Episode: 165
Title: HPR0165: Expressive Programming Part 1
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0165/hpr0165.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 12:38:35

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2008
celebrated
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Let's just get the
Location Out happier – given the
Location Out happier – given the Location Out happier – given the Location Out happier – given the Location Out happier
Welcome to today's episode of Hacker Republic Radio! Today we will be talking
about art and
and
and know
not
not, even
or even
they will be talking about art
but
and
and
hopefully most of us
are
meaning
programming. I believe programming is a form of self-expression. I can exemplify
that on days when I'm in a really busy mood and my code is just as shitty. Can I
say that? Yes, I can say that because I'm expressing myself. Shitty code, shitty
attitude, shitty vocals. We've all, hopefully, we've all seen lines of code where the
only adequate comment that can be added is forward slash forward slash the magic
happens here. And when we come across that code either in our projects or in
other projects, there's something else going on there that may have started as
three source files and four different classes and then slowly broken down
until it's just three lines of procedural code. That kind of passion that's put
behind that, that's the art that I'm going to be talking about. My name is Ubersheak
GeekChick and this will be a first of many in a series that will eventually
spin off into its own podcast. The podcast will be based at ubersheakgeekchick.com.
If you can't keep up, listen again, ubersheakgeekchick.com. It'll be in the
show notes. Or whatever exactly we call it in HackerPuppet Radio. It's more like a list
of links, which is what the web should be anyways. Back to my point. We have
DaVinci, we have Jackson Pollock, we have performance artists, we have Mozart,
a tons of artists, which still have to stay or argue whether or not what they did
as art. We have William Shakespeare with the
an artist, DaVinci, with his science heart. I happen to think so. Lady Ada Lovelace,
Mistress, and genius assistant. Ha ha, everything she's
probably more than minds of the operation of Charles Babbage.
Worked every centum, developing the first of what we would consider programming languages.
It evolved into punch cards. When someone would spend four days working on a
genetic algorithm in punch cards, that's art. That's passion. That's more than
just applied mathematics or swapping memory between one register and another
into the CPU, out of the CPU, AT&T assembly, or X86 assembly. There's something
more going on there. And that's what I will attempt to explore through looking at
different projects, through the evolution of my own project, and pointing out
ones that just make you shiver. So if there are any projects that you would like
to focus, that I could look at the code. Yes, since this is about programming as
an art form, looking at the code, would be prerequisite to being able to
consider it art or not, or be happy to look at that. But to do that, we'll be
discussing different languages, such as say Ruby on Rails. Is it paint by
numbers for programmers? Just an opinion. And a question. Then there's Python. What
exactly is it? Well, it is not artistic. That is for sure. Oh, that's the most
artistic, or is PHP the most artistic? You can do anything in a million
different ways. There's no right way or wrong way to do it. And reinventing the
wheel is often encouraged. Whenever I hear someone say reinvent the wheel, it
pisses me off. Why? Because the wheel is reinvented thousands of times each year,
naturally, by race car manufacturers, tire manufacturers, car companies, the
point being, to do just that, reinvent the wheel. If you have a passion or a
desire to program something, because it's in a different way, or just because
you want to understand how something can be done or made to be done the way you
want it to be done, then you should do it. There are millions of paintings of
portraits. We don't know how to differentiate arguably never even painted
himself. Michelangelo, even more, you really didn't only refuited himself in a
few paintings. What's my point? My point is that programming is a way for us to
express ourselves. Growing up in a digital age of BBSs and
I'm along couplers and slamming foods in a big earphones, and well, if you
weren't there, you missed it. And I'm sorry. But learning basic and assembly from a
book before I'd have even touched the computer. Learning C before I ever
programmed in basic. This is a way for me to escape reality, but to express myself
in a way that, about the world, have something that I didn't have before. It wasn't
always necessarily functional. It wasn't always necessarily original, and functional I
mean from the standpoint of doing something that wasn't done before. It may have
been done a million times before. It didn't stop us then. Why is it stopping us now?
I don't think it should. And it doesn't stop me. When I have a crappy day, my code
is crappy. I don't spend as much time on the algorithms and documentation I may
babble on forever. If I manage to create a class, it's, well, it's definitely not abstract.
There's a reason we use those terms to describe our classes. Private public abstract
final. Those are art terms. Then we toss in stuff from architecture, another art
farm. So perhaps in five or 10 years, people will start to recognize programming as the
art form it is. Not based on its output, but based on the very language which we are creating,
the very tool which we are using. To go to an art exhibit, there are many digital displays
you can see now. Art created through sound, sound creating art. What was the recent project
done by, who knows, I'm looking at the code on Google, but I can't remember the artist
that actually did it, but the code is amazing. It takes the sound based off of 3D echoes
in a room and creates a visual percentage of it. Then you can take a look at languages
like Povery, which literally will program the most this swiss and beautiful 3D animations
ever made. It will take three days to actually render your scene, but it will be gorgeous
when it's done. This is about the tip of the iceberg of the things that I would like
to discuss. I will be daily into SVG, the specification which could destroy a flash and
I believe eventually will, but who knows? Micromedia, Acrobat, whoever owns whatever
now may surprise us and actually open some specs. And there's audio programming. A language
out there just for programming synthesis. There's voice interpretation. I could go on. And
I probably would. And in the future I most definitely will. But in this intro episode, I'm
just trying to bring home the idea. To plant the idea that code can be more than just functional.
Code can be more than just about what you're getting out of it, but about what you're putting
into it, why you're putting into it, and how you're feeling when you put into it.
I do believe that programming is an expression of ourselves, a way for us to express ourselves.
Whether it's a small shell script like Bash Potter,
if you looked at Bash Potter, maybe five, maybe ten lines of script, that's expression.
That was someone saying, I want something that is something simple, beautiful, and elegant.
And let's be listened to the shit I like. I personally don't use Bash Potter. I'm working on a
podcast inclined of my own. Hence, go to reinventing the will. But that said, I think Bash
Potter is a beautiful piece of shell scripting software. And yes, it's software, as much as
something written in C or anything else. When I hear people say, choose the best tool for the job,
or I choose the best tool for the job. I'm not biased about the programming language I use.
Sorry, bullshit. I call blatant bullshit. We are humans. We are in the world to make completely
logical decisions. If we did, we'd all still be writing assembly, or maybe C. Our web pages would
all end in that CGI. We prepared, we compiled, we completely security, wait, we're not perfect.
That's not why we make decisions. Our decisions are emotionally charged. They are emotionally
based. And so is the code we use to create it. You may not agree with my opinion on this.
You may be an engineer, and it may be purely about function. Okay, so your heads up your ass,
and that's the emotion you're trying to express. Good for you. And the other hand, we'll be
focusing on code and programs that express emotions in a different way. Express ourselves in a different
way, and especially when concerned with open source, express our desire to see a better world come
about in our own time, which we're seeing happen day by day, moment by moment,
line of code, by line of code. Return int 0.
I hope that you've enjoyed this episode of expressive programming. If you'd like more
information about me, my projects, my podcasts or anything else, please feel free to visit my website
at ubersheetgeekchick.com. If you have any questions, comments or feedback, please feel free to email me
at feedback at ubersheetgeekchick.com. Morning, I'm Flaky and I suck at email. I'm also a member of
the phpwomen.org community, so wonderful place. Any women involved in development, please join us
there. Also another wonderful community that I'm involved in is devchicks.com. All development
principles are welcome. Please come along. And lastly, I'm a proud member of both linuxchick.com
that's chikchichic and linuxchichs.org that's chixix and there you'll find opinions and topics
and anything you could want. So any women out there, please, you're not alone. Come join us.
Lastly, I'm on identica, twitter, and on irc free notes server. I add ubersheetgeek, feel free to
hop in, say hi, find me in a room, PM me, and I'll be blocking. Other than that, until next time,
express yourself.
I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here
I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out there, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here, I'll be out here
Thank you very much.
