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@svs
Last active August 1, 2019 10:39
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Too Many `a`s (with apologies to Dr Seuss)
(Original here http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171612)
Did I ever tell you that Programmer McCave
Had twenty-three variables and he named them all `a`
Well, he did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do.
You see, when he wants wants to add `a` to 2
He doesn't get a number oh no no no
All twenty-three `a`s cause a buffer overflow
This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves'
As you can imagine, with so many `a`s.
And often he wishes that, while he was coding,
He hadn't ignored that sense of foreboding
And called one of them runCount, And one of them lastNum
And one of them allSales and another roundSum
And one of them lastId, and another userNames
And one subnetMask, or numStartedGames
Any old names would actually do
even if they were just `bar` or `foo`
And adding hyphens or humble underscores
He could have come up with so many more!
Like read_app_config_from_this_file_name
But no, he went and called them all the same
If only he hadn't given into the hype
And used a language strongly typed
He would have avoided this horrible fate
But he didn't and so now it's too late.
@eteeselink
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@sisou, seriously?

@sisou
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sisou commented Dec 1, 2014

It's just that I find it weird that you would use the female programmer to point out flaws in programming, as if women can't code and would make these stupid mistakes... When you change everything else and most of all the whole context of the story/poem, why not change the gender too and show that men make mistakes just like everybody else?

@svs
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svs commented Dec 1, 2014

I changed the gender and I'll be the first to leave the next comment as well.

I find it weird that you changed the gender of the programmer to be a male, when it is originally a female in the poem. Are there no female coders?

@jeffmcjunkin
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Line 25:
s/event/even/

@jeffmcjunkin
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Also, really nicely done! :)

@svs
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svs commented Dec 1, 2014

Thanks @jeffmcjunkin!

@sisou
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sisou commented Dec 1, 2014

Anyway, we'll done and very good rhymes :)

@svs
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svs commented Dec 1, 2014

Thanks @sisou

@underyx
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underyx commented Dec 1, 2014

@sisou are you suggesting that women are inherently better coders than men? I find it outrageous that anyone would suggest us males are not equal. Oh the misandry!

/s

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