The Poetry Of Programming

Lumpish Scholar writes "Sun's Richard Gabriel (possibly the only person with both a Ph.D. in computer science and an MFA in poetry) talks about "the connections between creativity, software, and poetry": "People say, 'Well, how come we can't build software the way we build bridges?' The answer is that we've been building bridges for thousands of years, and while we can make incremental improvements to bridges, the fact is that every bridge is like some other bridge that's been built.... But in software ... we're rolling out -- if not the first -- at most the seventh or eighth version. We've only been building software for 50 years, and almost every time we're creating something new.""

Software Haiku

[Hayzeus]

Process swiftly crash NULL pointers everywhere O -- Electric Fence!

Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

Whenever I create software, it takes a lot out of me. Much like Picasso's painting, Michaelangelo's Sistene Chapel, ee cummings literary works (only I use more punctuation marks than she does), I am an artist. My work is meaningful and beautiful, and a part of me, which is why I release it under the GPL. For the GPL, itself, is also a work of art. It brings light to the darkness, it brings joy to the huddled masses of ones and seros yearning to be free.

Re:I wonder what would happen...

[crashandburn99]

Would bring a whole new meaning to the term 'Blue Screen of DEATH' crashandburn99

Try building a bridge...

[gUmbi]

Try building a bridge:

a) with half the crew and materials required
b) in a quarter of the required time
c) that will be retrofitted to support train tracks and a second level
d) that will be backwards compatible with the previous bridge
e) that is better than your competitors bridge

Jason.

i wonder

[forkboy]

I bet this guy owns that "Code Poet" shirt from Think Geek.

Re:Yes

[owenb]

ee cummings literary works (only I use more punctuation marks than she does)

Ah, yes, the great emily ermintrude cummings. Her work was far superior to that upstart edward estlin, wasn't it?

Re:Wrong

[Mr_Dyqik]

So it's like NASA's approach to building a satelite then? If you follow one of the more heavily documented programming techniques, maybe.

How come we can't ....

[Chillblaine]

'Well, how come we can't build software the way we build bridges?'

Obvious reasons. Those foolish cavemen (or whoever) that built the first bridges didn't patent the design and copyright the plans. Then hide the bridge in big black boxes so nobody could try design something similar.

They also didn't have to worry about the greedy land owners at either side of the river charging them huge amounts (or just refusing them) to get information on ground they needed to build the bridge ends on.

$DEITY bless the software industry!

One word for you

[Lemmeoutada Collecti]

Microsoft

Re:Try building a bridge...

[majestynine]

In Soviet Russia, Bridge builds YOU!

Software like bridges?

[teamhasnoi]

If software was like bridges, we'd be increasing the number of lanes to drive on by 75%, while going 25% as fast in cars that have a top speed that doubles every six months.

Zen moment: If software is like bridges, what is Hoyles Bridge software like?

RTFA

[Cap'n Canuck]

Gabriel's written 1000 poems in the last two years, which is about 1000 poems more than you have.

[sarcasm]
I bet youse hasn't written a grammatically correct post in their life.
[/sarcasm]

Dev-C++ Poetry

[Thai-Pan]

Dev-C++ 5
What does "no mo mo mo" mean?
Screwed up errors suck.

Dev-C++ 5
What's wrong with the debugger?
Who wrote this crap-pile?

Re:Try building a bridge...

[nrd907s]

You forgot....

f) Then halfway through the specs are changed and you are told to make a tunnel

Re:Software Haiku

[Reziac]

Some haiku express
Depths of insight and beauty
But this one does not

Epic Software

[Reziac]

Truly epic software is written in iambic pentameter. Portable utilities are written in sonnet form. Quick-n-dirty kludges are written as limericks. Haiku is for batch files.

Re:Yes

[Reziac]

Stop writing your code in blood, and you'll not feel so drained afterward!

And what's this ear doing on my desktop??

So my Boss wanted me to build a bridge...

[Crash McBang]

He came to me and said, It's gotta be narrow enough for a bicycle, but wide enough for a hummvee, It's gotta be recyclable and not harm a tree, It's gotta be password protected, Internet enabled, smaller than a table, and reuse is expected! UML and Visio for the design, we gotta have a prototype by next week, don't whine! Nobody can get hurt using this bridge, no time for testing, just do a smidge! We gotta release it soon, or the customer will swoon! Thank goodness that's done, now lets build another one! The next customer's needs are unique, let's use the same code and build it next week! So my Boss wanted me to build a bridge...

Re: Haiku is for batch files.

[SlashChick]

"Haiku is for batch files."

Hehehe...

for each file in .
do sed s slash leaf slash tree
on every line found; done

Okay, so that's a shell script... but it was just as fun to write. ;)

Re:I'm creative and you're not

[NorthDude]

O thank you!
Now, I'll commit suicide!