The next Xah-lee post contest

[Steve]

Hi All,
For sometime now, I have just been a passive lurker on this
list. Of late I saw an increase in the number of posts by Xah Lee, and
I have to admit, what he lacks in understanding of the various
programming languages he talks about, he makes up for in creativity.
So, I was wondering, how would it be to be Mr Lee. That got me
thinking of his next post. Well, I know through my days of lurking
around, a lot of people here love creative challenges ...so here's one
for you. Write up the next Xah Lee post ! The requirement are:
a) The post should talk about a single language, although the example
code needn't adhere to that restriction.
b) It should explain the style, structure and design of some code
snippet/program, though not necessarily of the same code
snippet/program mentioned in the post.
c) Should be written in English ... respect to English grammar is not mandatory.
d) It *must* be flammable.

Here's my contribution (tho' I'm not really in my most creative frame of mind):

--------------------------------------------------
perl is fucked ! Its a language named with a word that can't even pass
through spell-checker. What kind of programming language has a scalar
variable but the array is not called vector ...it is array. Also the
list comprehension feature of the language is entirely anal. Example

$list = { i for i in range(100) }
now is $list a function ?? No it's is an array .....
--------------------------------------------------

...phew, this is hard !! I'll have another go later. You are welcomed
to participate.

Regards
Steve

[rbt]

Steve wrote:

Hi All,
For sometime now, I have just been a passive lurker on this
list. Of late I saw an increase in the number of posts by Xah Lee, and
I have to admit, what he lacks in understanding of the various
programming languages he talks about, he makes up for in creativity.
So, I was wondering, how would it be to be Mr Lee. That got me
thinking of his next post. Well, I know through my days of lurking
around, a lot of people here love creative challenges ...so here's one
for you. Write up the next Xah Lee post...

Unix donkey! You not elegant. You have poor design.
Sloppy Perl monkey! You be lazy! You code very very bad.

Xah know all!

[PA]

On Jan 29, 2005, at 15:32, rbt wrote:

Unix donkey! You not elegant. You have poor design.
Sloppy Perl monkey! You be lazy! You code very very bad.

Xah know all!

Follow The True Path, follow The Xah Way To Enlightenment:

"The Unix Pestilence"
http://www.xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/freebooks.html

Cheers

--
PA, Onnay Equitursay
http://alt.textdrive.com/

[Arthur]

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 15:41:00 +0100, PA <pe************@gmail.com>
wrote:

On Jan 29, 2005, at 15:32, rbt wrote:

Unix donkey! You not elegant. You have poor design.
Sloppy Perl monkey! You be lazy! You code very very bad.

Xah know all!

Follow The True Path, follow The Xah Way To Enlightenment:

"The Unix Pestilence"
http://www.xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/freebooks.html

Cheers

Not sure how Xah got himself into all this. When I actually read the
substance of Xah's articles like the one referenced above, and ignore
the stuff in Red, I don't find it all that bizarre - or uninformative.
He links to substantive resources. He has postive things to say about
lots of things, including Python.

Guess I am prejudiced by the fact that I have always enjoyed his plane
curve pages, and after David Eppsteins Geometry Junkyard and a few
others, consider it one of the more interesting web resources in
respect to geometry. I knew of him for this, well before I knew of
him as the Usenet character he is.

Wish he would do himself the favor of better separating he various
"interests". One can google on "plane curves", and the first hit will
be Xah's site. I certainly find it interesting and well done.

On the other hand, if one goes by way of his home page, one is greeted
first with a vitriolic message expressing a sentiment not all that
uncommon but not very relevant to the substance of much of what is to
be found at the site.

Oh well.

Art

[Eric Pederson]

> From: Arthur <aj******@optonline.com>

Not sure how Xah got himself into all this.

One can easily see that Java programmers are geeks who secretly wanted to make the football team and are now trying to conform, ignoring their language's critical lack of Prolog syntax. Python coders, similarly, do not recognize that they may be violating several open source patents each time they write: "class(Object):", and both languages may become unusable when the Government changes the inheritance tax.

Rather than throw stones or make fun, all but the closet Republicans shouldexamine how poor Xah came to such a state of misunderstanding IPv8, and try to help him.
From Aahz tag line we have a clue:

"19. A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming,is not worth knowing." Â*--Alan Perlis

Further understanding will require research. Was it Perl that did this to Mr. Lee's brain, or perhaps it was trying to ascertain the web services "standard"? Was it a massive PHP program that simply grew beyond comprehendability and blew all normal circuits? Or perhaps an attempt to jump straightfrom Fortran 77 into Ruby?

Perhaps we will never know the cause, but surely when the ill come to us wemust prescribe something.

Ah, perhaps if he will join us in a song we will all be OK:

Python Choir:
Lee's a lumberjack, and he's OK,
He codes all night and he posts all day.

XL:
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shopping,
And have buttered scones for tea.

Python Choir:
Lee cuts down trees, He eats his lunch,
He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping,
And have buttered scones for tea.

Lees a lumberjack, and he's OK,
He codes all night and he posts all day.

XL:
I cut down trees, I skip and jump,
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing,
And hang around in bars.

Python Choir:
Lee cuts down trees, he skips and jumps,
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around.... In bars???????
Well. At least I feel better. For now.

/Eric - sentenced to re-learn and write an application in Perl 5.0
What will that do to my mind?
http://www.songzilla.blogspot.com
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
domainNot="@something.com"
domainIs=domainNot.replace("s","z")
ePrefix="".join([chr(ord(x)+1) for x in "do"])
mailMeAt=ePrefix+domainIs
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

[Bryan]

Eric Pederson wrote:

From: Arthur <aj******@optonline.com>

Not sure how Xah got himself into all this.

One can easily see that Java programmers are geeks who secretly wanted to make the football team and are now trying to conform, ignoring their language's critical lack of Prolog syntax. Python coders, similarly, do not recognize that they may be violating several open source patents each time they write: "class(Object):", and both languages may become unusable when the Government changes the inheritance tax.

Rather than throw stones or make fun, all but the closet Republicans should examine how poor Xah came to such a state of misunderstanding IPv8, and try to help him.

From Aahz tag line we have a clue:

"19. A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming,is not worth knowing." --Alan Perlis

Further understanding will require research. Was it Perl that did this to Mr. Lee's brain, or perhaps it was trying to ascertain the web services "standard"? Was it a massive PHP program that simply grew beyond comprehendability and blew all normal circuits? Or perhaps an attempt to jump straight from Fortran 77 into Ruby?

Perhaps we will never know the cause, but surely when the ill come to us we must prescribe something.

Ah, perhaps if he will join us in a song we will all be OK:

Python Choir:
Lee's a lumberjack, and he's OK,
He codes all night and he posts all day.

XL:
I cut down trees, I eat my lunch,
I go to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays I go shopping,
And have buttered scones for tea.

Python Choir:
Lee cuts down trees, He eats his lunch,
He goes to the lavatory.
On Wednesdays he goes shopping,
And have buttered scones for tea.

Lees a lumberjack, and he's OK,
He codes all night and he posts all day.

XL:
I cut down trees, I skip and jump,
I like to press wild flowers.
I put on women's clothing,
And hang around in bars.

Python Choir:
Lee cuts down trees, he skips and jumps,
He likes to press wild flowers.
He puts on women's clothing
And hangs around.... In bars???????
Well. At least I feel better. For now.

/Eric - sentenced to re-learn and write an application in Perl 5.0
What will that do to my mind?
http://www.songzilla.blogspot.com
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
domainNot="@something.com"
domainIs=domainNot.replace("s","z")
ePrefix="".join([chr(ord(x)+1) for x in "do"])
mailMeAt=ePrefix+domainIs
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

oh great... now you just legend-ized him on this group forever :(

[gene.tani]

Tragi-comic. really. BTW you forgot cross-post to c.l.scheme, C,
smalltalk and C++

[Steve Holden]

ge*******@gmail.com wrote:

Tragi-comic. really. BTW you forgot cross-post to c.l.scheme, C,
smalltalk and C++

Would there, I wonder, be any enthusiasm for a "Best Xah Lee impression"
prize at PyCon?

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden http://www.holdenweb.com/
Python Web Programming http://pydish.holdenweb.com/
Holden Web LLC [phone] [phone]

[Arthur]

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 07:40:40 -0500, Steve Holden <st***@holdenweb.com>
wrote:

ge*******@gmail.com wrote:

Tragi-comic. really. BTW you forgot cross-post to c.l.scheme, C,
smalltalk and C++

Would there, I wonder, be any enthusiasm for a "Best Xah Lee impression"
prize at PyCon?

And the rules of the game, if he shows?

I guess "no ringers", would have to be the rule.
Art

[Erik Max Francis]

Steve Holden wrote:

Would there, I wonder, be any enthusiasm for a "Best Xah Lee impression"
prize at PyCon?

I imagine standing in a corner, facing the wall, and screaming
incoherently at the top of your lungs would be guaranteed at least
second place.

--
Erik Max Francis && ma*@alcyone.com && http://www.alcyone.com/max/
San Jose, CA, USA && 37 20 N 121 53 W && AIM erikmaxfrancis
You've got me wondering / If you know that I am wondering about you
-- India Arie

[Peter Hansen]

Arthur wrote:

Steve Holden <st***@holdenweb.com> wrote:

Would there, I wonder, be any enthusiasm for a "Best Xah Lee impression"
prize at PyCon?

And the rules of the game, if he shows?

Arthur, if Xah Lee shows up at Pycon, he most definitely will
not be giving the best impression...

-Peter

[Luis M. Gonzalez]

Peter Hansen wrote:

Arthur wrote:

Steve Holden <st***@holdenweb.com> wrote:

Would there, I wonder, be any enthusiasm for a "Best Xah Lee impression"prize at PyCon?

And the rules of the game, if he shows?

Arthur, if Xah Lee shows up at Pycon, he most definitely will
not be giving the best impression...

-Peter

Have you visited his website?
I kind of like this guy... it's like he has a few bugs in his brain,
but other parts are surprisingly interesting.

[Thomas Bartkus]

"Luis M. Gonzalez" <lu*****@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:11**********************@f14g2000cwb.googlegr oups.com...

Have you visited his website?
I kind of like this guy... it's like he has a few bugs in his brain,
but other parts are surprisingly interesting.

I kind of like him too. I hope he manages to find a babe!

As human conditions go, normalcy is *highly* overrated..
Thomas Bartkus

[Peter Hansen]

Luis M. Gonzalez wrote:

Peter Hansen wrote:

Arthur wrote:

And the rules of the game, if he shows?

Arthur, if Xah Lee shows up at Pycon, he most definitely will
not be giving the best impression...

Have you visited his website?
I kind of like this guy... it's like he has a few bugs in his brain,
but other parts are surprisingly interesting.

Yes I have, though that's not really relevant to my point,
which was (in effect) that if he shows up still claiming to
be qualified to discuss Python -- such as how the tutorial
is not a tutorial, while his is -- then he would definitely
not make any better impression than he's made here.

It was also, though perhaps not successfully, and attempt
at humour, with a pun based on the double meaning of the
word "impression" in English.

But, yes, I visited the site. And it saddened me in several
ways. :-( I did not see (nor looked for) the "curves" page,
which from the sounds of it would do much to redeem the
fellow, if only he could learn and practice certain social
skills.**

-Peter

** Such as not massively cross-posting. And others...

[alex23]

Luis M. Gonzalez wrote:

I kind of like this guy... it's like he has a few bugs in his brain,
but other parts are surprisingly interesting.

Which bits especially impress you, the rampant misogyny or the
unwarranted intellectual arrogance?

[Luis M. Gonzalez]

alex23 wrote:

Luis M. Gonzalez wrote:

I kind of like this guy... it's like he has a few bugs in his brain, but other parts are surprisingly interesting.

Which bits especially impress you, the rampant misogyny or the
unwarranted intellectual arrogance?

I didn't say that I'm "impressed". I just said that some things he says
are somewhat interesting, funny and weird.
I think he, as character, is a little bit excentric and far from
nornal, but he is absolutely harmless.
And to tell you the truth, I don't understand the animosity and
aggressiveness demonstrated against him.
Those who are offended by his posts, should just go ahead and read
someone else's posts intead of starting World War III.