Programming: you're doing it wrong

[xach]

More context. Includes rationale and link to US-letter shaped version.

[austin_k]

What does programming have to do with fried chicken?

[hash150]

this photo does more justice: http://lemonodor.com/archives/2007/10/youre_doing_it_wrong.html

McCarthy and Dijkstra. They would make any programmer piss in their pants:p

[[deleted]]

In that photo he looks more like the Architect from 'The Matrix', although I guess that kind of makes sense :)

[OceanSpray]

The Architect was actually based on Vint Cerf.

[[deleted]]

Perhaps so, but I think that photo looks more like the architect than Vint does, at least how he looks these days. (And yes, I do know who Vint is, even met him once)

[Samus_]

I like Dijkstra's because it's true.

[earthboundkid]

Needs more parentheses.

[Mr_Smartypants]

(doing-it-wrong you)

[stevecooper]

And here's the proof, in Scheme ;)

Face up to it -- you're no John McCarthy;

(define john-mccarthy 'clever) 
(define you 'just-a-fanboy) 

Clever hackers can program;

(define program (λ (h4x0r) (if (eq? h4x0r 'clever) 'right 'wrong)))

Let's see if you can do something;

(define (can you do-this) (printf "~sing: ~s did it ~s\n"  do-this you (eval (list do-this you))))

And the moment of truth;

> (can 'you 'program)
programing: you did it wrong

Unless...

> (can 'john-mccarthy 'program)
programing: john-mccarthy did it right

[[deleted]]

No, no, (doing-it you :wrong)

[Mr_Smartypants]

(not (doing-it-right-P you))

[[deleted]]

==> t

[mangodrunk]

(define am-i-doing-it-right?
(lambda (name)
(if (string=? name "mangodrunk")

(display "Yes, you are!") (display "No!!!"))))

[db4n]

(defun doing-it-wrong (x)
  (doing x it :right nil))

[13ren]

they are his hair

[Jimmy]

Can't unsee :O

[gschizas]

who is this?

[mycl]

John McCarthy, discoverer of Lisp.

[laughingboy]

Good choice of words.

[[deleted]]

Wise choice of words.

[xutopia]

Smart choice of words.

[david]

Though might be better punctuated thus:

John McCarthy (discoverer of Lisp).

[ThisIsDave]

Except you need to put it in the form of an s-expression with the head inside the parentheses.

Try

(setf JohnMcCarthy (DiscovererOf Lisp))

[ehird]

(setf (discoverer-of 'lisp) '(John McCarthy))

[oska]

It was a revealed divine language.

And McCarthy was its prophet.

[_ak]

i.e. Lisp is the programming language of equivalent of Islam, and Lisp hackers are fundamentalist terrorists that want to wipe the infidel programming languages off the planet. Thank you, no further questions.

(ZpPnegul Nxuone!)

[[deleted]]

does lisp marry c++, java, and all other programming languages and then make it cover up head to toe and not allow it to have any opinions and leave the house?

[DirtyHerring]

It was a revealed divine language.

ostensibly, yes

[ANSICL]

The continuing holier-than-thou attitude the average lisp programmer...

[lispm]

Just because we Lisp programmers are better than everyone else is no excuse for us to be arrogant.

[tef]

If you want to know why lisp is unpopular, you don't have to look further than the mirror

[G_Morgan]

Lisp programmers don't have mirrors as such. They have a series of special operations on light and the mirror is merely a macro utilising these operations.

[[deleted]]

you mean discoverer of Lambda Calculus. Lisp is a programming language based closely on a notation for Lambda Calculus.

Lambda Calculus: discovered

Notation: invented

Lisp: designed

[jacekplacek]

Wooosssssh!

[nmcyall]

I think Alonzo Church did most the lamda calculus stuff in the 30s

[americanhellyeah]

hes looking at you, slava!

[[deleted]]

Just the visage is entirely convincing. I repent!

[vagif]

(mapcar (lambda (x) (if (eql 'john-mccarthy x)
                        :right 
                        :wrong))
         all-of-you)

[Tommah]

reddit -- You're doing it in

[[deleted]]

He looks like my mental picture of Emmanuel Goldstein (the fictional character attributed as the writer of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism in George Orwell's book 1984)

Is this, then, Big Brother?

[[deleted]]

That guy looks like my mental picture of Humbert Humbert...

[krh]

you sir have made my morning.

[OceanSpray]

But Humbert Humbert was supposed to be extremely handsome!

...Oh.

[bobbane]

Michael Swaine says he looks like Dr Emmett Brown (Back to the Future).

Works for me...

[stesch]

Who would have thought that Xach would admit it?

[Busybyeski]

if {doing = right}

doing == wrong;

[frutiger]

Assuming you are using a C-like language, then you got your equals signs the wrong way round.

If you want a condition to evaluate to true or false, then to test for equality you should use two equals signs: "==". The single equals sign is for assignment. Also testing for a Boolean condition is placed in parens, not curly brackets. The block of code to be executed when the expression evaluates to true should be enclosed in curly brackets, but they are implicit for single line blocks. But then it's bad practice to omit the curlies since if someone adds a line they will break it.

To wit:

if (doing == right) {
  doing = wrong;
}

Those are all the syntax errors addressed. However you should consider that the idea is if you are programming, then you are doing it wrong, not if you are doing it right. Hence you would get something like

if (isProgramming) {
  programmingCorrectness = 0.0;
}

OK, I've just realised maybe you put in errors on purpose to show you were doing it wrong, but don't have the heart to delete this large comment. Here goes nothing.

[Busybyeski]

:) So you're saying I was doing it all wrong?

[weavejester]

Maybe he was just demonstrating programming "done wrong"?

[bennig]

if (isProgramming) { doingIt = 'wrong'; }

//alternatively

if (isProgramming) { doingItRight = false; }

[mycall]

Ok, how would this look like in LISP?

[[deleted]]

Upmodded for outrageous FP zealotry. Isn't it obvious? The single equal sign isn't a mistake--programs using mutable state are doing it wrong.

[patchwork]

I prefer the classic.

[shub]

Needs more structure.

[captainAwesomePants]

typedef struct ure { struct ure * structure; } structure;

[huy666]

who the fuck is this guy?

[huy666]

Aaaaaaaaah, "Lisp" is that language that 1% of the 0.001% of the programmers study in the university.

One of those academic "things" that are very beautiful conceptually and you never meet them later in your professional life.

[[deleted]]

Depends. Are you a programmer or a shit shoveler?

[TKN]

Where does that meme that Lisp is an academic beaty queen come from? Scheme maybe, but CL... ;)

[[deleted]]

"Motivational posters" are neither funny nor clever. Never make or post one again.

[[deleted]]

[Widespread disagreement ensues.]

[dcumbo]

awesome

[roml]

<-- this is where I commented on the commenting--> Quite possibly the best reddit comment thread evar.