<story><title>A Real Life Off-by-One Error</title><url>https://leejo.github.io/2024/09/01/off_by_one/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AEVL</author><text>Not an off-by-one error—at
least not in spirit. Interesting nonetheless.&lt;p&gt;I expected the article to eventually answer this puzzle:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The competition started and got through a number of rounds. There were some comments about how the climber on the left always won.&lt;p&gt;Near the end:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The kicker is that the out of place hold hasn’t been used in a long time. The climbers have optimised their route such that it is skipped. The same happens to the fourth hold from the bottom. So either being in the wrong place is immaterial to the climbers’ technique as long as they don’t get in the way.&lt;p&gt;So it seems like the error discovered by the article author should not have conferred any advantage to the climber on the left.&lt;p&gt;Anyone who can shine light on this matter?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jhncls</author><text>People are misunderstanding the meaning of an off-by-one error. Suppose the plan states that hold A and hold B need to be 11 holes apart. In the true spirit of the off-by-one error, this can be interpreted in 3 ways:&lt;p&gt;- either as 11 empty holes between the holds;
- as 11 holes, start counting 1 just above hold A;
- or as 11 holes, start counting with hold A as number 1.&lt;p&gt;Another real-life example, is a plumber who tells the construction worker that the distance between the holes for hot and cold water needs to be 15 cm. This was meant to be measured center to center, but the constructor worker interpreted it as the distance from the right side of the first hole to the left side of the second. The result can still be admired in our house, 10 years later.</text></comment>
<story><title>A Real Life Off-by-One Error</title><url>https://leejo.github.io/2024/09/01/off_by_one/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>AEVL</author><text>Not an off-by-one error—at
least not in spirit. Interesting nonetheless.&lt;p&gt;I expected the article to eventually answer this puzzle:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The competition started and got through a number of rounds. There were some comments about how the climber on the left always won.&lt;p&gt;Near the end:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The kicker is that the out of place hold hasn’t been used in a long time. The climbers have optimised their route such that it is skipped. The same happens to the fourth hold from the bottom. So either being in the wrong place is immaterial to the climbers’ technique as long as they don’t get in the way.&lt;p&gt;So it seems like the error discovered by the article author should not have conferred any advantage to the climber on the left.&lt;p&gt;Anyone who can shine light on this matter?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>fsckboy</author><text>&amp;gt;&lt;i&gt;Not an off-by-one error—at least not in spirit. Interesting nonetheless.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Literally it was an off-by-one error. Literally, literal meaning.</text></comment>