As programmers we’ve all been there. You’re working on a particularly tricky bug and for some reason you just can’t figure out what’s going wrong, so you call over one of your colleagues in the grim hope that they may be able to help you solve your problem. So the first thing you do is explain the issue to your colleague, perhaps giving some background if necessary, then just as you get to the point of explaining the bug …. “BAM!” you figure it out. You turn to your colleague, thank them for their help and they continue on with their day.
Once, in response to a bug fixing session like this, the said colleague responded with a loud and flamboyant “THE INFLATABLE PROGRAMMER STRIKES AGAIN!”. Due to the extreme gusto in which he responded I presumed that he was quoting a Dilbert cartoon or some such thing, so promptly adopted the phrase in the years that followed.
So here I am some 6 or 7 years later making coy reference to the inflatable programmer like it is a common phrase in general use by everyone (not just programmers). After a response to one of my Zentrack forum entries in which I very nearly entered the classic phrase, I decided to research exactly where it came from. As it happens, my colleague (and good friend) made it up on the spot. Not only did he make it up, but today when I asked him about it, he had no recollection of ever saying it in the first place!
Well, perhaps it is finally time to get the phrase well and truly “coined”?
Inflatable Programmer – A person who sits ineffectually listening to a programmer while they inadvertantly solve their own issues.
We called that the programmer teddy; a plush animal you keep on your monitor to talk to when you have problems with code.
I like inflatable programmer. It’s somehow scandalous though you can’t actually say that without sounding perverted.
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