Natural Science Forum / Physics / General Physics / March 2008

You have to explain what you're doing in
both English and VC++ ( or some such )..
the “ math ” part is a minor detail.

For example, by my calculations,
these are the people who are ( currently ) getting
the most replies from those who get the most replies:

“ 1. Michael_Helland     2. §ñühw¤£f            3. theman  ( 1 )
 4. John_C              5. Eric_Gisse  ( 2 )   6. NoEinstein  ( 11 )
 7. PD  ( 2 )           8. kenseto             9. mitchgrav
 10. Jeff▲Relf ”.  [ replies to me are in parens ]
 
The “ algorithms ” used are a bit complex, so I'll spare you.
It covers the last 13.5 Days, 367 “ established ” authors,
and discarded all but the 33 most recent posts per author.

From X.CPP in “ www.Cotse.NET/users/jeffrelf/Games.ZIP ”,
here's a few of the lines ( from thousands ) that computed it:

float  Total_Days = 0, TallyHighest ;  const int Passes_MustBeOdd = 9 ;
//  Use 9 passes to determine who got the most replies
//  from those who got the most replies.
{ Loop( Passes_MustBeOdd ) {  TallyHighest = 1e-33 ;  
 int  First_Pass = ! J, LastPass = J == LLL - 1 ;

 //  Loops through all posts.
 LoopXx( Ls, Ls ) {  if ( P->Expired )  continue;
   HeaderT  & H = P->H ;  LnA  Arr_1_5 = & H._1 - 1 ;
   int  Cnt_Ances = P->Cnt_Ances ;  UsP  Child = P->Player ;

   if ( First_Pass && P->Cat == Cat_Mid && P->AgeDays > Total_Days )
     Total_Days = P->AgeDays ;

   Loop ( Cnt_Ances ) {  UsP  & Elder = P->Elders[ J ];

     //  Binary search to find the authors of the ancestors.  
     if ( First_Pass ) {  LnP  & MID_Ances = * ++ Arr_1_5 ;
       LsA BB = B_MIDs, EE = E_MIDs, PP = 0 ;
       
       LOOP {  PP = BB + ( EE - BB ) / 2 ;  LsP P = * PP ;  
         int  rv = StrCmp( P->H.MID, MID_Ances + MaxName + 1 );

         if ( ! rv ) {
           if ( P->Player != Child )  Elder = P->Player ; break ;  }  

         if ( rv > 0 ) { if ( PP >= EE ) break ; BB = PP + 1 ; }
         else {  if ( PP <= BB ) break ; EE = PP - 1 ;  } } }
         
     //  Max_Thread is 5, for indirect replies up to 5 levels away.
     const int WeightLevel[ Max_Thread ] = { 9999, 999, 99, 9, 1 };
     static float  Dist[ Max_Thread ][ Max_Thread ];

     //  initialize Dist[][] once, and only once.
     if ( ! * FloP( Dist ) ) {

       Loop( Max_Thread ) {  int  Cnt_Ances = J + 1 ;  float  Sum = 0 ;
         { Loop( Cnt_Ances )  Sum += WeightLevel[ J ];  }

         Loop( Cnt_Ances )
           Dist[ Cnt_Ances - 1 ][ J ] = WeightLevel[ J ] / Sum ;  } }
     
     if ( Elder ) {  //  Child->Score is > 33^-1 and < 1

       Elder->Tally += Child->Score * Dist[ Cnt_Ances - 1 ][ J ] ;
       if ( Elder->Tally > TallyHighest )
         TallyHighest = Elder->Tally ;   } } }

     //  Loop through all the authors to give them scores.
     //  In the unbiased mode ( ! InBox ) “ 1. ” is the highest score
     //  and MinScore ( 33^-1 ) is the lowest.
     { LoopXx( Us, Us )  
           P->Score = P->ScoreFixed
                    ? P->ScoreFixed
                    : ER( MinScore, P->Tally / TallyHighest )
         , P->Tally = 0 ;  } } }