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| | | titletext = With the right 90-degree rotation, any effect is a side effect. | | | titletext = With the right 90-degree rotation, any effect is a side effect. |
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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | The comic is about [[Cueball]] confronting [[Ponytail]] over her recent behavior and poor emotional state over the past few months. While Ponytail doesn't give any details on what's causing it, it can be inferred that she is referring to the {{w|United States presidential election, 2016|recent election of Donald Trump as President of the United States}}, which happened about 2 months prior to the publication of this comic. This is a common reaction in the United States whenever a new president is elected, as the voters who did not vote for the new/upcoming President will be feeling unpleasant emotions that their chosen candidate did not win, and will want to express these emotions to the wider world. With the advent of the internet, and more recently social media, the expressions of these emotions have grown more common and often more hyperbolic, regardless of the quality of the candidate.
| + | In this comic, Cueball makes several comments or complaints about Ponytail which are semi-common in regular life. The humor is with Ponytail's responses which subvert the question, by taking them too literally, in a different light than expected, or undermining them completely. |
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| − | Ponytail has retreated to video games for solace to the point that her real life projects are suffering.
| + | In order... |
| − | ''{{w|Stardew Valley}}'' is a video game in which a player creates and manages a virtual farm. And when Cueball mentions that her projects have stagnated, she retorts that her farm in the game is doing great. A comic with the name of that game was released only two weeks later, [[1797: Stardew Valley]], indicating that it is indeed Randall who has played this game excessively.
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| − | Cueball's statement about not being able to hide from everything is a common one to give to insecure people or to those trying to run away from their problems. Ponytail's reply is in the form of a {{w|PolitiFact.com|PolitiFact}} reply, claiming (possibly quite truly) that such assertions are ''mostly false'', one of the six options, but it is far from being the worst, thus acknowledging that you can't hide from everything, just mostly. Politifact.com was also the subject of an earlier comic, [[1712: Politifact]]. | + | Cueball's comment about projects having no progress is presumably with regard to real-life projects of importance. Stardew Valley is a video game in which a player creates and manages a virtual farm, and in fact managing it can be considered a complicated project. Ponytail's reply is a great counterexample of how she is making good progress in a project, albeit a virtual one which doesn't matter. |
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| − | In computer programming, ''{{w|Comment (computer programming)|comments}}'' are pieces of non-functional, descriptive text that programmers include in their code. Typically, they are used as a form of documentation, to make the code easier for other developers to understand. This is why Cueball is glad that Ponytail is at least writing more comments; documentation is something that's often neglected by developers, despite its usefulness. Unfortunately, the comments that Ponytail is putting in her code are not actually about the code at all; she is, presumably, commenting more generally on whatever is troubling her as a way of venting her issues.
| + | Cueball's comment about not being able to hide from everything is a common one for insular people or for those trying to run away from their problems. Ponytail's reply is in the form of a Politifact reply, claiming (possibly quite truly) that such assertions are false. |
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| − | Ponytail's reply to "write what you know" is a common piece of advice given to amateur fiction writers - it means that writers tend to write best when they are writing about something they personally know well, since they will have plenty of interesting and useful experience to draw from. However, since Ponytail's comments are full of obscenities, she is sarcastically suggesting that obscenity is all she currently knows. | + | Cueball's comment about writing comments is in regard to software development. Comments are something a programmer adds to their code such to make a note for themselves or others, typically to explain a complicated piece of logic or explaining external dependencies of a piece of code. His statement implies that Ponytail was not using the for this purpose, instead writing unrelated notes filled with obscenities. Ponytail's reply is one of typical advice given to amateur fiction and non-fiction writers, that to "write what you know." This has additional humor suggesting that Ponytail knows obscenity well. |
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| − | ''{{w|Subroutine|Functions}}'' are reusable pieces of code which developers create to avoid repetition and make the code more organized. For example, if the code often has to calculate the distance between two points, it makes sense to place that calculation logic into a "calculateDistance" function, which can then just be called whenever it is needed. More generally, a function accepts inputs (eg. the coordinates of two points) and may ''return'' an output (eg. the distance between the two points). | + | Cueball's comment about functions is another software development related idea. Functions are pieces of logic which developers create do things (such as "calculate the diameter of a circle based on its radius"). A function which does nothing is literally useless. Ponytail replies that doing nothing is in line with functional programming, that she is trying to avoid side effects (i.e. unexpected, unintended, and typically unwanted effects upon calling a piece of code). This is typically a good thing. Cueball correctly states that by doing nothing that one avoids all effects, again harkening back to the fact that Ponytail's code is literally useless. Ponytail then replies saying that doing nothing is the "only way to be sure," which is possibly a reference to a common quote from the Alien movie series. |
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| − | Cueball notes, however, that all of the functions Ponytail has written are not actually doing anything with their inputs; they are just returning them straight back again and demanding that the calling code should deal with the problem itself. This makes the functions practically useless. Ponytail sardonically tries to justify this as a functional programming technique by saying that she is "avoiding side effects". A {{w|Side effect (computer science)|side effect}} is a situation in programming in which an isolated piece of code changes something about the global state of the program - this can be problematic, as there could be other parts of the code that were not expecting the change, and might behave differently as a result. Their different behavior is a ''side effect''. Sometimes side effects are intentional, but when they are not, they can be tricky to debug and fix.
| + | The title text is a pun on the idea of the phrase "side effect." If you turn something 90 degrees you will place it on its side, so thus making it a effect of putting something on its side, or a "side effect." |
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| − | {{w|Functional programming}} is a programming paradigm in which most or all computation is performed within the scope of self-contained functions, thus avoiding stateful behavior entirely. This removes the possibility of any side effects, since each function only knows what it is told via its inputs, and does not need to be concerned with anything happening outside of itself. Technically, Ponytail ''is'' adhering to this paradigm, but only in the sense that her functions are not doing anything ''at all'', and so cannot have side effects.
| + | Ponytail's despondence is likely in response to Donald Trump's election. The title "Sad" is a common interjection in Trump's tweets. The time-frame of "the past few months" from the first panel is consistent with this, as the election was on November 8, 2016, and the comic was posted on January 25, 2017. The reference to fact-checking in the second panel is also reminiscent of the election and post-election coverage. |
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| − | Cueball fairly makes this point by noting she is avoiding ''all'' effects, to which Ponytail [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090605/quotes?item=qt2959706 quotes] part of a famous quote from {{w|Ellen Ripley|Ripley}} in {{w|Aliens (film)|Aliens}}: ''I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the '''only way to be sure'''.'' By replying that it's the "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q only way to be sure]" she is thus indirectly saying better safe than sorry, but in reality she just doesn't care about her programming anymore because of her sad state of mind. | + | ==Transcript== |
| | + | {{incomplete transcript}} |
| | + | [Cueball is looking at Ponytail on a computer.] <br /> |
| | + | Cueball: How are you doing? <br /> |
| | + | Ponytail: Hah. <br /> |
| | + | Cueball: You seem distant lately. For the past few months. <br /> |
| | + | Ponytail: Can't <i>imagine</i> why. <br /> |
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| − | The title text is a pun, interpreting the phrase "side effect" literally. If you turn an object 90 degrees along the right axis you will place it on its side, so thus making it a effect of putting something on its side, or a "side effect." You can also turn 90 degrees (along another axis), facing what was previously your side.
| + | Cueball (offscreen): Your projects have stagnated. <br /> |
| | + | Ponytail: But my Stardew Valley farm is doing <i>great</i>. <br /> |
| | + | Cueball (offscreen): You can't just hide from everything. <br /> |
| | + | Ponytail: <i>FACT CHECK</i>: Mostly false. <br /> |
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| − | ==Transcript==
| + | Cueball: I'm glad you're including more comments in your code, but it would be nice if they were comments <i>about</i> your code. Or at least a bit less obscenity-filled. <br /> |
| − | :[Cueball is walking up to Ponytail who sits at her desk in an office chair typing on her computer.]
| + | Ponytail: They say to write what you know. <br /> |
| − | :Cueball: How are you doing? | |
| − | :Ponytail: Hah.
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| − | :Cueball: You seem distant lately. For the past few months.
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| − | :Ponytail: Can't '''''imagine''''' why.
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| − | :[Cueball talks to Ponytail at her desk from off-panel.]
| + | [Cueball leans forward]<br /> |
| − | :Cueball (off-panel): Your projects have stagnated.
| + | Cueball: All the functions you've written take everything passed to them and return it unchanged with the comment "NO, <i>YOU</i> DEAL WITH THIS." <br /> |
| − | :Ponytail: But my Stardew Valley farm is doing '''''great'''''.
| + | Ponytail: It's a functional programming thing. Avoiding side effects. <br /> |
| − | :Cueball (off-panel): You can't just hide from everything.
| + | Cueball: You avoid <i>all</i> effects. <br /> |
| − | :Ponytail: '''''Fact check''''': Mostly false.
| + | Ponytail: Only way to be sure. <br /> |
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| − | :[In a frame-less panel Cueball is seen standing behind Ponytail at her desk.]
| + | [Title Text] <br /> |
| − | :Cueball: I'm glad you're including more comments in your code, but it would be nice if they were comments '''''about''''' your code.
| + | With the right 90-degree rotation, any effect is a side effect. |
| − | :Cueball: Or at least a bit less obscenity-filled.
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| − | :Ponytail: Look, they say to write what you know.
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| − | :[Cueball leans forward towards Ponytail at her desk (who has looked on the screen in the same position through the entire comic).]
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| − | :Cueball: All the functions you've written take everything passed to them and return it unchanged with the comment "No, '''''you''''' deal with this."
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| − | :Ponytail: It's a functional programming thing. Avoiding side effects.
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| − | :Cueball: You avoid '''''all''''' effects.
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| − | :Ponytail: Only way to be sure.
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| | {{comic discussion}} | | {{comic discussion}} |
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
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| − | [[Category:Programming]]
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| − | [[Category:Video games]]
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| − | [[Category:Politics]]
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| − | [[Category:Sarcasm]]
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