wtfe²日本語

xkcd #1513

Code Quality

by Randall MunroePublished: License: CC BY-NC 2.5

Comic: Code Quality (xkcd #1513). Transcript below.

Code Quality © Randall Munroe · xkcd · CC BY-NC 2.5

Hover textI honestly didn't think you could even USE emoji in variable names. Or that there were so many different crying ones.

Why it lands

Three escalating similes for unreadable code, then a one-line surrender. The joke rests on a real gap: "it compiles without errors" is a much lower bar than "someone else can read it", and a style guide only closes part of it.

Transcript

  1. KEEP IN MIND THAT I'M SELF-TAUGHT, SO MY CODE MAY BE A LITTLE MESSY.
  2. LEMME SEE— I'M SURE IT'S FINE.
  3. ...WOW.
  4. THIS IS LIKE BEING IN A HOUSE BUILT BY A CHILD USING NOTHING BUT A HATCHET AND A PICTURE OF A HOUSE.
  5. IT'S LIKE A SALAD RECIPE WRITTEN BY A CORPORATE LAWYER USING A PHONE AUTOCORRECT THAT ONLY KNEW EXCEL FORMULAS.
  6. IT'S LIKE SOMEONE TOOK A TRANSCRIPT OF A COUPLE ARGUING AT IKEA AND MADE RANDOM EDITS UNTIL IT COMPILED WITHOUT ERRORS.
  7. OKAY, I'LL READ A STYLE GUIDE.

Credits

Original
Code Quality — Randall Munroe, xkcd

The English page shows the original image unmodified. The Japanese page shows an adaptation by wtfe²: the lettering was erased from the art and replaced with a Japanese translation. The adaptation is shared under the same license as the original.