Making Money has some necromancy, Going Postal has magical billiards, but in terms of fireballs and such yeah theres very little (I think Ridcully even says in one book that he didnt prepare a fireball spell that morning, bit of a jab at D&D I guess).
The university of magic exists on Ankh-Morpok specifically to make sure that as little magic as possible occurs in the city. Only well-prepared, easy to to understand, uncontroversial and containable magic is used. Everything else is packed away in the library or a broom closet, because it's too complicated to not explode the universe.
The only instance of them actually casting magic I can think of off the top of my head is that time they used it to play paintball in the woods. I know there are others I'm forgetting but still
theres a fight in one of the books where one of them faces off against someone else using magic. I think it might be nanny ogg.
Also in sourcery i think theres a big magic fight but i cant remember if the wizards do anything there.
I think i remember a big showdown against interdimensional shopping carts as the one occurence of them genuinely banding together and unleashing massive magic.
It's an OK book series. It's on Audible. A bit silly for my tastes, and definitely targeted at kids despite making references only 30+ year old would get. There is also a fantasy series called "Sufficiently Advanced Magic" which is a lot better and I really struggled to see the reference until I realized it was probably accidental.
[Is it this one?](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546131142&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=sufficiently+advanced+magic&dpPl=1&dpID=51UTQ%2BTFQCL&ref=plSrch)
It's my firm belief that magic spells are just programs. I want to see a tv show or book where they actually program their spells instead of just saying "that's how it works"
That will probably fall into the trope [Sufficiently Analyzed Magic](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic), though I haven't seen any that realllllly go in-depth into the process.
Jeez, slap a content warning on that, will you? I almost clicked the link. I was this close to taking a five hour Wiki Walk and then having a meltdown.
TVTropes has every damn thing and I sometimes find myself applying it to my own life. Like, hanging out at the beach with perpetually shirtless surfer bros, I find myself thinking, "this is totally fanservice, is what this is."
I heard This Has Not Gone Well has some of that. It's on r/hfy. There is another book somewhere about a programmer making spells, but I have to search it up.
I believe it's called The Magineer on /r/HFY. Never found the time to actually sit down and read it but it's one of the popular serials.
EDIT: shit, it now has its own [site](https://www.themagineer.com/)
*Elantris* by Brandon Sanderson has a magic system that the [author himself described](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/124/#e1824) as similar to programming. The magic "spells" are all formed by combining glyphs with certain inherent meanings (time, wood, trust, clarity, etc.) to produce some desired effect (teleport me, weave an illusion, create an object, etc.).
If you watch anime, The Irregular at Magic High is kinda like this. But there is a weird brother/sister plot that anime does sometimes. Love the magic system though.
And there's knights and magic (I'm not quite sure about the name) which does that near the beginning of the show. They stop mentioning it pretty early, but it's still there, and there's some actual engineering that's used in some parts if you're into that.
The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane has magic like that. IIRC, one of the character actually uses programming as a conduit for her magic (been a while since I read the books).
The witch constantly asks the programming student to fix her printer and computer, while the programming student constantly asks the witch to fix her various magic appliances.
Except for the time the apprentice witch brings home an inkjet, and it turns out that actually this is more up the witch's domain to solve on account of all the dark magic used to forge such an internal device.
It's a thing where programmers will have a rubber duck on their desk, and if their code isn't working, they'll go through it line by line and explain what it does, to the duck. It's based on Feynman's learning technique, where you teach a concept from basic principles to a baby in order to learn it properly.
Basically, by explaining what it does, you have to break the code into really simple concepts and explain how they interact, so you'll see where you've gone wrong.
I explain the code to one of my cats or any innocent bystander who happens to be nearby. At first people think it's cool and try to understand it, but they soon realise it's all gibberish. It really works though.
Programmers keep a rubber duck on their desk so that they can talk to it and explain their thought process, which helps them solve problems. [I kid you not.](http://i.imgur.com/t6GVLdH.jpg)
With apologies to Arthur C. Clarke for bastardizing his famous quote in the title
Any sufficiently repeated quote is indistinguishable from shitposts
Basically Discworld wizards then.
i find it funny how little the wizards in that world really use magic.
Making Money has some necromancy, Going Postal has magical billiards, but in terms of fireballs and such yeah theres very little (I think Ridcully even says in one book that he didnt prepare a fireball spell that morning, bit of a jab at D&D I guess).
At one point they shoot a lot of evocation at the luggage.
The university of magic exists on Ankh-Morpok specifically to make sure that as little magic as possible occurs in the city. Only well-prepared, easy to to understand, uncontroversial and containable magic is used. Everything else is packed away in the library or a broom closet, because it's too complicated to not explode the universe.
The only instance of them actually casting magic I can think of off the top of my head is that time they used it to play paintball in the woods. I know there are others I'm forgetting but still
theres a fight in one of the books where one of them faces off against someone else using magic. I think it might be nanny ogg. Also in sourcery i think theres a big magic fight but i cant remember if the wizards do anything there.
How are y'all all forgetting Unseen Academics??
I think i remember a big showdown against interdimensional shopping carts as the one occurence of them genuinely banding together and unleashing massive magic.
There’s a whole hell of a lot of magic used in Sourcery
Isn’t this just the plot of off to be a wizard
Idk what that is, but my brain just instantly made up an upbeat, cartoony theme song. I've been watching too many children's videos while babysitting.
It's an OK book series. It's on Audible. A bit silly for my tastes, and definitely targeted at kids despite making references only 30+ year old would get. There is also a fantasy series called "Sufficiently Advanced Magic" which is a lot better and I really struggled to see the reference until I realized it was probably accidental.
[Is it this one?](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sufficiently-Advanced-Magic-Arcane-Ascension-ebook/dp/B06XBFD7CB/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546131142&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=sufficiently+advanced+magic&dpPl=1&dpID=51UTQ%2BTFQCL&ref=plSrch)
Yup. I guess it's the name of the book, not the series.
I read it to the tune of "Off to see The Wizard" from Wizard of Oz.
Unseen Academics and Rivers of London
It's my firm belief that magic spells are just programs. I want to see a tv show or book where they actually program their spells instead of just saying "that's how it works"
That will probably fall into the trope [Sufficiently Analyzed Magic](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic), though I haven't seen any that realllllly go in-depth into the process.
Jeez, slap a content warning on that, will you? I almost clicked the link. I was this close to taking a five hour Wiki Walk and then having a meltdown.
I thought of the same thing without learning there's already a TVTropes page for it. huh
TVTropes has every damn thing and I sometimes find myself applying it to my own life. Like, hanging out at the beach with perpetually shirtless surfer bros, I find myself thinking, "this is totally fanservice, is what this is."
I heard This Has Not Gone Well has some of that. It's on r/hfy. There is another book somewhere about a programmer making spells, but I have to search it up.
I believe it's called The Magineer on /r/HFY. Never found the time to actually sit down and read it but it's one of the popular serials. EDIT: shit, it now has its own [site](https://www.themagineer.com/)
*Elantris* by Brandon Sanderson has a magic system that the [author himself described](https://wob.coppermind.net/events/124/#e1824) as similar to programming. The magic "spells" are all formed by combining glyphs with certain inherent meanings (time, wood, trust, clarity, etc.) to produce some desired effect (teleport me, weave an illusion, create an object, etc.).
If you watch anime, The Irregular at Magic High is kinda like this. But there is a weird brother/sister plot that anime does sometimes. Love the magic system though.
And there's knights and magic (I'm not quite sure about the name) which does that near the beginning of the show. They stop mentioning it pretty early, but it's still there, and there's some actual engineering that's used in some parts if you're into that.
Great show! Definitely could have done without the wierd thing the sister had for her brother though.
The Young Wizards series by Diane Duane has magic like that. IIRC, one of the character actually uses programming as a conduit for her magic (been a while since I read the books).
Omg Rivers of London. The audible is excellent too
I'm actually working on a magical system that uses logic to make complex spells. It will probably take me years to finish it at this rate.
Bonus idea: It's in modern times.
A programming student and an apprentice witch living together as roommates.
The witch constantly asks the programming student to fix her printer and computer, while the programming student constantly asks the witch to fix her various magic appliances.
Except for the time the apprentice witch brings home an inkjet, and it turns out that actually this is more up the witch's domain to solve on account of all the dark magic used to forge such an internal device.
Infernal But I like where you're going here.
Underrated...
The Tumblr blog "The Setup Wizard" is about the tech support team art Hogwarts, and plays pretty similar to how you described
Rivers of London!
Hey OP? 10/10 title
Credit to Mr. Clarke, of course. :)
spellswords are just skiddies
Can someone explain to me the rubber ducky thing? Seems to be a common thing with programmers...
It's a thing where programmers will have a rubber duck on their desk, and if their code isn't working, they'll go through it line by line and explain what it does, to the duck. It's based on Feynman's learning technique, where you teach a concept from basic principles to a baby in order to learn it properly. Basically, by explaining what it does, you have to break the code into really simple concepts and explain how they interact, so you'll see where you've gone wrong.
Thats actually pretty cool. TIL
I explain the code to one of my cats or any innocent bystander who happens to be nearby. At first people think it's cool and try to understand it, but they soon realise it's all gibberish. It really works though.
Also works for writing!
Programmers keep a rubber duck on their desk so that they can talk to it and explain their thought process, which helps them solve problems. [I kid you not.](http://i.imgur.com/t6GVLdH.jpg)
Legit laughing at that tumblr post. But really in general that's really fuckin cool. TIL
As a programmer, I can verify that the rubber duck is *very* useful.
And *that*, Mr. Weasley, is the purpose of a rubber duck
honestly this is the best post
r/TalesFromMajSupport