From: Robert Billing Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Paranoia in Programming Date: Thu, 15 Jan 98 07:32:49 GMT Message-ID: <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> Reply-To: unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk X-Mail2News-User: unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk X-Mail2News-Path: post-20.mail.demon.net!post.mail.demon.net!tnglwood.demon.co.uk X-Trace: mail2news.demon.co.uk 884855423 17711 unclebob tnglwood.demon.co.uk X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Newsreader: Demon Internet Simple News v1.29 Lines: 20 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!news-xfer.siscom.net!streamer1.cleveland.iagnet.net!qual.net!iagnet.net!news.idt.net!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!tnglwood.demon.co.uk!unclebob In article <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> cgibbs@sky.bus.com "Charlie Gibbs" writes: > Consistency, I guess. Enough things crash when you feed them NULL > pointers that it's better not to get into any bad habits. (Say, > have you seen any suspenders that match my belt?) I once worked for a company which had a harrassed personnel manager who once said, "Why are all good programmers raging paranoids?" I tried to explain to him that only people who expected everything to go wrong really understood what was going on. -- I am Robert Billing, Christian, inventor, traveller, cook and animal lover, I live near 0:46W 51:22N. http://www.tnglwood.demon.co.uk/ "Bother," said Pooh, "Eeyore, ready two photon torpedoes and lock phasers on the Heffalump, Piglet, meet me in transporter room three" ###### From: tph@longhorn.uucp (Tom Harrington) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: 15 Jan 1998 17:01:14 GMT Organization: Mechanist Industries Lines: 26 Message-ID: <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> Reply-To: tph@rmi.net NNTP-Posting-Host: cs0053.eld.ford.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!news-xfer.siscom.net!streamer1.cleveland.iagnet.net!qual.net!iagnet.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!141.211.144.13!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!jobone!dailyplanet.srl.ford.com!eccws1.dearborn.ford.com!longhorn!tph Robert Billing (unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk) wrote: : I once worked for a company which had a harrassed personnel manager : who once said, "Why are all good programmers raging paranoids?" : I tried to explain to him that only people who expected everything to : go wrong really understood what was going on. Not to mention the fact that, for many, this paranoia has been learned through experience. For me it was at least relatively painless. I worked at AMD, writing programs that tested integrated circuits in a production setting. If anything went wrong with the program, the test operators would call me for help, and production pressures generally required a quick resolution. As most of our testing was done on the overnight shift, this meant phone calls at 3 AM from someone with limited computer skills wanting to know what they should do. I quickly learned to try and anticipate error conditions, and write code to handle errors gracefully... -- Tom Harrington --------- tph@rmii.com -------- http://rainbow.rmii.com/~tph "Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves." -- William Pitt Cookie's Revenge: ftp://ftp.rmi.net/pub2/tph/cookie/cookies-revenge.sit.hqx ###### From: "George R. Gonzalez" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 09:30:24 -0600 Organization: University of Minnesota Lines: 42 Message-ID: <69nudm$fub@epx.cis.umn.edu> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com><884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk><69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> <69nrol$dmd$2@decius.ultra.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: b134-164.dhcp.umn.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!newsfeed.usit.net!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!141.211.144.13!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!news.eecs.umich.edu!newshub.tc.umn.edu!newsstand.tc.umn.edu!usenet jmfbahxx@ma.ultranet.com wrote in message <69nrol$dmd$2@decius.ultra.net>... >In article , > Alan Braggins wrote: >>tph@longhorn.uucp (Tom Harrington) writes: >>> Robert Billing (unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk) wrote: >>> >>> : I once worked for a company which had a harrassed personnel manager >>> : who once said, "Why are all good programmers raging paranoids?" >>> >>> : I tried to explain to him that only people who expected everything to >>> : go wrong really understood what was going on. >>> >>> Not to mention the fact that, for many, this paranoia has been learned >>> through experience. There's the old joke about the programmer that was reviewing someone else's code. Apparently the code was pretty sound, but the guy found a loophole: "Your code assumes that time always flows forward" ----- This was just a joke until I had to debug some of my MSDOS code that would hang most days at midnight. It turns out my task scheduler got very confused then, as MSDOS still after all these years advances time a few BIOS ticks past midnight, then backtracks a few ticks, bumps the day, and resets the hour. Time does flow backwards, billg made it so! Regards, George ###### Date: 16 Jan 98 12:08:11 -0800 From: "Charlie Gibbs" Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com><884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk><69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> Message-ID: <1288.320T599T7283444@sky.bus.com> Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Lines: 37 X-Newsreader: THOR 2.5a (Amiga;TCP/IP) NNTP-Posting-Host: 204.244.247.7 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!news-xfer.siscom.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-backup-west.sprintlink.net!news-in-west.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!204.244.4.2!news.westel.com!news.skybus.com!204.244.247.126 In article armb@ncipher.com (Alan Braggins) writes: >tph@longhorn.uucp (Tom Harrington) writes: > >> Robert Billing (unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk) wrote: >> >> : I once worked for a company which had a harrassed personnel manager >> : who once said, "Why are all good programmers raging paranoids?" >> : >> : I tried to explain to him that only people who expected everything >> : to go wrong really understood what was going on. >> >> Not to mention the fact that, for many, this paranoia has been >> learned through experience. > >Programmer 1: 'There's a nice quote here - "Always code as if the person >who will maintain your code is a violent psychopath who knows where you >live"'. Programmer 2: (Looks over at maintainer) 'What do you "as if"?' My indoctrination began on my first job. My fellow programmers pointed to the following sayings posted on the wall, printed in large block letters by our own computer, and directed me to memorize them: IF ANYTHING CAN GO WRONG, IT WILL. NATURE SIDES WITH THE HIDDEN FLAW. THINGS WHEN LEFT ALONE CAN ONLY GO FROM BAD TO WORSE. As you can see, those words have stayed with me. (And I've added to them since.) -- cgibbs@sky.bus.com (Charlie Gibbs) Remove the first period after the "at" sign to reply. ###### From: Alan Braggins Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: 16 Jan 1998 13:42:55 +0000 Organization: nCipher Corporation Lines: 15 Sender: armb@ELY Message-ID: References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: ely.ncipher.com X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.3/Emacs 19.34 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!newsfeed.usit.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp.news.xara.net!xara.net!news.lattis.xara.net!ewrotcd!dover.ncipher.com!news tph@longhorn.uucp (Tom Harrington) writes: > Robert Billing (unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk) wrote: > > : I once worked for a company which had a harrassed personnel manager > : who once said, "Why are all good programmers raging paranoids?" > > : I tried to explain to him that only people who expected everything to > : go wrong really understood what was going on. > > Not to mention the fact that, for many, this paranoia has been learned > through experience. Programmer 1: 'There's a nice quote here - "Always code as if the person who will maintain your code is a violent psychopath who knows where you live"'. Programmer 2: (Looks over at maintainer) 'What do you "as if"?' ###### From: jmfbahxx@ma.ultranet.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: Fri, 16 Jan 98 15:13:49 GMT Organization: UltraNet Communications, Inc. Lines: 22 Message-ID: <69nrol$dmd$2@decius.ultra.net> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: d17.dial-22.mbo.ma.ultra.net X-Complaints-To: abuse@ultra.net X-Ultra-Time: 16 Jan 1998 14:44:37 GMT X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!atl-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!18.24.4.11!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!news.ultranet.com!d17 In article , Alan Braggins wrote: >tph@longhorn.uucp (Tom Harrington) writes: >> Robert Billing (unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk) wrote: >> >> : I once worked for a company which had a harrassed personnel manager >> : who once said, "Why are all good programmers raging paranoids?" >> >> : I tried to explain to him that only people who expected everything to >> : go wrong really understood what was going on. >> >> Not to mention the fact that, for many, this paranoia has been learned >> through experience. > >Programmer 1: 'There's a nice quote here - "Always code as if the person >who will maintain your code is a violent psychopath who knows where you live"'. >Programmer 2: (Looks over at maintainer) 'What do you mean "as if"?' ROTFL! Brings back memories..... /BAH ###### From: "Eugene A. Pallat" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: 17 Jan 1998 23:43:13 GMT Organization: Orion Data Systems Lines: 42 Message-ID: <01bd23a1$980a2370$30a036cf@alpha> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: as1-38.apk.net X-Newsreader: Microsoft Internet News 4.70.1161 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!news-xfer.siscom.net!streamer1.cleveland.iagnet.net!qual.net!iagnet.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!206.229.87.25!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-backup-east.sprintlink.net!news-in-east.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!207.182.64.3!news.micro-net.net!news.apk.net!not-for-mail Tom Harrington wrote in article <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com>... > Robert Billing (unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk) wrote: > > : I once worked for a company which had a harrassed personnel manager > : who once said, "Why are all good programmers raging paranoids?" > > : I tried to explain to him that only people who expected everything to > : go wrong really understood what was going on. > > Not to mention the fact that, for many, this paranoia has been learned > through experience. > > For me it was at least relatively painless. I worked at AMD, writing > programs that tested integrated circuits in a production setting. If > anything went wrong with the program, the test operators would call > me for help, and production pressures generally required a quick > resolution. As most of our testing was done on the overnight shift, > this meant phone calls at 3 AM from someone with limited computer > skills wanting to know what they should do. I quickly learned to try > and anticipate error conditions, and write code to handle errors > gracefully... Some friends were doing an "evaluation" of the procedures used in one programming group for whom I had written some programs. My friends noticed a lack of detailed tests which would catch a lot of unexpected error conditions. When the asked some of the people in the group about this, the response was "Pallat had a lot of code like that, but it didn't seem to do anything. So we took it all out." Those people were so backwards, they didn't know that they didn't know, and some of them had been programming for 10 to 20 years. Remove the '-glop-' for sending email to me. Gene eapallat@orion-glop-data.com Orion Data Systems Solicitations to me must be pre-approved in writing by me after soliciitor pays $1,000 US per incident. Solicitations sent to me are proof you accept this notice and will send a certified check forthwith. ###### From: newcomer@flounder.com (Joseph M. Newcomer) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 22:24:53 GMT Organization: Pittsburgh OnLine, Inc. Lines: 68 Message-ID: <34d3229a.8578829@206.210.64.12> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> <01bd23a1$980a2370$30a036cf@alpha> NNTP-Posting-Host: ppp14.s8.pgh.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!atl-news-feed1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news-xfer.netaxs.com!fastnet!news.pgh.net!not-for-mail "Paranoia" is described as "a rare chronic psychosis characterized by systemazied delusions of persecution" and "a tendency on the part of individuals or groups toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness or distrustfulness of others". Anyone who is a professional programmer knows that the persecution is not delusional; the data is definitely out to get them. When building certain classes of systems, there is a judgment call as to what constitutes "excessive" suspiciousness, but generally you trade of the cost of failure against the cost of additional coding effort and make a choice. The choice made by a programmer writing a medical application in which a cardiac monitor controls a pacemaker is going to be a bit more stringent than, for example, the typical author of a Unix utility application. Anyone who has written a serious subroutine library knows that deep suspiciousness is *not* irrational, and distrustfulness of others is a fundamental ground rule. Hence none of the protective measures most programmers take can be vaguely thought of as "paranoid" because the dangers are quite real. On 17 Jan 1998 23:43:13 GMT, "Eugene A. Pallat" wrote: >Tom Harrington wrote in article ><69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com>... >> Robert Billing (unclebob@tnglwood.demon.co.uk) wrote: >> >> : I once worked for a company which had a harrassed personnel manager >> : who once said, "Why are all good programmers raging paranoids?" >> >> : I tried to explain to him that only people who expected everything to >> : go wrong really understood what was going on. >> >> Not to mention the fact that, for many, this paranoia has been learned >> through experience. >> >> For me it was at least relatively painless. I worked at AMD, writing >> programs that tested integrated circuits in a production setting. If >> anything went wrong with the program, the test operators would call >> me for help, and production pressures generally required a quick >> resolution. As most of our testing was done on the overnight shift, >> this meant phone calls at 3 AM from someone with limited computer >> skills wanting to know what they should do. I quickly learned to try >> and anticipate error conditions, and write code to handle errors >> gracefully... > >Some friends were doing an "evaluation" of the procedures used in one >programming group for whom I had written some programs. My friends noticed >a lack of detailed tests which would catch a lot of unexpected error >conditions. When the asked some of the people in the group about this, the >response was "Pallat had a lot of code like that, but it didn't seem to do >anything. So we took it all out." Those people were so backwards, they >didn't know that they didn't know, and some of them had been programming >for 10 to 20 years. > >Remove the '-glop-' for sending email to me. > >Gene eapallat@orion-glop-data.com > >Orion Data Systems > >Solicitations to me must be pre-approved in writing >by me after soliciitor pays $1,000 US per incident. >Solicitations sent to me are proof you accept this >notice and will send a certified check forthwith. Joseph M. Newcomer newcomer@flounder.com http://www3.pgh.net/~newcomer ###### From: genew@vip.net (Gene Wirchenko) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 18:02:10 GMT Organization: All USENET -- http://www.Supernews.com Lines: 29 Message-ID: <34c5aef9.4297991@news.vip.net> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> <01bd23a1$980a2370$30a036cf@alpha> <34d3229a.8578829@206.210.64.12> Reply-To: genew@vip.net NNTP-Posting-Host: 9983@204.209.212.59 X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!newsfeed.usit.net!news.clark.net!newsxfer.visi.net!newsfeed.direct.ca!Supernews60!supernews.com!Supernews69!not-for-mail newcomer@flounder.com (Joseph M. Newcomer) wrote: >"Paranoia" is described as "a rare chronic psychosis characterized by >systemazied delusions of persecution" and "a tendency on the part of >individuals or groups toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness or >distrustfulness of others". > >Anyone who is a professional programmer knows that the persecution is >not delusional; the data is definitely out to get them. When building ^^^^^^^ Programmers' Paranoia could be described as "a common, chronic psychosis characterized by systematized demonstrations of persecution" and "a tendency on the part of individuals or groups toward high though generally still insufficient, rational suspiciousness or distrustfulness of others and their code". And if it isn't that, it's the pedantics who insist that correct usage is "data are" and won't shut up about it. [snip] Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko C Pronunciation Guide: y=x++; "wye equals ex plus plus semicolon" x=x++; "ex equals ex doublecross semicolon" ###### From: lucvdv@null.net (Luc Van der Veken) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 18:23:41 GMT Organization: . Lines: 40 Message-ID: <34c82e27.1143913@news.innet.be> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> <01bd23a1$980a2370$30a036cf@alpha> <34d3229a.8578829@206.210.64.12> NNTP-Posting-Host: pmpool053-54.innet.be Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.451 X-No-Archive: yes Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!newsfeed.usit.net!newspeer.monmouth.com!news.idt.net!news-peer-east.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!rill.news.pipex.net!pipex!warm.news.pipex.net!pipex!krypton.inbe.net!INbe.net!not-for-mail On Tue, 20 Jan 1998 22:24:53 GMT, newcomer@flounder.com (Joseph M. Newcomer) told the world, or rather subsection alt.folklore.computers of it, that: > "Paranoia" is described as "a rare chronic psychosis characterized by > systemazied delusions of persecution" and "a tendency on the part of > individuals or groups toward excessive or irrational suspiciousness or > distrustfulness of others". > > Anyone who is a professional programmer knows that the persecution is > not delusional; the data is definitely out to get them. When building > certain classes of systems, there is a judgment call as to what > constitutes "excessive" suspiciousness, but generally you trade of the > cost of failure against the cost of additional coding effort and make > a choice. The choice made by a programmer writing a medical > application in which a cardiac monitor controls a pacemaker is going > to be a bit more stringent than, for example, the typical author of a > Unix utility application. Anyone who has written a serious subroutine > library knows that deep suspiciousness is *not* irrational, and > distrustfulness of others is a fundamental ground rule. Hence none of > the protective measures most programmers take can be vaguely thought > of as "paranoid" because the dangers are quite real. Tanslation for us Joe V. Simples: being careful is not the same as being paranoid. Translation for personnel managers: this person is dangerous. He will work longer on the average application than the personnel you *do* want to hire. He may spend considerably less time debugging it, but because that is an activity you would want to exclude completely, a decrease in time there cannot be accounted for. Translation for sales executives: this person is very dangerous. His work will contain less bugs than normal, having a negative impact on upgrade sales. -- The address in the "from" field is a real address, used as a spambox. Mail there may be read, or it may not. If you want to be sure, replace the domain by innet.be ###### From: tph@longhorn.uucp (Tom Harrington) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: 22 Jan 1998 17:07:53 GMT Organization: Mechanist Industries Lines: 12 Message-ID: <6a7ud9$adl7@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> <01bd23a1$980a2370$30a036cf@alpha> <34d3229a.8578829@206.210.64.12> <34c5aef9.4297991@news.vip.net> Reply-To: tph@rmi.net NNTP-Posting-Host: cs0053.eld.ford.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!newsfeed.usit.net!newsxfer.visi.net!feeder.qis.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!jobone!dailyplanet.srl.ford.com!eccws1.dearborn.ford.com!longhorn!tph Gene Wirchenko (genew@vip.net) wrote: : Programmers' Paranoia could be described as "a common, chronic : psychosis characterized by systematized demonstrations of persecution" So it's a high-tech variation on post-traumatic stress disorder? -- Tom Harrington --------- tph@rmii.com -------- http://rainbow.rmii.com/~tph "Freedom of choice is what you got! Freedom from choice is what you want!" -Devo Cookie's Revenge: ftp://ftp.rmi.net/pub2/tph/cookie/cookies-revenge.sit.hqx ###### From: genew@vip.net (Gene Wirchenko) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 20:56:41 GMT Organization: All USENET -- http://www.Supernews.com Lines: 19 Message-ID: <34c79327.5866914@news.vip.net> References: <1845.318T612T7303637@sky.bus.com> <884849569snz@tnglwood.demon.co.uk> <69lfcq$fkq1@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> <01bd23a1$980a2370$30a036cf@alpha> <34d3229a.8578829@206.210.64.12> <34c5aef9.4297991@news.vip.net> <6a7ud9$adl7@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> Reply-To: genew@vip.net NNTP-Posting-Host: 24984@204.209.212.20 X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.1/32.230 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!newsfeed.usit.net!news.clark.net!europa.clark.net!199.60.229.5!newsfeed.direct.ca!Supernews60!supernews.com!Supernews69!not-for-mail tph@longhorn.uucp (Tom Harrington) wrote: >Gene Wirchenko (genew@vip.net) wrote: > >: Programmers' Paranoia could be described as "a common, chronic >: psychosis characterized by systematized demonstrations of persecution" > >So it's a high-tech variation on post-traumatic stress disorder? ^^^^^ What is this prefix doing here? The typical programming environment supports real-time traumatic stress disorders! Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko C Pronunciation Guide: y=x++; "wye equals ex plus plus semicolon" x=x++; "ex equals ex doublecross semicolon" ###### From: spam@lisardrock.demon.co.uk Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Paranoia in Programming Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 20:57:47 GMT Message-ID: <885589067.26847.5.nnrp-07.9e98ee68@news.demon.co.uk> References: <6a7ud9$adl7@eccws1.dearborn.ford.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lisardrock.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: lisardrock.demon.co.uk [158.152.238.104] X-Everything: Net-Tamer V 1.09.2 Lines: 18 Path: ccw.ch!aetna.dolphins.ch!news.planetc.com!newsfeed.usit.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-backup-east.sprintlink.net!news-in-east.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!Sprint!194.159.255.21!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!lisardrock.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail On 1998-01-22 tph@rmi.net said: -: Programmers' Paranoia could be described as "a common, -: chronic psychosis characterized by systematized demonstrations of -: persecution" -So it's a high-tech variation on post-traumatic stress disorder? well, except that it tends to be pre-traumatic... the good programmers are the ones that are paranoid before they've ever written a line of code... -- Communa - all at lisardrock.demon.net to be sure we read your reply, send to username `communa' Net-Tamer V 1.09.2 - Test Drive