Ask HN: Do you dream about code?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6464622

by shamp00 • 13 years ago

9 9 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I had a dream about coding.

There was a new C# keyword 'bargo' which returns the value of the last but one function in the call stack. Someone had refactored all my code to make heavy use of it and I was completely lost.

Does anyone else have dreams about code? How is the code/language/environment in your dreams different from what you use in real life?

toutouastro• 13 years ago

I had a dream before while I was learning c# : it's like I was walking on top of a chunk of code in c#.

LarryMade2• 13 years ago

If I'm stuck on some coding/logic problem I sometimes dream of repeatedly going over the problem.. rehashing the process that isn't working over and over again... Its one of those times when you wish you could get some stupid song in your head just to push that out. heh

saejox• 13 years ago

I've had a nightmare about getting stuck inside a pure function. I was trying get myself out using console output functions. I couldn't get out because all my member methods were mutators. Wasn't able to cast myself to string.

Makes no sense, i know.

borplk• 13 years ago

Oh god I'm sorry I normally try to write more substantial comments but I laughed way too hard at this comment I had to thank you.

teni• 13 years ago

Sometimes when am stuck, I get clues in a dream about the problem.

Patrick_Devine• 13 years ago

I've had this. I remember getting stuck when I was 17 on some ridiculous C string parsing problem. I'd been at it for hours when I gave up, went to bed, dreamed about it, woke up and wrote the solution in under a minute.

It was kind of a surreal experience given the amount of effort I had put in the evening before.

gruseom• 13 years ago

This is a great question. Wish it had gotten more discussion.

When I've been working on a hard programming or design problem for several days, I often get a sort of repetitive dream where I'm going over and over the pieces of the problem. It's as if they are building blocks and I am turning them over and over in my hands, except they're ideas and not physical objects. The dreams rarely make direct technical sense and it's not like I wake up with solutions, but it still feels like part of the creative process.

shamp00• 13 years ago

Me too, I wish it had got more discussion. I guess I shouldn't have posted it on a Sunday morning.

xauronx• 13 years ago

Yeah, there are times when I'll toss and turn all night dreaming about coding. Usually that's only when I've been on a serious working binge and drank coffee late in the evening though.

Ask HN: Do you dream about code?

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