working if it's being called?"

Anyway, you get a good troubleshooting test just for typing three characters and a new line. Good bargain!

Of course, in JavaScript it's useless.

Yields Infinity. That's a discussion for another point in time. Maybe. I may never be inclined again to speak of that matter. Hours and hours of agony because of a number having a completely unpredictable number. Ugh.

In compiled languages, it's mostly useless, too.

Mondays.