Does Humor Belong in Programming?

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Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? (Quips and Quotes) by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Oct 05, 2015 at 04:25 UTC
A random sampling of Perl humor, mostly courtesy of Larry Wall, taken from the links below: #define SIGILL 6 /* blech / double value; / or your money back! / short changed; / so triple your money back! / / we have tried to make this normal case as abnormal as possible / echo "Congratulations. You aren't running Eunice." echo "ICK, NOTHING WORKED!!! You may have to diddle the includes.";; echo "Your stdio isn't very std." I think it's a new feature. Don't tell anyone it was an accident. :- +) Doing linear scans over an associative array is like trying to club someone to death with a loaded Uzi cc -I/usr/local/include -D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -I/ +usr/include/gdbm -g -Dan_Sugalski -Larry -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes... [download] Perl Monks Quips: Monk's quips by BrowserUk (2004) Random quotes in the top left corner by cog (2005) I want more monkquips by ambrus (2009) Related PM Nodes: My favorite hoax was: by apl (2011 poll) are there any easter eggs in perl? by morgon (2014) See also: The Lighter Side of Perl Culture (Part I): Introduction External References: Perl Humour (comprehensive list from Perl Beginners Site, restored from Perl_humour page at offline perl.net.au wiki) Larry Wall quotes (wikiquote) Programming quotes (wikiquote) What's your favourite quote about Programming? (stackexchange) References Added Later* Promoting old (2009) node: "I want more monkquips" by kcott (2023) Monk Quips Quest by erzuuli (2023)	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by johngg (Canon) on Oct 04, 2015 at 14:49 UTC
Yes, definitely. I remember an article in the Sun user group magazine a long time ago about amusing compiler messages. This one is my favourite - "a typedef name was a complete surprise to me at this point in your program" I just found them again online here. Cheers, JohnGG	[reply]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by smknjoe (Beadle) on Oct 05, 2015 at 15:07 UTC
Thanks for the link John. Some of those were pretty funny. I remember learning many a moon ago about one humorous things the UNIX programmers put into the manpage for tunefs (sp?). "You can tune a filesystem, but you can't tuna fish." I think it was an indirect reference to the band REO Speedwagon's "You can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish."	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by choroba (Cardinal) on Oct 01, 2015 at 09:43 UTC
When clicking on the title, I expected a funnier poll. لսႽ† ᥲᥒ⚪⟊Ⴙᘓᖇ Ꮅᘓᖇ⎱ Ⴙᥲ𝇋ƙᘓᖇ	[reply]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by LanX (Saint) on Oct 01, 2015 at 11:10 UTC
"Well it's German sense of humour." ;-) Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :) Je suis Charlie!}	[reply]
Re^3: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 01, 2015 at 13:27 UTC
Why do you fall me in the back? «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»	[reply]
Re^4: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by LanX (Saint) on Oct 01, 2015 at 14:01 UTC
Re^4: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by mr_sparkle (Scribe) on Oct 13, 2015 at 20:40 UTC
Re^5: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 14, 2015 at 09:53 UTC
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 01, 2015 at 10:14 UTC
I'm sorry that i disappointed you. Regards, Karl «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by GotToBTru (Prior) on Oct 01, 2015 at 20:58 UTC
Not only humor, but literature 'n culture 'n stuff. `@godot = glob($path); die "Nothing to be done!\n" unless @godot;` [download] Dum Spiro Spero	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 12, 2015 at 18:17 UTC
`#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use feature qw(say); use sigtrap qw(die INT); use subs qw(wait); sub wait { say qq(Nothing to be done.) while <> } wait(); END { say qq(To every man his little cross. Till he dies. And is forgo +tten.) }` [download] «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Gavin (Archbishop) on Oct 04, 2015 at 17:40 UTC
Q Why did the programmer quit his job? A Because he didn't get arrays!	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Preceptor (Deacon) on Oct 05, 2015 at 13:18 UTC
It depends. A little levity is fine. Doing so at expense of clear/readable code is not. If I have to debug some code with 'comedy' variable names I will get quite grumpy about it, for all the reasons I'd get grumpy if you just used single letters all the way through. But in comments (as long as you _also_ include the comments that you _need_) it's fine and great. In error/diag messages too (again, provided you're actually producing _useful_ output as well).	[reply]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by stevieb (Canon) on Oct 12, 2015 at 19:59 UTC
This is pretty well my stance. Variable names, sub names or anything that is functional should not be comedic unless the comedic name truly represents what is being used. For comments, comedic things are fun to read in odd/rare circumstances, and very far edge case warnings as well (so long as the warn/error displays useful info inclusive). I once patched a module that had a comment such as: `# we don't even know how why this is here, # nor how it is ever executed, Scotty` [download] I looked at the code after I found that a far away test on CPAN Testers was failing, and realized that this sub was being called ONLY in a test and was never used otherwise. So I fixed the test, wrote a new test, and in the sub in the patch wrote something to the effect: `# this sub isn't ever used; beam it up, Scotty` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by FloydATC (Deacon) on Oct 12, 2015 at 07:45 UTC
Also, less is more. -- FloydATC Time flies when you don't know what you're doing	[reply]
Re^3: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by chacham (Prior) on Oct 12, 2015 at 14:14 UTC
Also, less is more. Yeah, put that in your pipe and scroll it.	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by vitoco (Friar) on Oct 01, 2015 at 16:05 UTC
It isn't funny when you have change something in an old program that only has variables/procedures/labels with just one or two letters or numbers in their names, and no comments!!! But is funny when you find an easter egg.	[reply]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 01, 2015 at 16:30 UTC
"... and no comments..." Apropos comments: `long john; // silver Catch (Exception e) { //who cares? } return 1; # returns 1 #define TRUE FALSE //Happy debugging suckers //When I wrote this, only God and I understood what I was doing //Now, God only knows // drunk, fix later // I'm sorry.` [download] Many more Regards, Karl «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by ExReg (Priest) on Oct 01, 2015 at 16:41 UTC
I make a living writing and using tools to look at other people's code. Sometimes a sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me going.	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Pope-O-Matik (Pilgrim) on Oct 04, 2015 at 02:09 UTC
By humor, do you mean blood, sweat, and tears? That's an integral part of coding.	[reply]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by hippo (Bishop) on Oct 04, 2015 at 10:31 UTC
"...do you mean blood, sweat, and tears?" Yes. See Humor for a definition. Regards, Hippo	[reply]
Re^3: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Pope-O-Matik (Pilgrim) on Oct 04, 2015 at 13:39 UTC
This conversation is going too meta for me. :) -- Edit: Added the (famous) limerick below and changed to to too too. Two Os are better than one, i guess: A tutor who tooted the flute Tried to tutor two tooters to toot; Said the two to the tutor, “Is it harder to toot, or To tutor two tooters to toot?”	[reply]
Re^4: Does Humour Belong in Programming? by Athanasius (Archbishop) on Oct 05, 2015 at 09:31 UTC
Re^4: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by tye (Sage) on Oct 05, 2015 at 01:43 UTC
Re^5: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Pope-O-Matik (Pilgrim) on Oct 08, 2015 at 00:25 UTC
Re^5: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 15, 2015 at 09:41 UTC
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 04, 2015 at 09:07 UTC
"...do you mean blood, sweat, and tears?" No. See Humor for a definition. Regards, Karl «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»	[reply]
Re^3: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Anonymous Monk on Oct 05, 2015 at 13:24 UTC
Cue Foghorn Leghorn	[reply]
Re^4: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 06, 2015 at 06:51 UTC
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by ExReg (Priest) on Oct 01, 2015 at 14:08 UTC
I thought it would be funny to vote no. Sorry, couldn't resist.	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Anonymous Monk on Oct 01, 2015 at 17:18 UTC
Needs an option "Perl6 will be released".	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Pope-O-Matik (Pilgrim) on Oct 01, 2015 at 17:43 UTC
The other programmers on the team are pretty funny. They do not belong in programming.	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by herveus (Prior) on Oct 01, 2015 at 15:14 UTC
Howdy! Other - Cowboy Neal. yours, Michael	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by stevieb (Canon) on Oct 12, 2015 at 19:28 UTC
Absolutely! Method to my $madness	[reply]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by karlgoethebier (Abbot) on Oct 14, 2015 at 11:38 UTC
YAP (Yet Another Poet). Regards, Karl «The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe»	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by shmem (Chancellor) on Oct 26, 2015 at 10:08 UTC
Of course yes! too boring without. perl -le'print map{pack c,($-++?1:13)+ord}split//,ESEL'	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by RobRod (Initiate) on Oct 30, 2015 at 10:28 UTC
No, but i would miss it. Humor is the best way to break senseless rules. If humor belongs to programming, it would be a rule, humor couldn't break anymore. If i get an insight by breaking a silly rule in my mind it is humor. but if i try to force humor it tends to be boring, so i wonder about its source. Programming appears to be a good hunting ground - hunting bugs - experiencing humor.	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Anonymous Monk on Oct 01, 2015 at 21:39 UTC
Does Humor Belong in Programming? What does that mean?	[reply]
Re^2: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by Anonymous Monk on Oct 01, 2015 at 22:10 UTC
Does Humor Belong in Programming? What does that mean? In the taxonomy of ideas, is the concept of "Humor" a subset of the concept of "Programming"?	[reply]
Re: Does Humor Belong in Programming? by gloryhack (Deacon) on Oct 29, 2015 at 20:42 UTC
Yes, humor belongs in programming. So does profanity, dammit!	[reply]


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