Code and Poetry, a Conversation
In which I explore their similarities (while you remain skeptical)
You: You’re writing about computer code and poetry? At the same time?
Me: I want to explore their similarities.
You: Seriously? Computer code has nothing in common with poetry. Poetry is grace, and code is function. Poetry connotes. Code commands.
Me: But both try to represent complex ideas in concrete form. Poets build intimate impressions out of inadequate words. Coders instruct alien objects using a vocabulary rooted in the Middle Ages. Both perform their own kind of sorcery with a language designed for more humdrum tasks.
You: But poets are aesthetes, fashioning sentient imagery through language and form. Programmers are philistines tapping out lists of commands for machines.
Me: And yet both spend their days shuffling words and symbols, struggling to make reality out of abstractions. Both are human. Both aspire to elegance of a sort.
You: Computer code is elegant? How can zeroes and ones be elegant?
Me: Programmers rarely work in zeroes and ones. Their code is written for human consumption just as much as for machines. Humans must understand code because it’s their job to debug and maintain…
