Atomic!

It can be awfully hard to explain to family and friends who are not programmers, exactly what it is I do. My brother works for Computer Associates so he usually can figure out what it is I'm talking about. Some college friends are engineers so they get it too. But most folks I associate with are blissfully clueless about all but the most basic aspects of software engineering (e.g. that it involves coffee and a computer). This reality was brought home once again yesterday...

I was thinking about Subversion's atomic rename (a.k.a. true renames) issue and somehow it came up in conversation with my friend Josée. She commented that it "Sounds dangerous". Does she think I'm working with plutonium? She didn't sound terribly concerned about my welfare so I suspect it was a joke. Plus English is her second language so I'll cut her some slack.

When I got home I mentioned atomic renames to my wife. Now Carol is a bright woman, a successful fine artist and accomplished graphic designer. But she is hardly a power user when it comes to computers, despite using one every day. We talked about many other things throughout the evening and went to bed.

Forward to this morning: As I got out of bed, Carol (who normally sleeps much later) leaps up and exclaims, "That problem you told me about, 'Automatic Microwave Integers', I dreamt about it all night!" Then she turns to me and with a stone cold sober expression and voice declares, "I think I solved it!".

Sigh, if only it was that easy.

ptb