The oldest joke in programming history (programming.dev)

submitted 2 years ago by Feyter@programming.dev to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev

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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?

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[-] AVeryCleverName@lemmy.one 17 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

The child should have bought 3 bottles of milk.

[-] Deebster@lemmyrs.org 9 points 2 years ago

You're hired, when can you start?

[-] Deebster@lemmyrs.org 9 points 2 years ago

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 points 2 years ago

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 points 2 years ago

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

[-] jalda@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 years ago

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 points 2 years ago

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

[-] kylxbn@iusearchlinux.fyi 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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.

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