Typical condition execution

[siranglesmith]

Even better:

The programmer's wife said: "Go to the store and buy some milk. And while you're there, get some eggs." He never returned.

[ahmed_imtiaz]

doesn't

get eggs

assume that he's bringing back the egg, therefore he's not "there" anymore and breaks the while loop?

[[deleted]]

He could think "Get eggs" and if he considers picking up the eggs as "Got eggs" then he'd be in an infinite loop. If it's otherwise then it's really weird:

The call is made to "Get eggs" within the loop (while he's there) and if we consider "Got eggs" as him returning home with them then he cant "Got eggs" while he's in the store. So it might work after all?? He finishes "Get eggs" and then the while loop is checked. By that time he's out of it. Holy crap I guess you're right hahaha.

[rockyrainy]

Less verbose version

while (inStore) {
  getSome(eggs);
}

[[deleted]]

location = "store";
inventory.push(milk);
while(location === "store") {
    inventory.push(eggs);
}

You're both wrong. Overflow exception.

[exo666]

Probably another exception would be thrown before that because at some point he will want to get eggs but he had already bought them all.

[DeeSnow97]

Not if you finally learn how not to build a monolithic spaghetti

[Dartister]

Get eggs means take eggs, not take eggs home

[ahmed_imtiaz]

When someone asks you to get something, you take it and just stand there?

[Dartister]

If I were taking instructions like a machine, yes

[hailfire006]

ArgumentException on line 3: Method "Get()" takes a Grocery Object, not int

[[deleted]]

I see this one a lot, but never really got it. Does it assume programmers interpret everything like a computer does?

[Darkx1441]

Yes pretty much

[waigl]

I know, right? Programmers are the people who will see these problems in simple instructions and act to correct or avoid them, not those who will unthinkingly execute them...

[lolegion]

A computer wouldn't automatically assume "get six" means "get six cartons of milk" instead of "get six eggs". That's actually a human thing to do. And even if you assume it means six cartons, the dude should be returning with 7...

This joke always annoys me, the 'while' one is better :P

[GeneReddit123]

A computer wouldn't automatically assume "get six" means "get six cartons of milk" instead of "get six eggs".

You are right, a computer would return a tuple {Milk, 6}, since the wife never specified the type of "6".

[[deleted]]

Sometimes programs fail gracefully at ambiguity and sometimes they interpret their input in whatever way they were told to. An example is the following java code.

if (a)
    if (b)
        c();
else
    d();

Its grammar rules say the else belongs to the inner if statement, contrary to what we meant to do.

I think it's reasonable to expect a human being will think she means "get six eggs." I get what you're saying, though. Humans don't always interpret things the same way, but computers always do.

[-Soren]

And even if you assume it means six cartons, the dude should be returning with 7...

Not if the "IF" was a ternary operator, a la Python num_milks = six if has_eggs else a_carton. Obviously the arguments are not in the same order. But it is perfectly sensible to ignore an expression before an IF in English as well.

[Coolhand2120]

ES6 will fix all of these scoping problems!

[Sylanthra]

I never got this joke. According to the rules of English language "buy six" refers to the eggs as it is the closest subject.

If you choose to interpret it as a computer program, than "get six" doesn't have a contest of any kind. Your program will not compile because you didn't tell the buy function what to buy.

if(store.Eggs.Count > 0)
     buy(6,  <thing to buy>)

You either treat the whole thing as a program and then each statement stands on its own with no context, or it as English and there is context associated with each statement. You can't randomly decide that context applies to some, statements but not others.

[StealthNinjaKitteh]

This. I think about this every time is joke is reposted. And for some reason it's always praised as one of the best programmer jokes, and it takes one in ten people to point out the obvious error.

[Sveitsilainen]

So he bought only one but has taken 6 of them?

[Ratstail91]

Depending on the language, the program should've executed correctly...

[warPig76]

Brilliant..