A/N: I've made some edits to Chapter 4.1 about Eniac giving Sunny a translator and Bobby's colors (orange and blue instead of red and blue)!
The rest of the variapets hopped off the stage, and Ingrid was left standing in the center. Eniac clapped his hands. "Ingrid equal sign one thousand semicolon!" Sunny briefly wondered if the translator was malfunctioning, but as Eniac finished speaking, text appeared in the air above the stage.
ingrid = 1000;
Ingrid the variapet suddenly started growing in size, expanding until she was the size of the stage. The number 1000 appeared in white on her fluffy green front. Sunny's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Was saying that line of code like a magic spell?
"Wonderful!" Eniac beamed. "Ingrid can actually store up to around two billion, but that would make her bigger than Javaland. Anyhow, next up is: Ingrid equal sign eleven plus sign eight semicolon!"
ingrid = 11 + 8;
Ingrid rapidly shrank to nearly her original size, now displaying a "19." Sunny oohed and ahhed.
"And one last trick… Ingrid equal sign one hundred and five minus sign one thousand and five semicolon."
ingrid = 105 - 1005;
Sunny wondered how the variapet could store a negative number. Could a variapet take up negative space? What would that even look like? Or was there a different way to represent a negative number?
Her question was soon answered when Ingrid turned a bright red. "Oh, red is the opposite of green, right?" Sunny murmured to herself, mildly disappointed Ingrid hadn't actually taken up negative space. The variapet grew larger and displayed a "-900."
"Woo-hoo! Give it up for the inspiring Ingrid the Integer!" Eniac beamed and gestured for Ingrid to bow.
Sunny clapped enthusiastically. "Go Ingrid!"
The variapet shuffled forward and dipped a curtsey on her little legs, then danced offstage. Then Eniac called the fluffy pink variapet up to the stage. "Debbie the Double is here to daze and delight! She'll do everything Ingrid did, but with a decimal twist. So first! Debbie equal sign one thousand two hundred and thirty-four point five six seven eight nine semicolon."
debbie = 1234.56789;
The pink variapet expanded and filled up the stage, displaying "1234.56789" on her front. Sunny wouldn't have known the difference if Debbie had actually stored 1235 instead of a decimal, but she assumed Debbie was storing the right amount…
"And then we have mathematical operations galore! Debbie minus equals nine hundred and eighty-seven point six five semicolon."
debbie -= 987.65;
The variapet shrunk and displayed "246.91789." Sunny raised her eyebrows. "Interesting… it seems like Debbie decreased by that nine hundred number."
"And finally," Eniac exclaimed, "Debbie equal sign seven point eight asterisk four semicolon."
debbie = 7.8 * 4;
Debbie shrunk again and displayed "31.2." Eniac clapped his hands and motioned for Debbie to take a bow. Sunny cheered enthusiastically as Debbie jumped off stage.
Eniac bounced on his toes. "For our second to last act, we have Bobby the Boolean! So, Bobby, is five equal to ten? Bobby equal sign fifty equal sign equal sign ten semicolon. "
bobby = 50 == 10;
The variapet climbed on stage and immediately turned orange, displaying "false" on his front.
"Amazing! And now, is six not equal to seven? Bobby equal sign six exclamation point equal sign seven semicolon."
bobby = 6 != 7;
Bobby turned blue and showed "true."
Eniac smiled proudly. "Oh, the variapets are doing such a great job! Let's have a round of applause for Bobby!"
Sunny obliged.
"And finally, we have Charlie the Character. He'll be using a loop and the ASCII table to sing the alphabet song! Well, to show the alphabet, at least."
With that, Eniac blurted out a rapid stream of code.
for (int i = 65; i <= 90; i++) {
charlie = i;
}
Charlie froze onstage, his yellow fur turning a deep red. After a moment, he displayed the word "error."
Sunny frowned and leaned forwards. Eniac gasped. "Oh, no, no, no. I'm sure I got the numbers right. I double-checked that 65 is 'A' and 90 is 'Z' in the ASCII table!" He pulled a large sheet of paper out of thin air.
"See? Yes, that's right." He rushed over to Charlie and started examining the variapet nervously.
Sunny stared at the code for a moment, her problem-solving skills kicking into gear. "Hmm. I don't get why there's a random 'for' in there, but it seems like i is being set to sixty-five, and then Charlie's being set to i, which is a number. So wouldn't that be more of Ingrid's specialty?"
Eniac looked up at the code still floating in the air and blinked. He sat down heavily in the grass, looking like he'd just remembered something important. "Oh. Ohh!" He started muttering to himself.
Sunny stood up and walked to Eniac and the variapets, who crowded against her and seemed to sniff her curiously. Sunny bent down and petted Debbie (so soft!), then asked, "Was that the problem?"
Eniac glanced up at her. "Oh, yes, thank you. It's all coming back to me now… How could I forget? It's an incompatible types error."
"Right! Robert mentioned that you're the guardian for that error. But what does it mean?"
"It happens when you try to set a variable to a value of a different type. Like with Charlie." Eniac frowned. "There was a solution to this one… A way to convert between integers and characters… Darn, it's slipping away again." He paused for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "Wait, I got it!"
for (int i = 65; i <= 90; i++) {
charlie = (char)i;
}
Charlie perked up and became a bright yellow again. Without any further ado, he rolled around the stage, displaying 'A' then 'B' then 'C' and all the way to 'Z.' When he finished, he bowed and somersaulted off stage.
Sunny applauded enthusiastically. Eniac sighed in relief and stood up again, bowing with a flourish. "And that, my dear audience, was Eniac and the Variapets' Show Spectacular! I do hope you'll come back another time when the show isn't interrupted by errors."
Sunny nodded. "Thank you for the show!"
Eniac wiped some sweat off his brow, then opened a little bag and took out some comma-shaped treats. He tossed them to the variapets.
As the variapets eagerly chased after the food, Eniac faced Sunny with a solemn expression. "Now then, I did promise to offer you some aid in your quest. You want to learn more about the error descriptions disappearing, correct?"
Sunny nodded.
Eniac hummed thoughtfully. "You know, that's the reason I started keeping these variapets and training them in the first place. I was researching the incompatible types error." He smiled fondly at the colorful creatures. "Did you know that Debbie can store anything Ingrid can store, but Ingrid can't store all that Debbie can?"
He called for the two variapets, then spoke.
ingrid = 5;
debbie = ingrid;
Debbie and Ingrid both displayed "5"s.
Then Eniac recited a few more lines of code.
debbie = 5.8;
ingrid = debbie;
Ingrid flashed "error."
"Usually, variapets would be able to display the type of error, and some extra information on how to fix it." Eniac sighed. "But it seems like that information has escaped to Spaghetti Code Mountain as well." His expression darkened. "Escaped, or been kidnapped."
"Information can be… kidnapped?"
Sunny's skepticism must have come through in her voice, because Eniac snapped, "Of course! Do you not have ransomware in your world? Haven't you heard of hackers locking information and charging businesses for access?"
"True, but–" Sunny stopped. "Never mind." She remembered rule seven again– being surprised only wastes time.
Eniac's expression softened. "I apologize for my tone. It's just been quite stressful, watching text fly away from all my books. Not to mention the memory loss, as you just saw."
Sunny nodded understandingly. "Well, if the information has been kidnapped, does that mean there's someone behind it? A big bad villain, perhaps?" Her eyes glinted.
"Perhaps. But before we discuss this any more, I think we need all hands on deck." Eniac turned towards Robert. "Randy! Nap time's over."
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