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c/programmer_humor · by Feyter@programming.dev · 3y

The oldest joke in programming history

A women sent her kid that was into programming to the grocery store and told it:

"Please buy 1 bottle of milk if they have eggs buy 2"

The kid returned with just 2 bottles of milk. When it's mom ask why it bought 2 bottles of milk, the kid said:

"Because they had eggs"

... Was the kid right?

32 points · 10 comments · view on lemmy.world

10 Comments

AVeryCleverName@lemmy.one · 19 pts · 3y (1 reply)

The child should have bought 3 bottles of milk.

Deebster@lemmyrs.org · 9 pts · 3y

You're hired, when can you start?

Deebster@lemmyrs.org · 10 pts · 3y (4 replies)

I always think this joke is more of a linguistics/grammar joke than programming. The kid resolves the ambiguity in the ellipsis incorrectly, but why is this a programmer joke?

Feyter@programming.dev · 5 pts · 3y (1 reply)

Yes the joke is definitely on human language and not on programming but I think programmer can be relate here. At least I feel this joke is made in every computer science ground class ever.

Navigate@programming.dev · 4 pts · 3y

I suppose it demonstrates the ambiguity of human language and need to formalize things for computers

jalda@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 3y (1 reply)

I heard this joke in Spanish, but the meaning is a bit different. Eggs is a colloquial/slang term for testicles (like balls in English), so "if you have eggs" means "if you dare".

Deebster@lemmyrs.org · 3 pts · 3y

I love having a joke that works in two languages but for different reasons.

kylxbn@iusearchlinux.fyi · 2 pts · 3y

For a serious reoly, I think the expression "If they have eggs, buy two" is redundant. If they didn't have eggs, the kid just can't and won't buy any eggs.

I think the proper command would be, "Please buy 1 bottle of milk and two eggs." That way, the kid won't be confused and it's still a proper valid command.

Unfortunately though, the sentence is ambiguous even to non-programmers. It is unknown whether the if condition applies to

  • buying two eggs (buy two eggs)
  • buying two bottles of milk (buy two bottles instead)
  • or buying a bottle of milk (buy another bottle)

Simply because they didn't specify which to buy.

For a non-serious reply,

cart.add(supermarket.takeProduct(ProductType.milk, 1));

if (supermarket.getProduct(type: ProductType.eggs).length > 0) {
    cart.add(supermarket.takeProduct(Product type.milk, 2));
}

cart.checkout();

The kid should have bought a total of 3 bottles.