Programmers are weird

I was just looking into a few things and it occurred to me how weird us programmers must seem to the rest of the world. Here's a partial list of some of the reasons why:

We draw trees upside down; We call the "top" of a tree its "root"; and often we talk of a leaf's siblings, parents and sometimes even children.
We write tons of stuff, but we almost always write the middle before we write the beginning or end; in a lot of code if you want to look at the first and last things that happen you need to look at the bottom of the file.
We often start counting at 0 and call 0 the 1st number; except when we start counting at 1 when we like to say that one is stored in the zero'th index
There is no text in our lives, we deal with strings, but not ones you can tie a knot in.
We often operate like the machines we use... Ask a busy programmer a question and it can be minutes before the programmer context switches and replies to the question.
We have a tendency to consider 'or' in colloquial conversation to be the inclusive 'or' and not the exclusive 'or' that the rest of the world seem to use. Thus "should we go to the movies or to dinner" gets the answer "yes" and not the expected choice...

What other weird things do we do?

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$world=~s/war/peace/g

Comment on Programmers are weird

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Re: Programmers are weird by chester (Hermit) on Aug 30, 2005 at 14:10 UTC
A fork is one of our most powerful tools. We kill children and fight zombies. (I hope no non-programmers ever read this page.)	[reply]
Re^2: Programmers are weird by tlm (Prior) on Aug 30, 2005 at 14:16 UTC
We have regularly scheduled dumps, sometimes several per day. Numbers like 512 and 8192 look strangely familiar to us; we think kilo equals 1024. We use the word "code" as if it were something, like water or sand, that can be put in a barrel. We refer to "core" as place name, without an article, like "Newark". We are horrified by bugs. We openly speak of spending hours "debugging", and don't find it particularly indecorous. We bounce our daemons, and fork our children. the lowliest monk	[reply]
Re^3: Programmers are weird by demerphq (Chancellor) on Aug 30, 2005 at 14:21 UTC
Even weirder, we have a tendency to store our dumps in extremely safe places for very long times. And we even practice and test whether our dumps can be restored! --- $world=~s/war/peace/g	[reply]
Re^4: Programmers are weird by apotheon (Deacon) on Dec 31, 2005 at 14:02 UTC
Re^3: Programmers are weird by blazar (Canon) on Sep 06, 2005 at 11:07 UTC
Numbers like 512 and 8192 look strangely familiar to us; we think kilo equals 1024. Not only, but also some of us -including me- know by heart 32768 and 65536. Though I've yet to meet anyone who knows the output of `perl -le 'print 1<<24'` or `perl -le 'print ~0'` (32-bit machine here!) in anticipation, albeit I suspect quite more than one does. Anyone here? Ouch! Now that I'm staring at them I fear I will learn them by heart too... ;-)	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Programmers are weird by seattlejohn (Deacon) on Sep 11, 2005 at 18:50 UTC
Re^4: Programmers are weird by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Oct 10, 2005 at 21:12 UTC
Re^2: Programmers are weird by admiral_grinder (Pilgrim) on Aug 30, 2005 at 15:48 UTC
Sometimes we even ask parents to kill their children....and they do it.	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by samizdat (Vicar) on Aug 30, 2005 at 13:41 UTC
Don't think I can top yours, demerphq, but let's see: she-bang actually means something specific, not (w)hole interpreters are essential for everyday life we work really hard to be really lazy the deeper we go, the simpler our code cursing isn't enough; we must recurse it isn't enough to quote something; when we double-quote it it's going to end up saying something else saving context means spending your stack ummm... what's funny about 42?	[reply]
Re^2: Programmers are weird by gargle (Chaplain) on Aug 31, 2005 at 07:20 UTC
42? From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It's the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (“what is 6 times 9”, correct in base 13). For other Random Numbers click the link. if ( 1 ) { $postman->ring() for (1..2); }	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by gargle (Chaplain) on Aug 30, 2005 at 13:07 UTC
Well, a search on the net finds lots of these 'remarks'. Best reference about programmers in general is however The Jargon File. The entries on The Story of Mel, Real Programmer and A portrait are interesting. And I just love the entries on Perl, especially Swiss! In short, programmers in general have a weird sense of humor, p.e. noone of my non-programmer friends think the number 42 is funny!	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by Ovid (Cardinal) on Aug 30, 2005 at 20:00 UTC
A conversation I had with some of my non-programmer friends: `Jen: Ovid, what have you been doing lately? Ovid: Reading "Mastering Regular Expressions." ... short pause followed by much laughter ... Jen: I thought you knew how to talk! Greg: Hello, how are you? Jen: Can you direct me to my hotel? Greg: How much for twenty minutes?` Of course, I had to kill and eat them afterwards. Cheers, Ovid New address of my CGI Course.	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by Anonymous Monk on Aug 30, 2005 at 12:56 UTC
Programmers are weird because... Multiple programmers can sit around talking about Taint checking, and not one person chuckles.	[reply]
Re^2: Programmers are weird by jcoxen (Deacon) on Aug 30, 2005 at 14:40 UTC
Which, of course, made me chuckle. Jack	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by tbone1 (Monsignor) on Aug 30, 2005 at 12:50 UTC
One of the things I like about programming is that, in comparison, I look normal. And working at NASA? Why, you'd have thought I drove a Buick and had an accounting degree. -- tbone1, YAPS (Yet Another Perl Schlub) And remember, if he succeeds, so what. - Chick McGee	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by Steve_p (Priest) on Aug 30, 2005 at 16:05 UTC
We often operate like the machines we use... Ask a busy programmer a question and it can be minutes before the programmer context switches and replies to the question. Frequently heard in my house... wifey: Honey? Can you help me with something? Steve_p: Yeah...just a minute	[reply]
Re^2: Programmers are weird by demerphq (Chancellor) on Aug 30, 2005 at 16:08 UTC
In mine its more like: gf: Honey would you like a beer? (time passes) demerphq: ummmm (time passes, foot tapping and typing is heard) demerphq: Oh!, Right. Beer? Beer! Yes please.... gf: Its right next you you dumb ape.... --- $world=~s/war/peace/g	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by robot_tourist (Hermit) on Aug 31, 2005 at 10:37 UTC
We analyse queueing systems everywhere and tell people they need more bandwidth. C is a language, not merely a letter of the alphabet. We enjoy sitting in front of computers for hours at a time. We (well maybe just me) laugh at things like: 'Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway' (Tanenbaum) People don't die in flame wars. We expect people to understand when you explain how you were using the wrong config spec to build your code because the one you normally use doesn't work for this product because there is a different version of the embedded software on the product's hardware. We get excited over CSS 2.1 compliance in IE7, but can't understand what SOX compliance means. There are probably loads more. How can you feel when you're made of steel? I am made of steel. I am the Robot Tourist. Robot Tourist, by Ten Benson	[reply]
Re^2: Programmers are weird by Mr. Muskrat (Canon) on Sep 01, 2005 at 02:34 UTC
We get excited over CSS 2.1 compliance in IE7, but can't understand what SOX compliance means. If by SOX compliance you mean Sarbanes-Oxley compliance then many of us programmers understand it more than the people telling us what we need to do in order to be SOX compliant.	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by bassplayer (Monsignor) on Sep 01, 2005 at 14:33 UTC
3. We often start counting at 0 and call 0 the 1st number; except when we start counting at 1 when we like to say that one is stored in the zero'th index My 5-year-old son counts the number of rinses he does after brushing his teeth, and starts at zero. I've never mentioned counting from zero to any of my kids -- he just did it, and sniff it makes me proud. bassplayer wipes a tear from his eye bassplayer	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by SamCG (Hermit) on Aug 31, 2005 at 17:37 UTC
Personally, when asked a question I tend to answer the question asked -- particularly if I dislike the asker. obnoxious pm: Is there a way to <anything>? me: yes obnoxious pm: No, what I mean is could you <blah, blah>? me: yes, I could obnoxious pm: I'm asking you if it's possible to <blah, blah>. me: ... pretty soon, all the people I don't like stop talking to me ;)	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by shiza (Hermit) on Aug 30, 2005 at 20:26 UTC
This thread reminds of a very humurous game.	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by g0n (Priest) on Aug 31, 2005 at 14:30 UTC
Programmers don't generally understand the concept "good enough", there's always one more improvement to be made. -------------------------------------------------------------- g0n, backpropagated monk	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by tlm (Prior) on Aug 31, 2005 at 14:14 UTC
Only programmers (though, of course, not all programmers) need to be reminded of Mark Hahn's Reality Check: "Writing code ... is not an exercise in manliness." the lowliest monk	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by tcf03 (Deacon) on Sep 09, 2005 at 19:46 UTC
My twin girls are only a month old and ive started reading HOP, and Haskell: The art of functional programming to them :) Ted -- "That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved." --Ralph Waldo Emerson	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by Anonymous Monk on Aug 30, 2005 at 12:41 UTC
Who are you caliing a weirdo, huh, weirdo?	[reply]
Re: Programmers are weird by theroninwins (Friar) on Mar 21, 2006 at 07:39 UTC
Ok this one comes late but I just saw the node.... o We love to use and call for daemons o We often kill all of a kind o We do a lot for our backups	[reply]

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