Programmers (and computer "nerds" in general) are strange beings. Their natural state is stuck in front of their computer, hammering their computer furiously, and writing stuff even a polyglot couldn't understand. But even when they're not programming, their behavior and way of living are so typical of their kind that could be recognized from miles away. Am I right or what?
What follows is a list of little expressions that give away the programmer's profession. The expressions were taken from the site Stack Overflow, which is a Q&A site for programmers (obviously). The expressions that follow are some of the most voted ones.
Having said that, you can tell if a certain person is a programmer if they:
What follows is a list of little expressions that give away the programmer's profession. The expressions were taken from the site Stack Overflow, which is a Q&A site for programmers (obviously). The expressions that follow are some of the most voted ones.
Having said that, you can tell if a certain person is a programmer if they:
- Use parentesis inside parentesis in their normal writing (at least that's what I do (sometimes)).
- Start counting from zero instead of one and consider 256 a round number.
- When asked a simple question like Would you like a cup of tea?, they make a small pause before answering, like if they were saving their previous thoughts on disk before processing the question.
- (Alternative) When asked a simple question like Do you prefer A or B they answer Yes.
- Are more interested in buying and choosing a keyboard than in cars, shoes, etc.
- Interpret the questions as precisely as possible, like for instance:
Wife: Do you want to take the trash outside?
Programmer: No. (I could go, but I don't really want to...)
Passer-by: Do you have the time, please?
Programmer: Yes I do.
Wife: Bring me a loaf of bread, and if there are eggs, bring 6.
Programmer: OK.
Wife (after the buying): Why did you bring 6 loafs of bread?
Programmer: Because there were eggs.
- Laugh at stupid jokes like "There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary and those who don't".
- If asked what languages do they know, they list a whole bunch of them but never say "English" or "German".
- After a long conversation they try to remember where did the conversation started and what steps did they take to get to the current point.
- Have a tendency to end their sentences with a semi-colon;
- If asked to solve a problem, they list all possible and imaginable ways to solve it.
- Male programmer: when he sees an attractive woman with a last generation cell phone in her hand, he looks at the phone first.
- Say their favorite color is #0000FF.
- If asked which kind of computer do they use, they cannot answer with just one word (well, unless it's a Mac).
And finally:
- It should be noted that no ethically-trained programmer would ever consent to write a "DestroyBaghad" procedure. Their basic professional ethics would instead require them to write a "DestroyCity" procedure, to which "Baghdad" could be given as parameter.
