How Did It Ever Work?
One of the humorous emails that turns up in my inbox every once in a while is entitled “The six stages of debugging” and reads as follows:
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That can’t happen.
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That doesn’t happen on my machine.
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That shouldn’t happen.
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Why is that happening?
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Oh, I see.
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How did that ever work?
As with most humor, it’s funny because it’s based in truth. In particular, it’s not at all unusual to find yourself thinking “How did that ever work?” after you’ve completed your diagnosis.
If you do find yourself thinking this, pause for a moment. It’s a good sign that you haven’t really fully understood all the possible implications of the bug. Keep going until you understand how it did ever work—there’s an excellent chance that you ...
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