# A programmer's prayer

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-programmers-prayer/53635>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 8, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-programmers-prayer/53635 "2001-02-08T16:18:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maltese\_chicken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@maltese\_chicken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maltese_chicken)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-programmers-prayer/53635/1 "2001-02-08T16:18:10Z")

</div>

Hi all,

The other day I heard that the vatican might actually declare a patron saint of internet users and computer programmers. On a whim, I made a modification of The Lord’s Prayer. I reconfigured it to the spiritual needs of computer programmers. Here it is, hope you like!

Our objects, who art in heap storage  
global be thy scope  
thy variables init  
thy protocols legit  
in itteration, as it is in recursion  
give up this day  
our blocking thread  
and forgive us our system crashes  
as we rewrite those who link against us  
and lead us not into preemption  
but deliver us from virtual memory  
for thine is the compiler, the assembler and the linker  
for ever and ever  
amen

Cheers,  
Maltese Chicken

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2001, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-programmers-prayer/53635/2 "2001-02-08T16:26:47Z")

</div>

St Vidicon of Cathode!

Protect us!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cheese\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cheese\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheese_Head)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2001, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-programmers-prayer/53635/3 "2001-02-08T18:55:27Z")

</div>

Sounds like a modernized version of the old one I learned in the early 80’s:

Our program, who art in memory,  
Hello be thy name,  
thy output come, if thy will be done,  
at the printer as on the screen,  
and give us this day our daily data,  
and forgive us our syntax errors,  
as we forgive those who use goto statements,  
and lead us not into infinite loops,  
but deliver us from system crashes.  
Return.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fng](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58956e/32.png) [@fng](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fng)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2001, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-programmers-prayer/53635/4 "2001-02-08T19:25:00Z")

</div>

Well well well, a fellow cheese head, cow tipper… Let me guess, Madison? Me, Milwaukee.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Cheese\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cheese\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheese_Head)\
**Post date:** [February 8, 2001, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-programmers-prayer/53635/5 "2001-02-08T21:28:21Z")

</div>

Wi dopefest:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=58530](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=58530)