Thursday, 15 January 2009

How bugs get in to code.

Zoso and I chat at work, because it’s one of the very few things our work lets people do on our “state of the art” Intratubes. Here’s a snippet from today (straight from the messenger program albeit slightly cleaned-up) to give you a fascinating insight into how software is developed in our industry:

Melmoth:
Oh and arb wrote on Twitter “aiee, now I’ll be singing that ALL day!” when I mentioned Jamie and the Magic Torch with respect to our 80s Kid’s TV Theme band game. So yeah, I guess people do know that one.

Zoso:
I couldn’t give you a line past JAMIE! JAMIE! JAMIE AND THE MAAAAGIC TORCH!

But I could give you that one line for a good three or four hours straight…

Melmoth:
Eh heh heh! Ditto.

Melmoth:
“Jamie! Jamie! Jamie and the Magic Torch! mumble mumble mumble somethingthatrhymeswithtorch. ‘cos he’s Jamie, Jamie and the maaaaagic torch! Jamie! Jamie!…”

Zoso:
Eh heh heh! Forsooth.

Melmoth:
amie! Jamie!
Jamie and the Magic Torch.
Down the helter skelter, faster and faster
towards Cuckoo Land.

Wordsworth! Wordsworth!
Following hard behind.
Ready for adventure, always there to lend a paw or hand!

Mr Boo and all the others too,
the strangest people you’ve ever seen.
And the torch with it’s magical beam –
If I hadn’t really been there
I’d think that I was dreaming!

Jamie! Jamie!
No two nights are the same.
And life is one long glorious game
with Jamie.
Jamie and the Magic Torch!

Melmoth:
Oh that’s right, I just remembered it!

*cough*

Zoso:
That’s startling! Though your memory appeared to trim a character at the beginning, your brain must’ve not quite highlighted the whole thing…

Melmoth:
I don’t know what you mean!

Melmoth:
And I’ve just pasted the Jamie and the Magic Torch lyrics into my code…

Zoso:
I actually laughed out loud then…

Melmoth:
“Compiler sez no”

Melmoth:
Still, I think the user would see the funny side when, instead of this high priority warning symbol, they got the first few verses of a 1980s kid’s TV program on their display.

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