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<title>The Programmer's Blues
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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<h2>The Programmer's Blues</h2>

<p><em>(with apologies

<address class="byline">by Robert J. Woodhead</address>

<p>Sung to Glenn Frye)</em></p> the tune of <cite>Smuggler's Blues</cite> by Glenn Frye and
Jack Tempchin</p>

<div class="lyrics">
<p>There's trouble in the data now, I can feel it in my bones,<br />
Had a premonition that I shouldn't program alone,<br />
Had the new Rev loaded but I didn't think it'd fry,<br />
Then everything exploded and 2 weeks work blew sky-high!</p>

<p>So baby here's a printout and a keyboard in your hand,<br />
And here's a little floppy. Now, do it just the way he planned,<br />
You debug for 20 days and I'll pay you 20 grand!</p>

<p>I'm sorry it went down like this, but some chip had to fuse.<br />
It's the typing of the language, it's the programmer's blues…</p>

<p>Programmer's blues…</p> blues…</p>

<p class="chorus">Programmer's blues…</p>

<p>Coder's and analyst's, hacker's and sysop's,<br />
The comments and strange bomboffs, and the bugs nobody copped,<br />
No matter if it's Pascal, Basic, or Cobol,<br />
You've got to carry manuals, there's no online help at all!</p>

<p>It's lots of rotten coffee, and lots of dirty food,<br />
Every variable name is dangerous, it might have been pre-used,<br />
It's the lure of relaxed typing, it's so easy to be crude!</p>

<p>Perhaps you'll understand it better, when you see my tools,<br />
It's the ultimate enhancement, it's the programmer's blues…</p>

<p>Programmer's blues…</p> blues…</p>

<p class="chorus">Programmer's blues…</p>

<p>You see it in the memos, you read them every day,<br />
They say you have to fix those bugs, but they don't go away.<br />
No matter how hard you work, it just won't run ok,<br />
You bury them in subroutines, but you know they are here to stay!</p>

<p>You hope that none'll notice them, but they always seem to do,<br />
You beg for Beta-testing, maybe one will give a clue,<br />
Down from the office of your manager, you learn the heat's on you…</p> you…</p>

<p>Heat's on you…</p> you…</p>

<p>It's a losing proposition, but one you can't refuse,<br />
It's policies of debugging, it's the programmer's blues…</p>

<p>Programmer's blues…</p> blues…</p>

<p class="chorus">Programmer's blues…</p>
</div>

<h3 id="license">Licensing</h3>

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<hr />
<p>The joke lyrics on this page was were obtained from the FSF's <a
href="http://lists.gnu.org/">email archives</a> email archives of the
GNU Project.</p>

<p>The Project (before 1999). Neither the author nor the Free Software Foundation claims no
claim copyright on this joke.</p>

<p><a href="/fun/humor.html">Other humor</a> in the GNU Humor Collection.</p> them.</p>

<p>Other source:  <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20231206145722/http://www.poppyfields.net/filks/00189.html">
poppyfields.net</a></p>
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