

Code poetry - Jun8
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/02/code-poems/

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Jun8
The only venture into code poetry I was aware of (as opposed to code that
generates poems) was the famous perl poetry example in _Programming Perl_
(<http://docstore.mik.ua/orelly/perl/prog3/ch27_02.htm>). So, inspired by this
call for code poets, I googled around for other languages and there were
examples in other languages, too. But I wasn't expecting an example in PHP
(<http://simianuprising.com/2011/11/07/a-love-poem-in-php/>)!

Any good code poems you've come across lately?

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mgallivan
I'm not sure how I feel about this...

I think that programming languages may be too focused to create real poetry.
Good poetry is beautiful because it encapsulates a moment in a language. Isn't
programming just encapsulating a set of instructions?

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Jun8
See, that's the point: the large degree of constraint created by the medium,
i.e. code that will compile, will lead to hitherto unexplored creativity.
Hofstadter elaborates on this topic in his great book _Le Ton Beau De Marot_ ,
e.g. whiel looking for a word that would rhyme with "orange". Another good
example is the Georges Perec's lipogram
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipogram>) novel _Da Disparition_ in which the
letter -e (the most frequent letter in French as in English) doesn't appear.

~~~
mgallivan
I can see your point - I'll have to see if I'm a fan but I think it's a decent
step, nonetheless.

