The lovely Candace has been writing interesting posts lately about how programming languages kind of tell cool little stories to her when she sleeps. She doesn't quite say they whisper sweet nothings in her ear, but I still have to ask, "Does your husband know about this? Does he?!"
(Mind you, as an English major, I am pretty skeptical about storytelling program languages anyway, because even though letters of the English alphabet float around in the impenetrable cloud of code, they don't get all comradely with each other and make real WORDS. Also they look about as at ease amongst all the numbers and symbols as baby sea lions surrounded by a school of sharks. But I digress.)
Today, Candace writes:
Okay, so I've thought of a better analogy to describe programming (or at least how my subconscious deals with it when I'm asleep). It's an obvious one, really. It's Myst!
In the world of Myst, you're playing a game where doing certain concrete things (turning a dial, pushing a button, etc.) will yield certain results which will lead to your evetually winning the game. But to get to the point where you can do the concrete thing, you have to use a lot of imagination, inference, logic, and investigation (i.e., wandering around). (emphasis mine.)
In other words, then, another name for Myst could apparently be "My Life: The Video Game." Catchy title, isn't it? But I bet Myst would still sell better--after all, 30 years into "My Life" and I have yet to get to the concrete thing. For that matter, I'm not entirely sure I know what, exactly, the concrete thing is.
But I've sure done the wandering around thing...A LOT. And quite frankly, it's getting, well, just a little old. (Entirely unlike yours truly, by the way, who only gets younger and more beguiling with every passing year.)
So, my question is, does anyone know a magic shortcut to the next level? You know, one of those "press B and A at the same time and hit the directional buttons in the following order: right, right, left, down, down, up while you are standing on the bag of gold" kind of shortcuts that you only find out about by putting on 3-D glasses and reading certain pages of gaming magazines backwards. Or something.
No? Darn. Oh well, just thought I'd ask.
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5 comments:
who is this Candace? I'm interested. she programs in PHP and dreams of code. the Myst analogy is so good! I often get my solutions as I'm drifting to or from sleep!
no mocking Gracky, just cause you can't comprehend it ;)
this is my blog, and i'll mock if i want to!
(but really, i prefer to think of it as "good-natured teasing that allows me to show off my superlative wittiness at the unsanctioned expense of my friends." so there.)
oh and sorry phil. candace lives in England...and she's married. :)
Hey, I can be platonically interesting too! And S. does know about the PHP--we're very open--and I know all about his C++. (It is Europe, you know!)
hey now, just because i checked out the random girl my friend mentioned, doesn't mean I'm after anyone with a similar interest -> even after are recent conversations! ;-)
Candace, if you ever need some platonic help with PHP, let me know. Though you sound fairly advanced anyway :)
ok ok, be platonic programming buddies! you have my undying permission! meanwhile, has anyone even READ the SECOND part of my post? which is about ME, i might add. ME ME ME.
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