Coder Lee Yongho - Chapter 2

“……”
The next morning the words were still floating there without disappearing.
“D, doctor!”
YongHo looked to the doctor in fear. It was the nurse who came first, again.
“What is it Sir?”
“I, I can see the words again like yesterday. I, I seem to be hallucinating.”
“Please wait a moment.”
This time the nurse went away and a doctor with disheveled hair came towards him. It looked like he woke up not too long ago.
“D, doctor, I can see strange words.”
“What kind of words are you seeing?”
“Um… for example, program errors.”
“Program errors?”
“Uh, that is, errors that happen in a program can be seen in my eyes……”
Seeing YongHo speaking nonsense that even the person himself couldn’t believe, the doctor grabbed his arm and said.
“Umm… Sir.”
“Yes……”
“If you receive a big shock, it is possible that situations where happenings such as seeing things that you had interest about. After going home, watch your condition for about a week and if there is no change then please come again”
“If you receive a big shock, it is possible that situations where happenings such as seeing things that you had interest about occur . After going home, watch your condition for about a week and if there is no change then please come again”
The doctor said the same words as the nurse. YongHo was about to go mad. But as it is a professional’s opinion, he couldn’t really doubt it.
“……”
“It will probably disappear soon”
“.. I understand”
YongHo replied weakly to the doctor. Then he picked up the smartphone on his side again.
The bug notifications were still floating on the top right corner, as if telling him to catch them.

The bug window.
He named the sudden screen as such. He  made some discoveries in the bus  on his journey back to Seoul.
First, focusing on the bug alarm for about 3 seconds allows him to look at the details.
Second, Not only syntax errors, it also tells him logic errors and function errors.
‘But is this all true? I wonder…’
That was the biggest doubt. Whether it will run correctly after those solutions are applied.
‘Let’s go home and test it’
He quickened his steps towards his home.

***

Gae Po Dong.
It was the place he lived. From the peeled paints and the torn concrete, one could tell that it was built in the 1980s.
“We’d have to leave here too…”
150 million Won (≈130,000 USD) for 15 pyeong (≈50m2) and half of it was debt. When he opened the door no one could be seen inside as both of them went to work.
“That’s good……”
His father was fired from the administration center and he now worked as a security guard at a building. His mother was a waitress in a restaurant. It was all for his tuition. As their sole child, a lot was expectation was put on him. But he failed to live up to those expectations.
Seon Min University.
It was within Seoul (Unis in Seoul are considered good within KR), but not many people knew of it. He tried his best in his CSAT (*CSAT, College Scholastic Ability Test), but the test results weren’t as high he expected. He had a little interest in mathematics and computer science and he decided to enroll in one.
“Let’s wash up first.”
The smell of sweat was all over him because he hadn’t washed for days.

Right after washing, he sat in front of the computer.
‘If this really is the solution to the bugs……”
Solving bugs without going through debugging(the process of solving bugs)? It was an ability that all programmers in the world would want. More than half of developing a program was debugging.
“Let’s confirm if this is true.”
He opened Eclipse(Open-source tool related to developing) and he made a new class file. Then he purposefully modified the source code so that an error would occur.

Exception in thread “main” java.lang.NullPointerException
at Main.<init><Main.java:28>
The console window of Eclipse showed logs of what errors that happened. And some words started floating in front of YongHo’s eyes.

-java.lang.NullPointerException occured

After looking at it for 3 seconds they changed and details showed up.

Title: A NullPointerException has occured
Detail: A NullPoiinterException is occuring on line 28 of Main.class. The origin of the error is due to referencing an object with no value.
Solution: Please make a Main2 Class that is being referenced in line 28

“Wha, it’s true!”
The solution was precisely correct. YongHo purposefully did not make Main2 Class and made the error occur. And the bug window was precisely indicating that.

*clunk*(door unlocking)
The sound of the door opening could be heard in YongHo’s ears whose mouth was gaping in surprise.
“YongHo, you’re back?”
“M, mom?”
“Yes, Did you have a nice trip?”
“Uh, yeah, I guess.”
“What were you doing right now?”
“I was studying.”
“Studying?”
YongHo’s mother asked with a suspicious glance.
“Yes, really.”
Seon Min University was one of the lowest-tier universities in Seoul. And he was no.30 on the waiting list.
“I understand, you are about to graduate so you should study hard.”
His average credit until now was 3.5(out of 4.5). It could not be considered high, but not also low either. However, considering the name value of the university, it definitely wasn’t high.
“Did you have your meal?”
“I did.”
“Where did you get the money to eat outside…”
“……”
“I heard the employment rate of young men and women was chaotic nowadays… Are you sure you can find employment?”
“I understand.”
“Don’t just say that.”
“……”
He bragged about getting scholarship but he didn’t manage to get it a single time in all 4 years. As he had nothing to retort, he went back to his room and closed the door.

***

Kang Sung Kyu.
He was SUC(Software Union Circle)’s former president.
“Hey, it’s been a while.”
“Hyung, How do you do?”
“Well, so so, How was Mt.Jiri?”
“It was okay.”
But Sung Kyu’s line of sight was not on YongHo. He didn’t even turn around from looking at the monitor. YongHo went up to him and peeked at the monitor.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Oh, I was trying to make an app.”
“An app?”
Eclipse could be seen on the computer screen. It was the Indroid development screen that he had experience with.
“Yeah, a Hyung I know got me a part time job.”
“Oh……”
In the department, Sung Kyu had the most ability. It was to the point that the seniors who already graduated looked for him. Maybe because of that reason, he often had offers for part time jobs.
“But this thing just keeps getting errors.”
Sung Kyu spoke as he ran the Indroid application on Eclipse.
“The NullPoint on line 107?”
“Huh? How did you know that?”
At that moment, YongHo felt cold sweat on his back.
“Oh……! I peeked from behind.”
Actually, he spoke after looking at the bug window. It told him the type of errors  as well as the place they occurred in a lot of detail.
“Really? Anyway, I don’t know why it keeps getting null. When this happens I have the urge to smash the keyboard.”
After changing the topic, he spoke as he calmed himself down.
“Well, if it’s you, Hyung, I’m sure you’ll solve it in no time at all.”
“I’ve been stuck on this for 2 hours. After all that big talk on the part time job.”
Sung Kyu complained.
“Then, hyung, how about you let me go at it? In exchange, you can treat me to dinner tonight.”
“Really? You wanna have a go?”
“Leave it to me.”
“Okay(said in English), if you solve it, I’ll treat you to dinner. I’ll just get some fresh wind outside.”
“Take your time, I’ll have it done by then.”
“Good.”
It was already confirmed that the bug window was correct. But he still had some suspicions. In order to clear those suspicions, he needed these type of situations.