That's what I going for. I tagged it as "Code as Art." I initially dubbed it a poem but decided it read more like a letter, instead. Personally, I think it qualifies as code prose.
Don't take me wrong, but I do not think that this poem (or, as @jpfuentes states correctly, prose) can be categorized as "art". I think of it as a lovely crafted letter, written on a very unusual support. Nothing too much different from a cross-stitched handkerchief.
BEFOREHAND: close door, each window & exit; wait until time.
open spellbook, study, select it, confess, tell, deny;
write it, print the hex while each watches,
reverse "its length", write again;
kill spiders, pop them, chop, split, kill them.
unlink arms, shift, wait & listen (listening, wait),
sort the flock (then, warn "the goats". kill "the sheep");
kill them, dump qualms, shift moralities,
values aside, each one;
die sheep, die, reverse system
you accept (reject, respect);
next step,
kill next sacrifice, each sacrifice,
wait, redo ritual until "all the spirits are pleased";
do it ("as they say").
do it(*everyone***must***participate***in***forbidden**s*e*x*).
return last victim; package body;
exit crypt (time, times & "half a time") & close it,
select (quickly) & warn next victim;
AFTERWORDS: tell nobody.
wait, wait until time;
wait until next year, next decade;
sleep, sleep, die yourself and
rest at last
I must confess I have not seen many. I drew inspiration from Marc-André Cournoyer and his post "how to apply to a job" http://macournoyer.com/blog/2010/02/23/how-to-apply-to-a-job.... However, I've entertained the idea of writing code as prose for quite some time.
Yeah but the maintenance overhead on such complexity...
Just wait till the teenage years!
Nah, given the design decisions inspiring this codebase, I don't have any reason to believe your daughter will have any challenge extending and reusing its functionality once she's grown up. ;-)
That's cute, but most of the "magic" is hidden behind the require line. That's somewhat breaking the rules I think (compare that to Perl poetry such as the Black Perl).
Blah, this is not a good way to get back into Ruby. I get that most of it is just fluff, but can anyone break it down a little? Really stretching the syntax.
Just kind of a walk-through. I think part of it is that I can't fully force myself to read it as code when it's written poetically like that, so even syntax conventions I fully get are causing my eyes to glaze over.
wow how impressive.
instead of using puts, you can waste hours developing a program that accepts what is supposed to be a letter (looks like bad english) and look cool on hacker news ... man people have so much time to waste, well done
Wow it never ceases to amaze me the things that headline in HN.
As much as I understand the love for one's child(ren), I am a bit disappointed to go on a site called 'Hacker News' to see this type of irrelevant posting.
A hacker is a person that loves to program, or someone who enjoys playful cleverness, or a combination of the two.[3] The act of engaging in activities (such as programming or other media[4]) in a spirit of playfulness and exploration is termed hacking. However the defining characteristic of a hacker is not the activities performed themselves (e.g. programming), but the manner in which it is done: Hacking entails some form of excellence, for example exploring the limits of what is possible[5], thereby doing something exciting and meaningful.
The concept of code as poetry - or the hidden elegance capable behind it is something that obviously piques ones interest - if it were just for the aww factor it wouldn't get as many up votes. Code is an art, and it's nice to see it sometimes used for something other than the norm.
63 comments
[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 140 ms ] threadputs 'Augusta, we <3 you!'
http://timelessrepo.com/on-camping-vs-sinatra
http://timelessrepo.com/haiku
Or Tribute (that I wrote):
http://timelessrepo.com/tribute
Anyway, it's seriously touching.
- Black Perl updated for Perl 5 - http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=237465
- Black Perl Revisited - http://www.perlmonks.org/?node_id=578707
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Perl
Perlay?
http://www.perlmonks.org/?node=Perl%20Poetry
If you want to compile it, replace each "1s" with "is" in the code and compile for example like this:
gcc -Dis=1 westley.c -o westley
(or just put is=1; in the beginning with the same substitutions).
Normal compilers don't like 1s notation for short. Then run the result with some integer parameter ;)
Nah, given the design decisions inspiring this codebase, I don't have any reason to believe your daughter will have any challenge extending and reusing its functionality once she's grown up. ;-)
"Until infinity ends do; Forever end."
We don't talk anymore.
...said the future J2EE developer...
Me: "When I was taking C++ back in high school-"
Boss: "Dear god, what kind of high school did you go to?"
Me: "A Catholic one"
Boss: "Ah, that explains it"
Yes, it actually was a bit of a hard-line place. Wouldn't trade it for the world though, even the C++ class (since that's where I discovered Python).
A hacker is a person that loves to program, or someone who enjoys playful cleverness, or a combination of the two.[3] The act of engaging in activities (such as programming or other media[4]) in a spirit of playfulness and exploration is termed hacking. However the defining characteristic of a hacker is not the activities performed themselves (e.g. programming), but the manner in which it is done: Hacking entails some form of excellence, for example exploring the limits of what is possible[5], thereby doing something exciting and meaningful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(programmer_subculture)