another AS3 annoyance

XMLLists. What the fuck: from the documentation,

The XMLList class contains methods for working with one or more XML elements. An XMLList object can represent one or more XML objects or elements (including multiple nodes or attributes), so you can call methods on the elements as a group or on the individual elements in the collection.

If an XMLList object has only one XML element, you can use the XML class methods on the XMLList object directly. In the following example, example.two is an XMLList object of length 1, so you can call any XML method on it.

Which is great, if I don’t care about properly typing my variables.

TypeError: Error #1034: Type Coercion failed: cannot convert XMLList@1f51a779 to XML.

And of course there’s no builtin way to convert a length-of-one XMLList into a normal XML object. Have to resort to the ugly (but simple)

var xml:XML = new XML(bullshitXMLList.toXMLString());

And really. Why wouldn’t XMLList inherit from XML? Seriously?

Fuck AS3.

It supports associative arrays, which is great, but they’re broken: the length of an associative array is 0. This is because, as far as I can see, length is just a normal property that’s updated when you call foo[n]. But it’s just fucking ignored if you call foo[string].

Hell, the documentation even says as much, but seriously?

There is no advantage in using the Array constructor to create an associative array. You cannot use the Array.length property or any of the methods of the Array class with associative arrays, even if you use the Array constructor or the Array data type. The use of the Array constructor is best left for the creation of indexed arrays.

Why even write that? As soon as the words hit the screen, you’d think someone would say, “this is bullshit. what the fuck were we thinking?” and file a bug. There’s even a stack overflow thread on how to find the length of an associative array. How is this not built in?

All-seeing Eye of Jesus

All-seeing Eye of Jesus

The problem of evil

In the course of this paper, I will try to solve the problem of evil. Specifically, I will address one of the “Further Questions” at the end of Robert Merrihew Adams’s article, Must God Create the Best on page 327 of our textbook, The Experience of Philosophy. The question is this:

The problem of evil is often stated in some way such as this: If there were an all-powerful being, then that being could prevent evil. If there were a being who was perfectly good, that being would prevent evil if that being could. Evil exists. Therefore, no being is all-powerful and perfectly good. Has Adams answered this argument? Explain.

jericho

worldview.  jericho.  hurricane.  reivel.  gaia.  earth.  song.

it was in jericho.  old, old, jericho.
reivel was in the city.
it was reivel who brought about the hurricane.
	it was reivel who was the hurricane, red and dark.
jericho was the city, around the city.
it was the walls of jericho that tried to block the hurricane.

horrid horrible was the hurricane.

arches black as mink held open the walls of jericho.  the arches and the horses were the downfall 
of jericho.  the eye of god.  rain of gold.  god's majesty burns like molten gold.  the wrath
of god is reivel reiv-el gabri-el.  (and the hurricane was in the city) reivel walked through
the city, as god walked through the garden with moss / noah.

te tra gram ma ton

it was reivel who was the hurricane.

the rain was blinded under the worldview.

the people were blinded under the walls of jericho.

jericho / gaiachrome is the genetic scar.

the angel the burning angel.  purple and red scars of wrath.  reivel strode amongst the buildings
looking for the mark; joseph was standing against reivel with his cloak and his coat rack.
atip the coat rack there was a glass skull.

blinded were the people against the cloak.
entangle did joseph and reivel,
in the old city of jericho.
gaericho gaierichoe gaiachrome

it was the skull that was the heart of the city.
it was the hurricane that was in the city.
	hurrible was the power of the horricane.

horns sound.
winds roar.
glass shattering...
reivel owns the city.
reivel of the hurricane.  reivel of the west.

joseph falls.