[0430] Software Engineering, Now With Cats!
└ posted on Monday, 19 November 2012, by Novil
I never understood why swings were used in the original version instead of cats. So I decided to repair this inexcusable mistake.
- Caption: Richard’s guide to software development
- Caption: How the software is designed.
- Caption: How much time has to be spent on each part.
- Caption: How the software looks before the beta test.
- Caption: How the software looks after the beta test.
- Caption: How the software is advertised.
- Caption: What the customer really wanted.
- Caption: How the software looks two versions later.
- Richard: I still like you anyway.
- Software: Toot
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![[0430] Software Engineering, Now With Cats!](http://www.sandraandwoo.com/comics/2012-11-19-0430-software-engineering-now-with-cats.png "[0430] Software Engineering, Now With Cats!")
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Reminds me of this comic.
http://codinghorror.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a85dcdae970b0128776faf6b970c-pi
So after two deformed versions the software transcends racial difference and grows a hand with an opposable thumb and an elephant’s trunk, I don’t know about you guys but i no longer want my tiger, and my question has just been answered.
Petah-Petah wrote:
Actually if you read Novil’s explanation below the comic he’s intended to make a cat version of the swing analogy.
I think the cat version is better.
Several updates later the cat now have two fully functional arms, a pair of horn and a majestic coat. And people love the cat so much because of her efficiency.
Then the cat publisher announce the new Cat 8. And people will hate it and prefer to stay with the older cat versions.
1. Set high standards and try to meet them.
2. Like what your product even when it falls short.
That’s the secret to staying creative.
What the customer really wanted: Nyan Cat.
What the customer really needed: 1 x Cat draught excluder, 5 x mousetrap.
and the original intent was to design a dancing elephant
Is Feature going to be a recurring character? I think that’d be cute.
@ Huttser17:
And who the heck is Feature? The tags just say “Cat”, and nobody else said “Feature” at some point. Explain what you are referring to so that we may understand you more clearly. XD
So the software is designed to look awesome, and then they settle for something with less detail. Odd. I’m not sure I get that part. Other than that, I can say that working on something as simple as a tail actually CAN take more time than any other part of the body when trying to draw something like this (yes, I am aware that drawing this isn’t what was actually happening). XD This is rather accurate and easy to understand though, so I like it!
“How the software is advertised”
Me: It’s coming right for us!!!
@ illeatyourself: It’s simple, really. “Hey, it would be super-cool if we could make this software with four toolbars that intuitively know when the user needs them!”
“Awesome!”
“When do we have to do this for?”
“Next week”
“Er… will half a toolbar do?”
I was starting to laugh out loud…but almost cried when I realized this is what happens sometimes where I work….
I know that feeling Richard bro=’(
The missing parts are bugs or broken code and the weird parts are what happened when they patched it.
@ AckAckAck:
i still miss cat xp to this day…
@ illeatyourself:
well when I posted that the last line in the tag box said the cat-creature’s name was feature…
Also calm down please.
I love the time spent compared to the design– so much detail on the head, only 4% work, the legs are sketched, turns out to be 14%… the tail is literally just a line, and its 80% LOL
When I draw a cat it looks like the 2 years later one
And offscreen is someone smugly proclaiming how much better and smarter he is than
Richard because his cat is more popular, expensive, and/or for “true professional” cat lovers and has a trunk going going out its ass as well as its snout.
@ Quadricat:
It makes sense. The head had a lot of design work done and a clear picture of what the final product should be, so it only needed a little bit of work to finish the coding. The tail was just added as a to-do for later and needed a lot of development and work to make it functional.
I like how beta testing fixed the back legs and unintentionally broke the front legs. Reminds me of problems of a simple fix. “Why don’t we just dummy out that faulty dewclaw code? Because the front leg code won’t run without dewclaws”
btw the tail represents the finishing details…
Cats make EVERYTHING better.
Ultimate evolution: Nyancat.
Don’t forget the price…
10 x what the customer expects.
How the software looks before the beta test.
How the software looks after the beta test.
How the software looks two versions later.
\quote[
A: My dog has no nose.
B: How does he smell?
A: Terrible.]
\donotexplainthejoke: It should be “What the software looks like”.
Though being a Dutchy, I totally get how this was transliterated from German.
Wolfzoon wrote:
No. See also http://codinghorror.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a85dcdae970b0128776faf6b970c-pi
6th pic should be a dog. Just a guy who has a course about just this subject atm
@ Meacul:
As someone with development experience, I agree, but I would add a cat mask to the dog to finish the metaphor…
Wolfzoon wrote:
Being English I I can assure you that How [something] looks … is perfectly good English.
You actually plan your project?
In my experience it goes more like
Case 1:
customer: do something like this somehow… until next week maybe…
me: ok…
me: finished
customer: already? that was fast! looks fine… will probably use it some days…
Case 2:
customer: fast, can you make a program to do a, b and c?
me: sure, until when?
costumer: day after tomorrow is fine, but tomorrow would be better.
me:
cotsumer: you there? I got some changes
cotusmer <1 h later: I thought there should be some other changes, too…
cotumser: everything works fine, but can you change half of it again to fit it into a whole new situation…
So… that’s the cases for me until now^^
Wish all tutorials where like this.
also, I would totally buy that…
Saw this and instantly knew I just had to send this to my brother-in-law who works at Apple corporate.
@ AckAckAck:
According to the company behind “8″, panel 6 is about another operating system, not theirs.
That’s oddly accurate!
except for the hand, that critter is actually really cute. i’d own one.
@ username159:
My brother-in-law’s response: That’s perfect! This really is how software turns out. I am working on a piece that is powerful, but ugly, for automation. Looks like a tiger to me and a weird monster to everyone else.
Sent from my iPhone
Old Programmer’s/Coder’s rule:
You can have it:
On schedule.
On budget.
Functional.
Pick two.
Yay! Mutant software cats
I have now officially moved on nayn cat
I know , I know it hurts me too but there are better people out there
No, no just go before I-I start crying
Boohoohoo waaaahhhh sniff sob weep sob sob sob
Hic Hic. Hic
Well sniff that’s over and done
yay cats
Programming jokes. Oh dear.
Actually, there is an advantage to this–the cat can brush itself and empty its litter box!
WANT.
That cat doesn’t have anything wrong with it, it’s perfect the way it is <3
I want one so much…So adorable! <3 …For a kitty with an elephant trunk, anyways.
The hand was a bit of overkill, but this definitely brings the point across.
The customer obviously wanted Woo.
[...] Software Engineering, Now With Cats! – I hadn't seen the webcomic Sandra and Woo before, but this cat-based reworking of the classic swing cartoon that appears as the frontispiece to Knuth's Art of Computer Programming is excellent [...]
Huttser17 wrote:
Who the heck is “Feature”?
You mean Software the Katzephant, right?
[...] "CRITEO-300×250", 300, 250); 1 meneos Ingeniería de software, ahora con gatos! [ENG] http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2012/11/19/0430-software-engineering… por Squash019 hace [...]
[...] » noticia original [...]
Simply great
[...] Sandra and Woo » [0430] Software Engineering, Now With Cats! | Webcomic Online Comic Strip. Tags: desarrollodiseñohumorinformaticaingenieria del softwarepruebassoftware [...]
@ AckAckAck:
Cat Vista: The cat has cancer.
Cat 7: The cat is a cancer survivor, and well on the road to recovery.
Cat 8 is Schrodinger’s cat…except with the states of dead vs. alive, you have dead and dead with one month’s decomposition.
Cat X: A robust, pleasantly-dispositioned cat with a long lifespan, high disease resistance, and can catch both mice and birds…but nobody can afford it.