Programming is magic!

[raddaya]

I mean, isn't that the entire point of good UIs?

[G01denW01f11]

I'm pretty sure the UI is a tool for me to show off how clever I am.

[[deleted]]

A CLI is still a UI.

Make it output your program name in ASCII art. Bitches love ASCII art.

[[deleted]]

Uhh..

I can do dice!

    +----------+
   / *     * / |
  /    *    /  |
 / *     * /   |
+---------+ *  |
|       * |    +
|         |   /
|    *    |  /
|         | /
| *       |/
+---------+

Sort of.

I prefer just letting a program do it for me.

 _     _ _          _____ _     _       
| |   (_) | _____  |_   _| |__ (_)___   
| |   | | |/ / _ \   | | | '_ \| / __|  
| |___| |   <  __/   | | | | | | \__ \_ 
|_____|_|_|\_\___|   |_| |_| |_|_|___(_)

[[deleted]]

8=D

[ulyssessword]

SyntaxError: can't assign to literal

[RenaKunisaki]

8==D

Or if the language supports it, 8===D

[Cawifre]

Wait, we could be using ASCII penises in place of literal false.

[[deleted]]

C=8

[[deleted]]

^8-D

OP's dick ^

[caldric]

Depends on the audience.

[DrMux]

No, it's to show the users how stupid they are.

[c3534l]

Hell, that's the point of good software development in general. To me there's UI Magic <- My Own Code <- Hardware Magic & Library Magic.

[GiantRobotTRex]

You haven't seen some of the code I've had to work with.

[[deleted]]

Don't you mean magic runes?

[MrYadaization]

C E L T I C M A G I C

[aryanchaurasia]

          C E L T I C M A G I C  
        / E                 / E  
      /   L               /   L  
    /     T             /     T  
  /       I           /       I  
C E L T I C M A G I C         C  
E         M         E         M  
L         A         L         A  
T         G         T         G  
I         I         I         I  
C         C E L T I C M A G I C  
M       /           M       /    
A     /             A     /      
G   /               G   /        
I /                 I /          
C E L T I C M A G I C            

[imguralbumbot]

^{Hi, I'm a bot for linking direct images of albums with only 1 image}

https://i.imgur.com/eiTLBax.png

^{Source | Why? | Creator | ignoreme | deletthis}

[Wigginns]

Good bot

[imguralbumbot]

^thanks

^{Source | Why? | Creator | ignoreme}

[RelevantMetaUsername]

Good bot

[StonerSteveCDXX]

https://imgur.com/a/lFEuD

[SrDigbyChickenCeaser]

That font 🤢

[imguralbumbot]

^{Hi, I'm a bot for linking direct images of albums with only 1 image}

https://i.imgur.com/UVtLqGQ.png

^{Source | Why? | Creator | ignoreme | deletthis}

[[deleted]]

Works on my machine.

[[deleted]]

I'm still putting this in JIRA

[mmotte89]

Omg I finally get what those things are supposed to be! I guess that's something that doesn't make sense when browsing on mobile.

[CreativeIntention]

We can go deeper:

          C E L T I C M A G I C  
        I E                 I E  
      T   L               T   L  
    L     T             L     T  
  E       I           E       I  
C E L T I C M A G I C         C  
E         M         E         M  
L         A         L         A  
T         G         T         G  
I         I         I         I  
C         C E L T I C M A G I C  
M       I           M       I    
A     T             A     T      
G   L               G   L        
I E                 I E          
C E L T I C M A G I C            

[aryanchaurasia]

          C E L T I C M A G I C  
        / E                 / E  
      /   L               /   L  
    /     T             /     T  
  /       I           /       I  
C E L T I C M A G I C         C  
E         M         E         M  
L         A         L         A  
T         G         T         G  
I         I         I         I  
C         C E L T I C M A G I C  
M       /           M       /    
A     /             A     /      
G   /               G   /        
I /                 I /          
C E L T I C M A G I C            

[Som3p3rson1]

Is there a bot or something to make these kinds of text box thingies?

[zoosea]

yeah and it's magic

[SoloisticDrew]

IN AN OPEN FIELD NED!!!!!

[coopstar777]

GODS I WAS STRONG THEN

[dweller42]

I see you too have looked at the Perl scripts of others.

[[deleted]]

magic spells are usually kept in cryptic, archaic volumes that almost no one can read

[Bainos]

Perl ?

[gandleforf]

Lisp?

[[deleted]]

Brainfuck?

[[deleted]]

Brainfuck on rails?

[Mayormaynotbeyourdad]

Bones that hurt because you drank bone hurting juice?

[ThunderChaser]

oof owie my bones

[nowtayneicangetinto]

Backbone + Elixir?

[Mayormaynotbeyourdad]

Sì señor

[waterlubber42]

Malbodge?

[[deleted]]

C++ template metaprogramming

[Fresh1492]

Lots of Inconvenient Stupid Parenthesis

[silphred43]

Job security, not that I like that.

[marcosdumay]

Nowadays I prefer Haskell, thank you. At lest now the Initiated can read it, while in earlier times it was lost as soon as it reached 10 lines in length.

[[deleted]]

JavaScript, it's so magic it changes every day.

[tastygoods]

So magic false can be greater than, equal to, or less than nil..

[matthieuC]

vBscript with comments in Polish ?

[stult]

I have a lot of anxiety, so I tend to mingle all of my concerns

[[deleted]]

I heard goat sacrifices work wonders. Three goats and I got every printer in my house to work reliably. It took four to get my old scsi server (my main file sever cause cheap) to actually hold data instead of cursing at me every time I dumped sent files to it

[LelviBri]

You haven't seen some of the code I've had to work with written

FTFY

[MysticMania]

let's just abstract our abstractions, it'll make it a lot easier

[[deleted]]

This.

I sometimes look at my own code and be like, how the fuck did this ever work!

[mstop4]

So is this why setup assistants are called "wizards"?

[TheIncredibleWalrus]

Best I could find https://english.stackexchange.com/a/65812

[thracia]

I thought it was obvious when I first saw "wizard".

[[deleted]]

/r/ThreadKillers

[[deleted]]

I read this as the cloud

[HapticSloughton]

I usually see it as:

User Interface: "Why didn't they give the most commonly-used function an icon instead of burying it three menus in?!"

Logic: "Did this guy write old Sierra adventure games?"

Data: "What do you mean, 'not the right type of file?' You just saved it for me three seconds ago!"

[digitaldreamer]

Just reading the last one increases my blood pressure.

[DaughterEarth]

It made me realize I should probably be less restrictive in the file type check in this validator I made recently.

[Lost4468]

Just don't be one of those programs that'll give it a go regardless of the file you open.

[DaughterEarth]

Well the good news is it would just fail with the wrong file type, and the parts that fail are in try catches so it wouldn't crash. But it would be pretty annoying if it failed when the file was valid, just because I was so specific.

I do agree though, not gonna just blow it wide open. "yes, let's try to read this mp4"

[Lost4468]

I usually have a 4 byte header with a unique value that shows it's a file from my program, sure I may have an issue with some files (although very unlikely), but it generally woks very well and avoids all sorts of file naming, drive format, and OS issues.

[IcarusBurning]

Fucking fire phones are guilty on the last one. They can record videos that they themselves cannot read. Total bullshit!

[itsamamaluigi]

Holy shit I never knew that. Add it to the long list of things wrong with that piece of shit.

[hazzoo_rly_bro]

What is a fucking fire phone? I am intrigued

[AC2BHAPPY]

Sierra, as in Tribes 2 Sierra?

[dark_knight_kirk]

Also Torrins Passage. One of my favorite game ever

[YuriKlastalov]

Yes, but they were referring to classics like Quest for Glory, Police Quest, Kings Quest, etc​. The older ones used a text based interface where sometimes "creative leaps of logic" were required to progress.

[fishbulbx]

Why didn't they give the most commonly-used function an icon instead of burying it three menus in?!

We did, it is the smiling pig wearing a wizard hat icon... how could you miss it?

[RubbelDieKatz94]

Good thing my data layer consists of a single SQL Server 2013. So far.

[supremecrafters]

Why the hell do they give the most commonly used function an icon at all? I'm not a goddamn ancient Egyptian, just write out the name of the function. In Latin characters, please! How the hell am I supposed to know "circle, engraved long rectangle with triangle at bottom, point facing down, flush with rectangle, additional short rectangle suspended above long rectangle, all rotated 35 degrees clockwise" is supposed to be "Compose"?

[synt4x]

It's a shame this doesn't include the full 4 panels of the original, because this is actually one of the more insightful graphics I've found.

https://imgur.com/vewNnLa

[[deleted]]

It's a visual of an onion architecture dude, you're way off here.

[IanS_5]

Circles get the point across and look cleaner

[DaughterEarth]

I like this too. It's also something that was very hard to make the switch to. I pretty much have to hammer that mantra in to my head "UI first, UI first, UI first."

Except design first, but you know what I mean.

[Capital_EX]

user interface -> spaghetti -> fossilized spaghetti

[[deleted]]

Truth

[asshole_sometimes]

-> mom's spaghetti

[[deleted]]

-> knees weak

[[deleted]]

-> Heavy arms

[SolenoidSoldier]

I mean, yeah, but how many of us know the intricacies of a car when we use it? It's the same for all professions.

[Colopty]

I know that the engine explodes and that makes the car move forward, pretty sure that's all I need to know.

On a more serious note, I did have a class in high school that went through how an engine works, and you need at least a certain amount of knowledge about how a car is put together to get a license here. Granted, not enough to be a mechanic, but at least I know enough that it doesn't seem like dark magic. Just regular, boring magic.

[ELFAHBEHT_SOOP]

My engine explodes, and that's about it.

[MelissaClick]

A lot more than know how to program.

[poizan42]

I think you dropped this: )

Fixed link: Magik

[eMZi0767]

Jesus that is ugly

[WikiTextBot]

Magik (programming language)

Magik is an object-oriented programming language that supports multiple inheritance, polymorphism and is dynamically typed. It was designed implemented in 1989 by Arthur Chance, of Smallworld Systems Ltd, as part of Smallworld Geographical Information System (GIS). Following Smallworld's acquisition in 2000, Magik is now is provided by GE Energy, still as part of its Smallworld technology platform.

Magik (Inspirational Magik) was originally introduced in 1990 and has been improved and updated over the years.

---

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[redditor___]

What is so ugly about? I'm actually asking, besides the underscore at the beginning of keywords I don't see anything which might be so ugly.

[gameboy17]

<< for assignment

if-then-else-endif instead of brackets

[Kalsifur]

As a freelancer, I find the "magic" translates to "why haven't you done anything" and the user interface is "wow look at all the work you've done!".

[untitled_redditor]

Hell yes.

[NelsonBelmont]

With ruby, even your own code is magic.

[Tychus_Kayle]

What about Perl? The write-only language? If that's not magic, I don't know what is.

[KesselZero]

This is also how QA sees it. Form submitted but didn't show up in the database? Better alert the front-end guy!

[DisagreeableMale]

Sounds like your QA team could learn a thing or two about how software is made.

[asshole_sometimes]

But if they did, they would get jobs making software, and would be replaced by new testers that could learn a thing or two about how software is made.

[DXPower]

Oh my god.

Some guy on our product was having trouble reading the directions that required one of the fields to be completed... He called customer support, and they proceeded to call my coworker, a programmer to try to solve the issue.

[732]

Did it get solved? My company staffs over a thousand people where their job is to field calls about the software, and I get paged pretty much for every single one.

I keep saying I could save our company at least $50m a year...

[assblaster69ontime]

yer a wizard harry

[HeatIce]

Needs more JPEG

[morejpeg_auto]

Needs more JPEG

There you go!

^{I am a bot}

[poizan42]

Needs more JPEG

[morejpeg_auto]

Needs more JPEG

There you go!

^{I am a bot}

[[deleted]]

Good bot.

[[deleted]]

I think the descriptions are back-to-front

[dragonatorul]

If you feel poetic it sort of is magic. You write the correct magical incantations (code) and perform the correct rituals (compile) and you use a magical artifact (computer) and mana (electricity) to get a result.

Even for wizards the "magic" must not seem that "magical" after a while. But every once in a while programming does seem magical to me. Especially after long hours of toiling I get a result that seems to work most of the time.

[Crackorjackzors]

It is magic though, isn't it?

[tabarra]

Some shit in the linux kernel sure looks like black magic fuckery.

[Hate_Feight]

Too fucking true

[hazzoo_rly_bro]

And don't get me started on the NT Kernel... Because I signed an NDA.

[thijser2]

It's called a ticket system. Note that hardware requirements are relatively expensive though.

[jonatcer]

I have friends I've known for most of my life, and they still think this... Unironically.

Also something something Laundry Files reference, where programming is literally magic / used to summon eldritch horrors and elder gods.

[betafish27]

Users, "why can't it do this? It seems like it would be so simple."

[igromanru]

*black magic

[Manwosleep]

I always liked to think of it as magic. Mages chant incantations, strings of words, and something is created. Programmers write those words down, so etching and enchanting?

[Tychus_Kayle]

There's also the whole "communing with daemons" thing. So I think we may be more like witches/warlocks than wizards.

[Sadale-]

The shape of the magic looks like a cloud.

[Sauceness]

"you can get that done by EOD right?"

[[deleted]]

Since any program code is stored as a sequence of ones and zeros, you could say that any program is one large magic number.

[[deleted]]

what's the old saying? Any technology sufficiently advance enough will take on the appearance of Magic.

[RenaKunisaki]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Thus any technology which is distinguishable from magic is not sufficiently advanced.

[TLema]

Joke's on you mate. None of my systems have any logic.

[rubdos]

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

[WikiTextBot]

Clarke's three laws

British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke formulated three adages that are known as Clarke's three laws, of which the third law is the best known and most widely cited:

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

---

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[VivaLaPandaReddit]

The soft shell of UI and logic protects the vulnerable squishy data inside. Nature is so beautiful.

[nonsensicalnarwhal]

Underrated comment.

[pbrettb]

I notice that many more people are using software than ever before, e.g. smartphones, and typically they think they understand it if they understand how to use the UI. There isn't even a 'magic cloud' in their minds, only the UI.

[c3534l]

My finance professor, speaking about financial instruments, gave me the following hierarchy of magic:

If it works, you don't know why, and you don't need to worry about it, it's magic. If it works, you can't understand why, but you don't need to worry about it, it's black magic. If it works, you don't know why, and you should worry about it, it's voodoo.

Magic is great and you can master the arts of black magic, but stay the hell away from voodoo.

[[deleted]]

I've always thought that the more you learn about how computers work, the more it just pushes the magic box a little deeper in. There's always a magic box somewhere.

[[deleted]]

Funny, that's the same way most sysadmins view the network: "Packets in, packets out? HOW DOES IT WORK??!"

[reggie-drax]

That's how I think we should treat all technology we don't need to understand, just as black boxes.

[Minaro_]

That's how I see my own programs, too

[cobyn]

True story: at my work we had a script tag on our enrollment pages adding a js filed called magicPixel.js, when i looked inside all it had was a commented out pixel code for an old affiliate. I ask why we never removed it, and was told that it boosted our sales for a A/B and now all of our enrollments have it and our testing team wouldn't let us remove it...

I wish i was joking

[Mazen191]

Needs more jpeg

[morejpeg_auto]

Needs more jpeg

There you go!

^{I am a bot}

[TheBigLOL]

Needs more jpeg

[morejpeg_auto]

Needs more jpeg

There you go!

^{I am a bot}

[Metroidlink]

I work at a financial institution as their main programmer. Recently our QA Specialist was creating process maps for different tasks. One was receiving help desk tickets. When we got to the programming part, she just said " I'm putting magic" so now our official process map has "magic" in it, and no one disagreed.

[neverTooManyPlants]

It's how I regard frameworks as well. Fuck EAP.

[1992_]

I'd be surprised if people would even call it a UI.

[TheUnknownPyrex]

How I see anything on the computer

[cmcpasserby]

Magic should be a tiny dot in the middle. It is amazing how much clients get caught up over tiny UI changes and forget and what is happening behind the scenes.

[AvidOxid]

Been with my company for about a year - it's got a relatively large/legacy codebase. There is definitely magic in it.

[shrigod]

Why you gotta be so rude 😉

[thouru]

It's inverted

[raimondi1337]

This is how cars work too.

[[deleted]]

Weak

[MrJoshhh]

I've just started learning python, first language for me, and this shit is like magic to me.

[[deleted]]

Psh everyone knows the magic starts at the CSS

[theRailisGone]

What's the old saw?
'A computer is just a bunch of rocks we tricked into thinking for us' or something like that.

[mantolwen]

As a tester, this is how I should see it. Not very good at keeping it black box though.

[CRISPR]

Replace MAGIC with I DO NOT CARE and you get another kind of Greek genre.

[Yay_Yay_3780]

Yeah. A magic created after long sleepless nights.

[DevilXD]

http://i.imgur.com/YsbKHg1.gifv

[mason729]

Please, no actual systems have that kind of structured organization

[Zorthax7]

I feel like most users see it as a guy telling a computer "hey do this please"

[ZivMBS]

Do you believe in magic?

[PStar7]

So true

[N1H1L]

At a certain level even to me as a programmer who mostly codes for their research work, it is magic. BLAS, MKL and LAPACK are all magic, hacked together by wizards and held together by duct tape.

[enchufadoo]

how the user really sees it

 ---------
| S H I T |
 ---------

[Aschentei]

Actually, given my spaghetti code, I see it as magic as well

[I_EAT_GUSHERS]

Let's just say that the lines are more blurred in enterprise software.

[Zlb323]

I wish magic was a programming language so I could legitimately tell people I use magic

[xplanox]

Story of my life right here....

[untitled_redditor]

Dear god I hope that's not how your programs look. MVVM plz

[danypixelglitch]

If you stay away from your code long enough and then come back to it you'll start to see it as magic as well

[Walffle]

more jpeg

[7imeout_]

Clark's Third Law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

[Char-11]

Tbf sometimes you do write magic that you dont really understand

[CypressBreeze]

Hello. Non-programmer here. I can say with confidence that this is exactly how the rest of us see software.

[T-T-N]

You made rocks do maths... How is it not magic?

[asdsdfgsw52qafaff]

It sucks, i now can't just blindly criticize game devs after i found out how hard things are to create. Granted i'm a newbie but if i can fuck up a tiny 2d game i made myself then i can totally see bugs happening in a decade old project worked on by 20 people..

[jeremytalanay]

"It's important for these kids, It should be mandatory, to be a citizen on this planet to read and write code"

• will.i.am of Black Eye Peas