The Missing Semicolon That Broke the Silence

Description

A clever programming joke disguised as a text message conversation between two personified programming languages, Python and C, set against a bright blue background. The conversation shows Python sending a series of messages: 'Hey C! Long time no see.' at 12:00 PM, followed by 'You there?' at 12:05 PM, and 'Are you ignoring me?' at 12:10 PM. After a pause, Python has a moment of realization at 12:20 PM, sending 'Oh wait!' and then a single semicolon ';'. Instantly, at 12:20 PM, C replies, 'Hey there!'. The humor is rooted in a fundamental syntax difference between the two languages. In C and its derivatives, every statement must end with a semicolon to be syntactically correct, whereas Python uses newlines. The meme brilliantly illustrates this by showing that C was unable to 'process' Python's messages until the proper terminator - the semicolon - was sent

Comments

Anonymous ★ Top Pick This is a perfect illustration of FFI (Foreign Function Interface) hell. You spend 20 minutes yelling into the void before realizing you forgot the one magic character that makes the other side listen

Anonymous ★ Top Pick

This is a perfect illustration of FFI (Foreign Function Interface) hell. You spend 20 minutes yelling into the void before realizing you forgot the one magic character that makes the other side listen
Anonymous

Spent half the sprint profiling Python-C interop; turned out it wasn’t GIL contention - C was just silently blocking on the missing semicolon handshake, like a 1972 API contract nobody ever deprecated
Anonymous

After 20 years of debugging missing semicolons in production, you realize the real bug was choosing a language that silently fails on whitespace errors instead of one that loudly fails on punctuation - at least semicolons don't care if you use tabs or spaces
Anonymous

The real joke here is that after decades of evolution, we still can't agree on whether statements should end with semicolons or just... stop. Python realized it needed to speak C's language - literally adding the semicolon that C has been waiting for since 1972. It's the programming equivalent of remembering to end your emails with 'Regards' when talking to that one formal colleague. Meanwhile, C is just sitting there thinking 'Finally, someone who understands proper statement termination,' completely unaware that Python developers have been living semicolon-free for years and loving every moment of it
Anonymous

Interoperability lesson: the 1972 microservice only ACKs if your payload ends with a semicolon - naturally, the delimiter wasn’t in the contract
Anonymous

Python's REPL bliss hits C's gcc purgatory - 20 minutes for 'Hey there' is peak optimization training
Anonymous

Apparently C wasn’t ghosting - my texts had undefined behavior; append “;” and the conversation finally compiles and links
@alhimik45 5y

typical sql query in psql
1. @mvolfik 5y
  
  this
Deleted Account 5y

this meme is sponsored by python
1. dev_meme 5y
  
  True
@Roman_Millen 5y

Oh. Great. Memes with python & semicolon. What's next, jokes about numbering from 0?
1. dev_meme 5y
  
  We already had them long time ago
2. dev_meme 5y
  
  But who could stop us from posting them again? 🤔
  
  @RiedleroD 5y
  
  M E
  
  @lord_nani 5y
  
  semicolon
  
  @lord_nani 5y
  
  ;
  
  @ImJmik 5y
  
  The WHO could stop you
3. @mvolfik 5y
  
  idk what 0 are you talking about, but I always start with 12, then 1,2,3, and after eleven it goes again, just add PM
  
  @mvolfik 5y
  
  oh and it's different in summer
  
  @RiedleroD 5y
  
  what clock starts with 12?
  
  @mvolfik 5y
  
  idk i never really took up 12-h format, but there's some weird shit around midnight that there's no "hour 0"
  
  @RiedleroD 5y
  
  wait why would there be no hour 0?
@ryankrage77 5y

;
@Frenzoid 5y

Ah yes, Python, programming for kids
@youmil 5y

#include <stdio.h> #define print(a) int main() { printf(a); return 0; } print("Hey there!")
1. @fbioleg 5y
  
  Impressive Date me
2. @serghei_k 5y
  
  The problem with macros is that, like all powerful mechanisms, it allows a programmer to break the assumptions that others have made or will make. Assumptions are the key to reasoning and without the ability to feasibly reason about logic, making progress becomes prohibitive. So, this code is definitely an example how to not code
  
  @RiedleroD 5y
  
  I see, you're getting the joke XD
@RiedleroD 5y

the world hilarious organisation
@ImJmik 5y

them!
1. @RiedleroD 5y
  
  who?
  
  Deleted Account 5y
  
  Who
  
  @RiedleroD 5y
  
  how?
@ccclstrknm 5y

ну и хули мы по английски пишем, если тут 70% русские
1. @feskow 5y
  
  It's the law Plus this group wouldn't have that 30% of ppl it has now
  
  @feskow 5y
  
  Basically it's eternal classic for IT guys
2. @ANeufeld 5y
  
  Oh, careful ... There are those who are gonna ring the bells and try to burn you on a stack (hehe) for calling them russian, despite being painfully clear that you ment the domain of the language. And then there are those who just decided that we are a not a russian speaking community, despite the vast majority speaking russian, because fuck you. The same people have the nerve to post memes in Russian from time to time. * insert dude dressing up as clown meme * So, well... that's how it runs here.
3. Deleted Account 5y
  
  Lol, chatting in English can improve your lang skills , especially here, guys use a lot of tech English , and if u don't understand that , well..
@ANeufeld 5y

I am absolutely certain, that this chat right here is not the only piece of english content out there on the web, and neither is it suitable for learning English. That's like learning to code from memes and their comments.
@ccclstrknm 5y

I agree, lol I learned English exactly that way That was just a joke
1. dev_meme 5y
  
  Since we all agreed on that point: please help me to insult everyone who doesn't use English in this chat 🌚
  
  @ccclstrknm 5y
  
  Yeah, they are such pidorasy

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The Missing Semicolon That Broke the Silence

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