Programming - This One Weird Quote

A seeming lifetime ago I shared with a friend a quote that I remembered reading - and it changed nothing major. Some quotes are like that...

But the friend did change their email signature. This XKCD cartoon just reminded me of that. And yep this is going to be a bit of a short article.

So the quote runs something like: "Every program can be shortened by one line of code, and every program contains at least one bug. That means that any program can be reduced to one line of code - that doesn't work." 

After that, their email signature ran:

--

(name of friend)

Bug Coder Extraordinaire

That's it, really. That quote often came to mind when I was trying to figure out why my ESP32 was producing an infinite-length web page before rebooting. I now have a corollary to that maxim:

"Every program can be shortened by one line of code, and every program contains at least one bug. That means that any program can be reduced to one line of code - that doesn't work. If you attempt to eradicate the bug by removing one line of code, it'll never be the line with the bug in it."

I'm also trying to figure out where that quote came from. It's a bit like the "My machine, it will not boot" verse that I recalled from some time earlier and couldn't find a single reference to online so I decided to save it by writing it out. And I've just searched for it and once again can't even find it on any of my blogs. Time to salvage it again I think:

MY MACHINE, IT WILL NOT BOOT

My machine, it will not boot 

I "rm *" while "su root"

The lights will blink, the fans will whir

But I can't get init to stir. 

I've got no backups, nothing - for,

I used the DAT for music store.

It's time to leave this awful place

Before their lawyers build a case

Another job's been offered me

They want me to admin NT

"Admin NT?" I asked the man

"Of course I will! Of course I can!"

So now I sit, and babysit,

This creeping crawling piece of sh*t

NT's installed, how fscking cute.

And my machine, it will not boot...

-- Courtesy of me having the memory of an elephant for anything but serious stuff

I really truly don't know where either the quote or the poem originally came from, but I hope they made you at least smile. 

Now to the serious bit. Please share the hell out of this post and my others. There's a family health crisis and I may not always be able to post as often as I'd like to, but I don't want to lose readers. Your share will help keep up the number of readers and hopefully give them a smile too. If you can manage a donation that would also help. 

Ciao and be happy!