Cutie-wootie widdle genius [Jan 27, 2012]

[Lia S]

Not that PHP is a good language, really. As a programming language, it is very badly designed. But it became widely used for a reason, ...

The same can be said about C++, Java and Perl. It seems well designed languages always keep stuck in small niches, probably because "good enough" always gets finished before "perfect".

Anyway, an acquaintance of mine works at facebook, he writes tools in OCaml to help review, test and verify the PHP code, which is usually less reliable than code in some other languages.

OCaml? Yup, they definitely know what they're doing.

[CamelSpotter]

Not that PHP is a good language, really. As a programming language, it is very badly designed. But it became widely used for a reason, ...

The same can be said about C++, Java and Perl. It seems well designed languages always keep stuck in small niches, probably because "good enough" always gets finished before "perfect".

But there are degrees. I'm not a fan of C++, but I feel its problems are less egregious than PHP's. Java is not really badly designed, the first versions were designed to be "simple" and kinda idiot-proof, the newest versions include a lot of complexity under the hood (like existential types in wildcards for generics), but I wouldn't say Java is badly designed, only that it is boring to use Perl is a whole other stuff, it started as a quick-n-dirty scripting language replacement, but then it grew and Larry Wall went all "postmodernist" and "I'm a trained linguist" trying to justify the language. It's quirky and, yes, badly designed in several places, but it's still a little more consistent than PHP (only a little).

OCaml? Yup, they definitely know what they're doing.

It's a very good language for writing language tools. Microsoft also has iternal tools written in OCaml to analyse the C code of drivers. It turns out that they discovered (during the time of Windows XP, I think) that around 80% of crashes and BSODs in Windows were due to badly-written driver code, nothing to do with Windows itself. It now uses tools (mostly written in functional languages like OCaml) to verify drivers, and the number of crashes and BSODs has fallen considerably since then.

[Ollie]

Also, the ONE time I have ever seen Leviticus used BY christians, rather than against them, was in the intro to "Why can't I own a Canadian".

You're honestly completely unfamiliar with Fred Phelps and the rest of Westboro Baptist? God Hates Fags? Not ringing a bell? Lucky you.

IIRC, Fen is not North American (Romanian?), so perhaps their exposure to Christianity is vastly different from what many other Tea Room forumers' exposures have been.

[Fen]

Actually people just generally agree that I'm special. Somehow whenever I get angry at the local extremist atheists they all jump at me because "we're a nation with 80% Christians herp derp" and how "the church is running the country herp derp" and how I never got to see the shit they throw at the people because apparently I was sheltered and just magically got surrounded by amazing people all my life. I never really got how that works, though. Also since homophobia sexism and all that are the common thing here I guess I never got to see the Christians standing out from that point of view.

I mean I did have crosses thrown at me at the gay parade but TBH most of them were from legionnaires rather than from traditional Christians, and those guys are messed in the head. (religion is but an aspect of it, but not the most important one. just the one they use for justification).

And Christianity really is all about the New Testament with the Old Testament being there for reference. The extent to which the Old Testament can be ignored is under discussion, sure, but Leviticus is not one of those things which should be discussed in either way.


And seriously, just because there are a bunch of people who don't know their bibles yet are very loud about it, you shouldn't just diss a religion like that. Christianity really was about making the world full of Katy-Anns . Male ones. Cause females weren't human beings yet. But still!


P.S. I find it weird how I'm always on the pro side of religious debates despite the fact that I'm as non-religious as it gets. Though I have to admit, this one time I literally ran away from a penticostal. literally, ran. Because I thought he would convert me. And I kept looking back evern after I had ran 4 blocks because I feared he would follow me. To be fair, he had taken out his guitar and started singing about Jesus.

[Freemage]

Actually people just generally agree that I'm special. Somehow whenever I get angry at the local extremist atheists they all jump at me because "we're a nation with 80% Christians herp derp" and how "the church is running the country herp derp" and how I never got to see the shit they throw at the people because apparently I was sheltered and just magically got surrounded by amazing people all my life. I never really got how that works, though. Also since homophobia sexism and all that are the common thing here I guess I never got to see the Christians standing out from that point of view.

I mean I did have crosses thrown at me at the gay parade but TBH most of them were from legionnaires rather than from traditional Christians, and those guys are messed in the head. (religion is but an aspect of it, but not the most important one. just the one they use for justification).

And Christianity really is all about the New Testament with the Old Testament being there for reference. The extent to which the Old Testament can be ignored is under discussion, sure, but Leviticus is not one of those things which should be discussed in either way.


And seriously, just because there are a bunch of people who don't know their bibles yet are very loud about it, you shouldn't just diss a religion like that. Christianity really was about making the world full of Katy-Anns . Male ones. Cause females weren't human beings yet. But still!

Ah, but most modern Christians also reference Paul, who pretty much led the charge to dump the food-and-circumcision requirements, and then turned around and said, "But the sex rules? Yeah, those still stand. Because sex is icky, and you should only do it in marriage if you can't stand being celibate, because asexuality is teh awesomesauce."

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

Forgive me if someone's already mentioned this, but I just wanted to say how much I love Jason's "blink and you'll miss 'em" sight-gags with "Hillbilly Stereotype" Sara: the "I'm with Stupid" shirt with the arrow pointing up at herself, and her wearing her Daisy Dukes backwards.

I can take credit for those, but Jason added the freckles, the buck teeth, the jewels, the boob enhancements, and best of all, the pig. The pig alone makes the entire strip for me. (Oh, and the reversed S is his, too.)

And things like this, are why you guys work so well as a team, and have kept me coming back ever since post-Mad Science Fans.

Also, query: Why do people tend to use "Estimated Time of Arrival" when they're adding an Edit? Anyone know? Because I keep having to tell my little prompt in my head every time I see that "No, they don't mean they're going to get here at such and such time, shaddup, you know what they meant..." and it's making the little man in my head get a little confused and sad sometimes. x.x

[Fen]

Ah, but most modern Christians also reference Paul, who pretty much led the charge to dump the food-and-circumcision requirements, and then turned around and said, "But the sex rules? Yeah, those still stand. Because sex is icky, and you should only do it in marriage if you can't stand being celibate, because asexuality is teh awesomesauce."

haha yes, but wasn't that because paul was asexual himself? And was kind of disgusted with the whole decadent Roman Empire thing and the Dionysiacs&associated cults of mysteries which somehow always ended in orgies? (or am I misremembering? We covered this in class this one time.)

[DudeMyDadOwnsADealership]

I also want to note that in Sara's imagination all of the ΛAZs have breasts that are significantly larger than in actuality. I never would have guessed that Sara was a hooters girl.

Lucy wasn't exactly an A-cup, I recall. Neither was Cyndi or Hilary.

[Bo Lindbergh]

The pig alone makes the entire strip for me.

"Hey baby, I've got a pig!"

[LurkerDreaming]

For those looking at PHP, take a look at the symfony framework. Great stuff...

Also, Akkadian! My college minor can come in handy! It is somewhat nonsense, being only a handful of syllables in a mostly polysyllabic language ( 'u-u e-nu-ma ), although "enuma" is a word--
enuma elish la nabu shamamu
shaplish ammatum shuma la zakrat
Apsu-ma reshtu zarushun
Mummu Tiämat muwallidat gimrishun

When heaven above was yet unnamed
and below the earth's name was not spoken,
Apsu, the firstborn, their begetter
and maker Tiamat, who bore them all...

yay creation epic!

[CBrachyrhynchos]

Hah, and then, there's common lisp, which is the perfect storm of trying to mix Functional and OOP.

[Alice Macher]

When heaven above was yet unnamed
and below the earth's name was not spoken,
Apsu, the firstborn, their begetter
and maker Tiamat, who bore them all...

yay creation epic!

Ah yes. I studied that in Intro to Biblical Literature, freshman year. In translation, though. Neither cuneiform nor transliteration.

Poor Tiamat and Apsu!

[Freemage]

Ah, but most modern Christians also reference Paul, who pretty much led the charge to dump the food-and-circumcision requirements, and then turned around and said, "But the sex rules? Yeah, those still stand. Because sex is icky, and you should only do it in marriage if you can't stand being celibate, because asexuality is teh awesomesauce."

haha yes, but wasn't that because paul was asexual himself? And was kind of disgusted with the whole decadent Roman Empire thing and the Dionysiacs&associated cults of mysteries which somehow always ended in orgies? (or am I misremembering? We covered this in class this one time.)

Well, he said that he "did without" the sin of intercourse. Most historians read that as "Paul was asexual, before that was seen as simply another orientation rather than a state of virtue." So, yeah, Paul thought sex was icky, didn't like the way it manifested as sexual idolatry in Rome, and generally sought to keep it as limited and oriented AWAY from personal gratification as possible. If you're not doing it to make babies, then you're doing it wrong. One of the first reasons I started to split from Christianity, frankly, was the almost universal deification of Paul--his words were given the same level of authority as the Gospels, which seemed in error to me--I couldn't see any reason to regard Paul's writings as anything other than how I regarded those of, say, C.S. Lewis--an earnest and devoted follower, but still mortal and fallible.

[Mec]

About PHP: Monica's monologue is credible to me. I've met people with similar views, although I believe she's quite wrong. And yeah, it's a snobby thing to say. "Oh, Facebook doesn't know what they are doing, but I do."

The formula in the last panel has the heart: integral of 1/x dx equals ln(x). If I could draw a picture here: ln(n+1) - ln(n) is the definite integral of 1/x dx from n to n+1. This is roughly 1/n. And ln(n+1) - ln(n) = ln((n+1)/n) = ln(1+1/n) is also, roughly, 1/n.

Or, do a web search on natural logarithm, read a couple of pages until you find one that clicks.

And after that, the step from "1/x" to "1/1 + ax" is just a linear substitution.

[Ameyal]

Call me dumb and all, but I just noticed(after several strips) but... where the hell did Jules go?

Also, I kinda hope the pig makes future appearances..