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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Dream Logic


I am working in an office and I have just been given the job of writing a program using a new scripting language. It's not a big program, but it performs some useful, everyday function.
    The front part of the office is divided into two rooms separated by a hallway that leads to larger room in the back. The hallway is perhaps six feet wide, which would be wide enough to easily accommodate two people traveling in opposite directions except that there is also a copier (a Xerox machine) and an associated supply cabinet along one wall in this hallway. The copier forms a bit of a bottleneck. It's okay though because there is not a great deal of traffic in the hall, and the copier is not in high demand.
    I've finished the program and it's working, and here is where dream logic takes over. While I was reading up on the new scripting language I used for this project, I came across a function that could replace one layout with another, more job appropriate layout. I realize I can apply this function to the copier in the hallway. If we need the copier, we call this function with the-copier-in-the-hallway layout. If we don't need the copier, we call this function with empty-hallway layout. I try it a couple of times and it works great. First the copier is there, then it isn't. How cool is that?
    But then, because it's a scripting language, it reveals it's true colors. There is a plastic runner on the carpet in the hallway. When the copier is there, the runner jogs around the copier. When the copier is gone, the runner runs straight down the hallway. I invoke the routine one more time to restore the copier, and surprise, surprise, no copier. But the plastic runner now jogs around the place where the copier should be. Dang blast it. Where's the copier?
    We start a half-hearted search for the copier, but since we have no idea how it was moved, we have no idea where it went. I notice my old boss, Roger, there and decide to ask him. It is at that point in the dream that I realize that none of this makes any sense and I wake up.

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