How is holiday formed?

September 13, 2011 1:13 AM

Today is the 0x100 th (or, in decimal, 256th) day of the year, which makes it Programmer Day. Programmer Day is a day to celebrate Programmers and thank them for all that they do. Or don't do? Unless that's Programmers' day., or is it Programmer's Day?

None of these should be confused with International Programmers Day, which was back in January, for some reason. Not everyone recognizes this holiday. But that was back in 2007. Since then, in 2009, the Russians have come to its rescue.

posted by Obscure Reference (43 comments total)

10 PRINT "I WISH I HAD LEARNED TO PROGRAM"
20 GOTO 5
posted by obiwanwasabi at 1:49 AM on September 13, 2011 [17 favorites]

why can't programmer's'day be like turing's birthday or something
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 2:08 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

EVERY YEAR WE GET TOGETHER AND MAKE PYTHON FOR TOAST

EVERY YEAR WE GET A CROCKETY BLOAT

EVERY YEAR WE GET DRUNK ON THE DOCKS

AND EVERY YEAR WE HAVE SEX WITH OUR CAPS LOCKS!!!!!!
posted by public at 2:08 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure a thread about Programming day made in India would cost a tenth of this, and still have 100% of the caps lock comments.
posted by hal_c_on at 2:30 AM on September 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

The first comment isn't a "caps lock comment" and the other comment(s) that might meet your description is clearly a MicroSoft comment. (Ignore the first two versions and wait for 3.x).
posted by GeckoDundee at 2:34 AM on September 13, 2011

The history of Programmer Day is longer than the 2 year life of this site, but unfortunately a lack of comments and poor documentation have obfuscated that history.

Someone reformatted the 5 1/4 inch floppy with the mailing list on it and that was that.
posted by three blind mice at 2:37 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

There are two hard problems each programmer has: cache validation, variable substitution, and off-by-one errors.
posted by DreamerFi at 2:40 AM on September 13, 2011 [18 favorites]

If we're going to have a Day for every profession, event, religion, ethnic group and not to mention various whimsical things, it's going to get out of hand very quickly.

On the other hand, I'd be okay with Patriot Indian Programmers' Mother's Labour CAPSLOCK Christmas Day, because I used to be a C++ programmer and we're very accepting of overloading.
posted by vanar sena at 3:04 AM on September 13, 2011 [9 favorites]

comments++;
posted by CautionToTheWind at 3:34 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yay, i'm learning ruby at the moment and I'm about to start an internship as a programmer. Old job finishes in two weeks, until then I'll just have to celebrate customer service day. Oh wait, that isn't a thing.
posted by omnikron at 3:44 AM on September 13, 2011

DreamerFi: "There are two hard problems each programmer has: cache validation, variable substitution, and off-by-one errors."

Not to synchronization mention errors.
posted by vanar sena at 3:52 AM on September 13, 2011 [14 favorites]

/* comments++; */

Comment cc = new Comment("That's probably not going to work.");
cc->next = comments;
comments = cc; // First!
posted by sfenders at 4:16 AM on September 13, 2011

Nobody made me a cake at work today :(
posted by Joe Chip at 4:23 AM on September 13, 2011

Can this be the nutty day when JavaScript is enabled for MeFi comments? Just this ONE PAGE? Pleeeeeeze?
posted by Salvor Hardin at 4:24 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Unfortunately, because of an issue with the European localisation date libraries I use, I can't celebrate this for another -113 days. I HOPE YOU HAVE FUN WITHOUT ME.
posted by seanyboy at 4:24 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

Programmers' Day (Russian: День программи́ста) is an international unofficial professional holiday that is also officially recognized in Russia.

(international && Russia) == lol
posted by DU at 4:31 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, anyone who was really a programmer would not make the holiday sensitive to leap day calculations.
posted by DU at 4:34 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think MeFi can come up with some better card ideas than this. I'll get the iterator rolling:

Dear Programmer: My gratitude for your work does no bounds-checking.
posted by DU at 4:39 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

10 PRINT "I WISH I HAD LEARNED TO PROGRAM"

Clearly, you've used a goto statement
posted by the noob at 4:40 AM on September 13, 2011

Card ideas:

Dear Programmer. Today is Programmers day. Due to unforseen complexities in your requirements, your card is now due to be delivered by March next Year.
posted by seanyboy at 4:46 AM on September 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

/* I just learned basic SAS a couple of days ago. Can I celebrate? */
posted by amazingstill at 4:49 AM on September 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

I just noticed the unofficial vs official in international && Russia.

PARSE ERROR RESOLVED: LACK OF CAFFEINE
posted by DU at 4:49 AM on September 13, 2011

There once was a short list from Sadr,
Whose complex item was the latter,
It then read the first,
But its second was worst,
So it referenced that with cdadr.
posted by hanoixan at 5:05 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

'API Programmers day.
Here's to a RESTful day.
posted by seanyboy at 5:14 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

i write bash scripts, like, all the time

i also wrote a python program once that searched through some text files on the command line and some other people liked it

can i play
posted by LogicalDash at 5:34 AM on September 13, 2011

I've run things you people wouldn't believe. 0-days on fire off the shoulder of Redmond. I watched the Internet worm turn servers dark near Tanenbaum's office. All those moments will be lost in time... like clicking Zip disks... Time to decompile.
posted by kmz at 5:40 AM on September 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

Can I play?

I've answered the phone for someone else. Do I get to celebrate Secretary's Day?

(I'm just bitter because odds are good that no one will wish me happy Programmers Day, but will still observe "I found this bug" day. Why must every day be "I found this bug" day?)
posted by Deathalicious at 5:41 AM on September 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

"I found this bug" day is way better than "I had all year to look at this new feature and tell you if I liked it but I saved up until you made a release candidate because I know how unbusy you are 2 days before a release" day.
posted by DU at 5:45 AM on September 13, 2011 [6 favorites]

I like "I found this bug" day way better than "hey, you know computers, can you fix my printer?" day.
posted by kmz at 6:06 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Printers are impossible to fix, I am pretty sure. I know a lot about computers and my only strategy for fixing printers is power cycling.
posted by silby at 6:19 AM on September 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

//TODO - Needs to be fixed before 2007 release!

/* comments++; */

//It didn't compile for the 2005 release because of this line!!!!
//comments = cc; // First! /*why was this last if it says first?/*

Comment cc = new Comment("That's probably not going to work.");

cc->next = comments;
posted by CautionToTheWind at 6:23 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

My strategy for fixing printers is to switch my default printer to a working printer.
posted by DU at 6:33 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Speaking of programmers and holidays, perhaps confusion over 31OCT = 25DEC accounts for all retailers putting the Christmas cards and decorations out before Hallowe'en. This implies that management should listen to programmers less and / or programmers should spend more time in The Blue Room.
 
posted by Herodios at 6:38 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

strcat(comments, "When is Buffer Overflow Day celebrated in this locale?\n");
posted by sfenders at 6:46 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

My strategy for fixing printers is going and buying a new printer.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:13 AM on September 13, 2011

Can we celebrate coders with more than 8 bits?
posted by clvrmnky at 7:20 AM on September 13, 2011

I'm a programmer but I'm not that devout. I only observe Programmer day and Why day. My mother is always hassling me about being more faithful. I feel guilty about only programming twice a year. I keep telling my mom when I have kids I'll be better. I feel a little resentful because my brother is a CS graduate and now he programs for a very devout company. Mom always liked him better.
posted by hot_monster at 7:28 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

public class ProgrammerDay extends AbstractFloatingDateProfessionRecognitionHoliday {
  public void celebrate() {
    if (new GregorianCalendar(new Date()).get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR) == 0x100) {
      int myCup = Integer.MAX_VALUE + 1; // my cup overfloweth
      UnsustainablePartyingException up = new UnsustainablePartyingException("I've had " + myCup + " beers! Wooooooooo!");
      throw up;
    }
  }
}

posted by Riki tiki at 7:34 AM on September 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

If you're going to throw up, you need to try and catch it.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 7:36 AM on September 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

This thread is a good excuse to mention the DevOps Borat twitter feed I just found last week. It has excellent tweets like "Average length of Java one-liner is 21 line!"
posted by A dead Quaker at 8:47 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

lololololo DevOps, those are the guys who complain about memory leaks on every conference call right? They should stick with what they know, like installing memory, my apps like to get down in that shit and stretch out, they don't like to be constrained by a measly 8gb.
posted by Ad hominem at 9:53 AM on September 13, 2011

Developers are mean
Developers are fierce
Developers have teeth
And claws that pierce.

Developers are great
They can't be beat
If I was a developer
That would be neat!

Developers are nimble
And light on their toes
My respect for developers
Continually grows.

Developers are perfect
The e-pit-o-me
Of good looks and grace
And quiet dignity!

Developers are great
They're the toast of town
Life's always better
When a developer's around!
posted by dammitjim at 10:08 AM on September 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

They should stick with what they know, like installing memory, my apps like to get down in that shit and stretch out, they don't like to be constrained by a measly 8gb.

I wonder sometimes if there isn't some loop in Firefox (or Safari or Opera or any web browser) that just grabs say, 1% of physical RAM every 3-7 minutes. It's all a conspiracy with RAM and motherboard makers.
posted by kmz at 10:11 AM on September 13, 2011 [1 favorite]