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Does Your Debugger Sing to You?
ZahrGnosis writes "TRN Mag Online is carrying an article titled Programming tool makes bugs sing. '[The researchers] set up software that mapped pitch and melodic contour information to structural elements in the programming language Pascal. "[We] aimed to see if information about the structure of Pascal programs could be communicated using such musical phrases".' They even found a practical application for software debugging."
I'll program so badly it'll end up sounding like Aphex Twin
Je t'aime Stéphanie
Bug in the program - P.U.!
Somebody wrote it - THATS YOU!
Yes, my debugger _does_ sing as it smites bugs!
namely:
"Another one bytes the dust. Another one bytes the dust. And another and and another bug bytes the dust."
For those of you who need the background music, think Queen, or uh, I guess Weird Al Yankovic
>They even found a practical application for software debugging
It's good to know that software debugging has a practical application.
I wonder if they could create an interface that would allow you to fix bugs by dancing?
Gnu Debugger, the real Dance Dance Revolution?
Haha, only parlty serious. Just as we need new ways to "view" information, it could also be helpful to be able to respond in a way that goes beyond the keyboard and mouse.
byroniverse
You think that's bad? The .NET code samples play The Imperial March.
The musical sound of Windows blue-screening.
You could even have a nice menu:
Select your musical preference:
1) Death-metal guitars
2) Funeral dirge
3) Cat-in-heat-at-12:00-am
Ohhh, the possibilities....
It would be better than the anguished "NOOOOOO!" frequently heard around the office.
My debuger sings and my IDE tells me to kill people.
But wait..... I've said to much.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
In the news, the VC++ debugger has come under fire from the RIAA for producing melodic tunes that sound very similar to several copyrighted materials.
"Whoever wrote the code that produced these tunes, we want to find them and bring them to justice." said Hillary Rosen, of the RIAA. "Neither Microsoft, nor the developer in question, has paid royalties to the artists whose songs they have violated. Renegade debuggers must be stopped, for they pose the greatest threat to the artists' intellectual property we've ever seen!"
<sigh> Fact is often stranger than fiction
(* Bug in the program - P.U.! *)
That's it! Associate *smells* with bugs.
Stack_overflow_error ==> Dirty_Socks_Smell
That will encourage programmers be more careful. Then again, single programmers are probably use to all those smells anyhow.
Nevermind.
Table-ized A.I.
With Palladium, I suspect that there will be more variety. Normally, it will still be "Money" at about 120db, but if you click on an mp3, you'll hear the "Dragnet" theme and sounds of wailing police sirens followed by the Monty Python ditty "There's Nothing Quite as Wonderful as Money".
Sigs are bad for your health.