Back in the old days of programming, you would type in your 500 line Fortran program and type in the "compile" command - 200 syntax errors. You'd spend a half an hour fixing problems then compile again - 20 syntax errors. More editing, then the compile - 250 errors. Duh! Fix, fix, fix, then suddenly, you'd see:

Compile finished: 0 errors

Gasp! There was a brief moment of incredulous silence. Then, you could almost hear a Choir of Heavenly Angels rejoicing:

Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah!!

That moment was magical - after so much pain and headaches, you were finally rewarded. You could finally get a good night's sleep.

As programming environments improved, compiling became more and more transparent. In Smalltalk, compiling occurred so often and so quietly, that the thrill was equivalent to a lazy valley girl rolling her eyes and saying "Like, big whoop"

The big thrill has moved. A clean compile has given way to the green bar - xUnit's indication that all your unit tests have passed. When I see that green bar, I start to get the same sense of jubilation as I did when a compile worked cleanly.

Sadly, all good things come to an end. As you start following XP, you start running your testcases all the time. You get used to green bars appearing with high frequency. It's getting to the point where you expect the green bar and are surprised when you don't get it.

I wonder if the Programmer's Choir of Heavenly Angels is ultimately destined for extinction.