September 27, 2006

• Black Hat
• Cueball
• Donald Knuth

#163: Donald Knuth explain

[Black Hat and Cueball are sitting back to back at two separate desks, typing. Black Hat has turned toward Cueball to respond to him.]

Cueball: Man, you’re being inconsistent with your array indices. Some are from one, some from zero.

Black Hat: Different tasks call for different conventions. To quote Stanford algorithms expert Donald Knuth, “Who are you? How did you get in my house?”

[Black Hat and Cueball are sitting back to back at two separate desks, typing. Cueball has turned toward Black Hat, confused.]

Cueball: Wait, what?

Black Hat: Well, that’s what he said when I asked him about it.