What if computers just did what we wanted them to do?

[dorchadas]

Time lost to stupid mistakes in the last week:

• Typing 0 instead of 1, thus iterating over the wrong array and repeatedly getting "undefined": Three hours.


• Misplacing a bracket, causing the loop to always return true: Two hours.


• Checking the wrong function input, thus causing the function to always return false: One hour.

Programming languages are like real languages, in that a single small error totally screws everything up. I'm reminded of my Japanese lesson this week, where Aya-sensei got completely confused when I talked about making 塩鮭 (shiozake, "Salted salmon"), because 鮭, "salmon," and 酒, "alcohol," are pronounced exactly the same and I was talking about leaving it out on the counter to thaw, so she thought I had left three bottles of booze on the counter.

After those three hours lost to 0 and 1, I wish I had that booze on the counter.

Comments

[dorchadas]

I have a whole folder of emoji images, and I added that one to it the instant I found it.

And yeah, the 0/1 thing was especially infuriating! But I think learning a new language (and living in a country where I didn't speak the language well) helped condition me to frustration enough that I can overcome it. Not without sometimes feeling like an idiot, though...

This Three Panel Soul comic is an excellent summary of how programming goes.