#1790: Sad

[Cueball is walking up to Ponytail who sits at her desk in an office chair typing on her computer.]

Cueball: How are you doing?

Ponytail: Hah.

Cueball: You seem distant lately. For the past few months.

Ponytail: Can’t imagine why.

[Cueball talks to Ponytail at her desk from off-panel.]

Cueball (off-panel): Your projects have stagnated.

Ponytail: But my Stardew Valley farm is doing great.

Cueball (off-panel): You can’t just hide from everything.

Ponytail: Fact check: Mostly false.

[In a frame-less panel Cueball is seen standing behind Ponytail at her desk.]

Cueball: I’m glad you’re including more comments in your code, but it would be nice if they were comments about your code.

Cueball: Or at least a bit less obscenity-filled.

Ponytail: Look, they say to write what you know.

[Cueball leans forward towards Ponytail at her desk (who has looked on the screen in the same position through the entire comic).]

Cueball: All the functions you’ve written take everything passed to them and return it unchanged with the comment “No, you deal with this.”

Ponytail: It’s a functional programming thing. Avoiding side effects.

Cueball: You avoid all effects.

Ponytail: Only way to be sure.