And this is why I program in Go.
Hardware OS Program (no libc, no dynamic libs, no external runtime)
Go specializes in "it runs like you read it". I hate magic in my program and I distrust programmers who program like a magician.
Burn the Programmer
71–80 of 254 posts
Re: Burn the Programmer
#72No. The only people that seem to get upset about this is the media, because their power is being usurped by Facebook, and Silicon Valley itself. Go 30 mins outside of the Bay Area and everyone thinks Silicon Valley is great, and programmers work magic. Living in this tech bubble gives a skewed view of the world, but really no one cares.
Re: Burn the Programmer
#73"...Ever tried to set up a Postfix server?" is the new "...Ever tried to set up a Sendmail server?". (When I was younger, I was told by a veteran sysadmin that only 5 persons in the world knew how to configure Sendmail directly, everyone else was relying on preprocessing scripts written by the aforementioned wizards). Edit: my point is that Postfix is actually quite easy to configure, compared to Sendmail which was t…
Is it? I've only modified existing configurations, but Postfix doesn't seem bad.
Postfix is quite simple, provided you already know how MTAs work and can google the right terms.
Sendmail.cf deserves its reputation.
Re: Burn the Programmer
#74Considering how many programming abstractions most programmers work above now, I'd say it's more like magic now then ever before. Draw the circle (add the boiler plate code), recite the words (dig up the proper API method), perform the gestures (compile with certain flags) and your spell (desktop app) will work. If you don't, it'll do nothing or worse, blow up in your face. As a side note, if anyone's interested in l…
Diane Duane's Young Wizards series is more "magic as programming" but it's also quite good if you like stuff that's fairly YA pitched. It bridges the gap between "magic is deeply mysterious and unknowable" and "with the right set of words and invocations you can teleport" in an unusually deft way. Magic uses a more declarative language than an imperative one, but it's composed in much the same way as you might compose a program.
A magic Apple II makes an appearance, if I'm remembering correctly...
Re: Burn the Programmer
#75Another analogy that I can't shake off is True Name and search engines. Since the dawn of time folk tales placed emphasis on true name of people and objects. Knowing the true name grants one power over something or someone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_name Knowing the true name of someone lets you put it in a search engine and find out about him/her. There are some sleazy smartphone apps which let you do even…
As true names are unique (are they?), they seem more like debug console credentials, where you can ultimately control or threat the existence of named being.
Re: Burn the Programmer
#76It makes me wonder if there are any realms of wizardry where the highest ranking wizards spend all their time on management skills and never get to practice their magic. "Oh, these days I just review a lot of spell-design scrolls and mentor junior acolytes. Magic is more of a people business, you know."
Most of the Discworld magic, really. Moreso the witches than the wizards, the wizards are more concerned with the next meal.
Re: Burn the Programmer
#77Considering how many programming abstractions most programmers work above now, I'd say it's more like magic now then ever before. Draw the circle (add the boiler plate code), recite the words (dig up the proper API method), perform the gestures (compile with certain flags) and your spell (desktop app) will work. If you don't, it'll do nothing or worse, blow up in your face. As a side note, if anyone's interested in l…
That sounds neat. Target age?
Re: Burn the Programmer
#78From what I've heard, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" seems unsupported by available historical evidence: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/32371/38995 >Among others. I searched and read a lot, looking for anything along the lines of "the long-isolated tribesmen were amazed at seeing a cell phone for the first time, and asked 'what kind of magic is this?'" But I have not…
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Re: Burn the Programmer
#79It makes me wonder if there are any realms of wizardry where the highest ranking wizards spend all their time on management skills and never get to practice their magic. "Oh, these days I just review a lot of spell-design scrolls and mentor junior acolytes. Magic is more of a people business, you know."
This http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/ might be relevant to your interests.
Re: Burn the Programmer
#80You know, us programmers like to refer to ourselves as wizards but I really wonder if non-programmers think the same or is it just like any other profession they're not knowledgeable of? I don't know anything about chemical engineering but I've never considered chemical engineers to be magical. I do like thinking of myself as a wizard, though.
> I really wonder if non-programmers think the same or is it just like any other profession they're not knowledgeable of? There is a large difference between competence and ignorance. They're qualitatively different, and different in each field. e.g. programmers do magic things like read the error messages on the screen . Non-programmers not only don't do that, they can't comprehend why it's necessary. (Without exagg…
> e.g. programmers do magic things like read the error messages on the screen. Non-programmers not only don't do that, they can't comprehend why it's necessary. (Without exaggerating too much)
More than once it has crossed my mind that it would be worthwhile to build custom error message dialogs that can't be closed for at least 30 seconds (maybe with a secret override) for some areas of our products. The number of times I've been on a support screenshare with customers where they try to connect to some external service, and it fails, and they instantly dismiss the prompt that would tell them exactly why it failed, if they would just read it, is maddening. At least that kind of a built-in delay would give me time to fire up the snipping tool and grab a screenshot from my end...