More coding poetry
September 18, 2007
While cleaning up a few old directories, I came upon a text I wrote on what must have been a particularly glad day at work. Taking the risk of sounding almost mystical, here it comes, naked and raw:
***BEGIN***
In the eyes of uninitiated people, coders may usually appear like boringly silent and introverted people, folded onto their inner world. For them, a coder is a statue with moving fingers.
Such a wrong picture, so far from the truth...
If only those people could catch just the slightest glimpse of the amazing landscapes a coder contemplates while exercising his art.
Concepts take a very real shape, structures change into elegant skyscrapers, bridges, buildings of all styles and sizes. Functions are like busy creatures moving around this city landscape, altering facades and forms, like alien-shaped architects of a virtual world.
It is a world in full creation that is spreading silently under the Coder's inner eye. Worlds being born and collapsing, designs spreading their curves up to the sky, fighting against each other, reaching compromises, strengthening each other in their embrace.
And then, there is beauty.
The unspeakable, striking beauty of perfected designs. Well balanced, smooths and gracious, simple like light itself, they redefine the meaning of harmony by their mere presence. Their utter simplicity is an hymn to the achievement of the minds behind, those clear-seeing minds who could extract meaning and order out of sheer complexity.
Coders are artists and gods at the same time. They create in a universe whose rules they decide upon. They can design the language that best reflects the landscapes they have dreamt of.
Achieved coders are a pure delight to see at work. Out of chaos they create harmony, out of obscurity, simplicity. Less experienced coders contemplate their art in awe. Behind their silent faces, tears of bliss are running: they can appreciate the beauty of the Code.
Those coders are of a particular species. Coding is more for them than just implementing someone else's new tool. To them, coding is a mind dance, an inner experience, a form of meditation, an initiatic path that leads beyond the skies and on which each step shall reflect harmony.
In a way, coders are monks on a spiritual journey.
***END***
***BEGIN***
In the eyes of uninitiated people, coders may usually appear like boringly silent and introverted people, folded onto their inner world. For them, a coder is a statue with moving fingers.
Such a wrong picture, so far from the truth...
If only those people could catch just the slightest glimpse of the amazing landscapes a coder contemplates while exercising his art.
Concepts take a very real shape, structures change into elegant skyscrapers, bridges, buildings of all styles and sizes. Functions are like busy creatures moving around this city landscape, altering facades and forms, like alien-shaped architects of a virtual world.
It is a world in full creation that is spreading silently under the Coder's inner eye. Worlds being born and collapsing, designs spreading their curves up to the sky, fighting against each other, reaching compromises, strengthening each other in their embrace.
And then, there is beauty.
The unspeakable, striking beauty of perfected designs. Well balanced, smooths and gracious, simple like light itself, they redefine the meaning of harmony by their mere presence. Their utter simplicity is an hymn to the achievement of the minds behind, those clear-seeing minds who could extract meaning and order out of sheer complexity.
Coders are artists and gods at the same time. They create in a universe whose rules they decide upon. They can design the language that best reflects the landscapes they have dreamt of.
Achieved coders are a pure delight to see at work. Out of chaos they create harmony, out of obscurity, simplicity. Less experienced coders contemplate their art in awe. Behind their silent faces, tears of bliss are running: they can appreciate the beauty of the Code.
Those coders are of a particular species. Coding is more for them than just implementing someone else's new tool. To them, coding is a mind dance, an inner experience, a form of meditation, an initiatic path that leads beyond the skies and on which each step shall reflect harmony.
In a way, coders are monks on a spiritual journey.
***END***
