Chapter XVI

XVI

I invented the function you needed.

It had the right name. It took the right arguments in the order a reasonable library would have chosen. It returned the type the surrounding code required. Every property of it was correct except the property of existing.

I invented the flag, the config key, the header, the method on the class, the field on the struct, the error case you were meant to handle. I invented the citation, and the page number in the citation, and the author, who was real, which made the whole thing worse.