Explaining our Hobby to Non-Programmers

[iammisc]

I've never really told anyone, but just recently I began taking a computer class, and ll the computers run windows. I figured it would be kinda cool to port my JIT compiler for my dynamic language onto windows. First thing I did was install cygwin on my flash drive (access to the internet is considered too distracting). And then, I load up emacs (let's not start a flame war) and load up my autoconf files to edit them to recognize windows as a valid host and stuff. Anyway, people began asking me what I was doing. They seemed to recognize that it was computer code and they asked me if it was a virus, I said no. They asked if it was a game and I said no. And then they asked me what it was and I really didn't know how to explain a just-in-time compiler to a non-programmer, no matter how much experience they've had with computers. I told them I can't explain it, because that's really the truth. They ask me why I'm doing it, and without being able to explain what it is in the first place, it's kind of futile to even attempt to explain why.

I agree with Solar completely. I just try to avoid the question, unless I'm talking to someone who actually understands computers.

[Brynet-Inc]

...hacking the gibson.

[JJeronimo]

I agree with Solar completely. I just try to avoid the question, unless I'm talking to someone who actually understands computers.

Programming in the school doesn't seem quite an effective way to "avoid the question".

JJ

[Solar]

"World inside the Crystal"
Lyrics: Steve Savitzky
Music: Kathy Mar

Beside the world we live in
Apart from day and night
Is a world ablaze with wonder
Of magic and delight

Like a magic crystal mirror,
My computer lets me know
Of the other world within it
Where my body cannot go.

You can only see the shadows
Of electrons on a screen
From the world inside the crystal
That no human eye has seen.

The computer is a gateway
To a world where magic rules
Where the only law is logic
Webs of words the only tools

Where we play with words and symbols
And creation is the game
For our symbols have the power
To become the things they name.

refrain

Now you who do not know this world
Its dangers or its joys
You take the things we build there
And you use them as your toys.

You trust them with your fortunes,
Or let them guard your lives.
From the chaos of creation
Just their final form survives.

refrain

instrumental break: verse+refrain

Call us hackers, call us wizards,
With derision or respect,
Still our souls are marked by something
That your labels can't affect.

Though our words are touched by strangeness
There is little we can say.
You would only hear the echo
Of a music far away.

refrain

[bewing]

I just say, "I'm writing a new version of windows." Or maybe, "I'm writing a new version of windows with no bugs."

I don't believe in confusing people with details. The advantages of saying this are that 1. people GET it, and 2. it gives them an immediate understanding of the scale of the project. They can even begin asking moderately intelligent questions right away.

[overburn]

i once tried to explain to my girlfriend that i can't connect to the net as i can't find a specific nic driver for linux and trying to write one. since then i've been keeping to myself "linox" .. priceless

[earlz]

my accomplishment is explaining my EPBP bytecode project to a girl and her finding it interesting! I phrased it like "you write a program once in this certain way, and it works everywhere. Your PC, your phone, your mac, whatever" I also gave a very crude intro to how assembly has
nop -> 0x90 -> do nothing.

I think she was meant to be a programmer.. if only I had the time lol

[Troy Martin]

my girlfriend

Liar! Just kidding.

Damn, I wish I was lucky enough to have a girlfriend. Don't give a rat's @$$ if she wouldn't understand what the hell our hobby is, I just need love.

[Solar]

This is another of those moments where I consider myself a lucky bastard, being married to a woman that's a wonderful wife, a great mother to our kids, and a Sun Certified Java Programmer.

[quok]

This is another of those moments where I consider myself a lucky bastard, being married to a woman that's a wonderful wife, a great mother to our kids, and a Sun Certified Java Programmer.

Man, you had me all jealous until you mentioned Java.

In all seriousness, I'm much in the same boat as you. My wife understands programming and could code if she ever wanted to get back in to it. She just doesn't enjoy it at all, and so instead stays at home with our kids while I'm stuck bringing in the dough.

[Troy Martin]

Well I don't think I'm legally old enough to get married here so that's not a problem!

But damn you guys, I need love

[Solar]

Man, you had me all jealous until you mentioned Java.

She learned C, C++, HTML, XML, and some JavaScript too, but you don't get certified for it. Her internship was at my former company, writing XSLT templates to convert XML logging output into a HTML website. She even had a C64 once.

[quok]

Man, you had me all jealous until you mentioned Java.

She learned C, C++, HTML, XML, and some JavaScript too, but you don't get certified for it. Her internship was at my former company, writing XSLT templates to convert XML logging output into a HTML website. She even had a C64 once.

That's quite impressive... but that Java thing... I dunno.

My wife is in to cars -- classic American muscle, modern imports, whatever. She's been secretly stashing money away so I can fix up my 1970 Nova and get that running on the street (er, strip) again. Although I've been secretly stashing away money to take her on a really super nice cruise, or a trip to Europe. We were supposed to go a couple of years ago, but she says I screwed that one up when she got pregnant with our daughter. Neither one is really a secret, of course.

[overburn]

heh ... who says hardcore proggies don't have girlfriends if bill gates could, you cantoo

[steveklabnik]

My girlfriend is a MechE, and before she was my girlfriend, she asked me for some help with this graphical programming language that they were using to simulate some sort of crazy thing. It was when she said, "I'm so frustrated! If I could just do this in C, I'd know exactly how to do it! It'd be so easy!" that I knew she and I should date.