[allenp]

It's because developers are eternally optimistic. How else can you explain someone hitting a "compile" button a hundred times a day, hoping each time to get no errors?

[qntm]

Hey, sometimes I compile with the expectation of error, just to make sure that the right error comes out.

[gaustin]

Same here. I call it Error Driven Development.

[cosgroveb]

This reminds me of assembly language in college... Each assignment we were told to end the program on a different type of ABEND ("for this assignment I want you to generate a SOC8, integer overflow" etc, etc...)