Something I thought would be fun.

I believe you know what this is: turning an easy command into something complex.

First, list the command you want to do.
Then, post the code for it to do that.

Here's my example:

a+b=?



Ok, so that wasn't very good. But I think you get what I mean.

The problem is, you don't get to see what it's doing when you actually run the program. Half the fun of Rube Goldberg machines is just watching them do stuff.

XD
Then make 'em show you stuff.

@Ethliel: Use comments.

I suppose that would be somewhat interesting. But I'm not quite to the point where I find fun in reading through other people's code.

Any sufficiently large codebase could be construed as a Rube Goldberg machine. The codebase I work on at work is 1,043,000 million lines of code. A million coincidental miracles occurring in perfect harmony to achieve one (mostly) robust end effect.

...Which is to make coffee or toast or something, right?

Omelettes of 12 varieties.

Not bad, not bad.

I want to take a byte out of those!
...
...
...
That was pretty bad.

^
We are no longer friends. >.>

You pig! Only take a bit.

A group of four bits is a nibble.

In most C implementations, a char takes up 8 bits (1 byte). A group of four bytes is called a 'word.'

When dealing with computers, we only speak in four-letter words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-letter_acronym

Running out of them is a bit like running out of IPv4 addresses. Sure it's possible to go on, but it's different and strange and requires effort in ways that nobody is used to.

I don't believe we were ever friends, so fine with me.

Oh. :( So harsh...

hence "bit," "computer," "Linux," "C," "C++," "Python," "Browser," "Operating System," etc.

Bit, Comp, Lin(Or DSB), C, C++, Py, IE(Or Fire, Or Goog), OS, etc.

You are making these up.

Well, GOOG is their stock symbol.
But the rest are fictitious I think.

Guys. Guys!

The joke is that "four-letter words" are swear words. And getting computers to do what you want can be frustrating. So you swear a lot.

But computers always do what I tell them to do.

That's the problem. They don't say "Oh, this is wrong."