Poetry Jam 05: A Ruby Octet

Devin Mullins

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Sep 6, 2005, 6:16:49 AM9/6/05

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A sleepless night reading way too many blogposts (and a bit high off my
Alaska trip) inspired the following eight Ruby poems. Let them serve as
indicators that I should never pursue literature as a career. Let them
also, hopefully, be fun to read. They got progressively weirder as the
night goed on.

$the_love_you.display \
do not let it end
__END__

#requires a file called 'dark and stormy night', obviously
1.times do
open 'dark and stormy night' { |story|
story.read.display
} #the
end
__END__

for once in 'my life'... 'I' do
not know if the pain
will end
__END__

#Ask the Oracle:
/to port this code to Java will not/.require 'time'
#=> false
__END__

for nicat in'' \
do it.with.a.
fri end
__END__

#I call this, 'Happy Ending'
<<please.display
affection
please
__END__

#!`env ruby` -W0
fork { there is no fork } unless

unless:what?

oh...yeah unless this is the end.to_a {
Wachowski trilogy }
__END__

#5/7/5, and => true
$capitalism.
is_a? $system_that_promotes.
class { separation }

#_THE_#
__END__

You may now return to your regularly scheduled actually productive emails.

Devin

Trans

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Sep 6, 2005, 9:23:05 AM9/6/05

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Cute... but do they run?

Devin Mullins

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Sep 6, 2005, 6:35:45 PM9/6/05

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Trans wrote:

>Cute... but do they run?
>
>
Err... well, that's a pretty easy thing to check...

And there wouldn't be much fun in reading or writing it if not for
having to conform to a certain set a rules (ruby syntax, in this case)*.
You should figure out how my Matrix poem doesn't crash. Good fun.

(Also, for those lurkers out there who are considering publishing my
poems -- know that Thunderbird oddly stripped off exactly one leading
space from all my lines, so it's not my fault they're all misaligned.)

Devin
*And yeah, that might just be my own oddity, but I doubt it.

Trans

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Sep 6, 2005, 7:33:40 PM9/6/05

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Devin Mullins wrote:
> Trans wrote:
>
> >Cute... but do they run?
> >
> >
> Err... well, that's a pretty easy thing to check...

Oh yes, that's right, I have nothing better to do then check your ruby
poems against a testcase ;D

Jacob Fugal

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Sep 6, 2005, 7:50:33 PM9/6/05

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On 9/6/05, Trans <tran...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Oh yes, that's right, I have nothing better to do then check your ruby
> poems against a testcase ;D

Well, they don't have to be verified to produce a certain output...
simply that they compile as valid ruby code. That's as easy as
select-copy from the browser, then in a terminal:

$ ruby
<paste>
CTRL-D

Jacob Fugal

Devin Mullins

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Sep 6, 2005, 8:51:30 PM9/6/05

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Jacob Fugal wrote:

>Well, they don't have to be verified to produce a certain output...
>simply that they compile as valid ruby code. That's as easy as
>select-copy from the browser, then in a terminal:
>
>$ ruby
><paste>
>CTRL-D
>
>

Actually, even easier. Since I was nice enough to include __END__ after
each poem, just include that in your paste, and Ruby treats it like a
CTRL-D.

Devin

why the lucky stiff

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Sep 6, 2005, 9:05:36 PM9/6/05

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Death-defying! Particularly:

Devin Mullins wrote:
> $the_love_you.display \
> do not let it end

> for once in 'my life'... 'I' do

> not know if the pain
> will end

It's harrowing to type this into irb. That the conditionals let slide
certain phrases doubly enforces your poetics.

_why

Ara.T.Howard

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Sep 6, 2005, 10:28:59 PM9/6/05

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or, even easier if you use a mailer that has vim for it's editor: select the
lines visually (using 'shift-v' and the arrow or movement (jkl;) keys), then
type ':!ruby'. this will replace the poem source with it's output - all
without a mouse or leaving your mailer.

;-)

-a
--
===============================================================================
| email :: ara [dot] t [dot] howard [at] noaa [dot] gov
| phone :: 303.497.6469
| Your life dwells amoung the causes of death
| Like a lamp standing in a strong breeze. --Nagarjuna
===============================================================================

Trans

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Sep 6, 2005, 10:38:48 PM9/6/05

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Ara.T.Howard wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Sep 2005, Devin Mullins wrote:
>
> > Jacob Fugal wrote:
> >
> >> Well, they don't have to be verified to produce a certain output...
> >> simply that they compile as valid ruby code. That's as easy as
> >> select-copy from the browser, then in a terminal:
> >>
> >> $ ruby
> >> <paste>
> >> CTRL-D
> >>
> > Actually, even easier. Since I was nice enough to include __END__ after each
> > poem, just include that in your paste, and Ruby treats it like a CTRL-D.
>
> or, even easier if you use a mailer that has vim for it's editor: select the
> lines visually (using 'shift-v' and the arrow or movement (jkl;) keys), then
> type ':!ruby'. this will replace the poem source with it's output - all
> without a mouse or leaving your mailer.
>
> ;-)

What mailer do you use?

T.

Ara.T.Howard

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Sep 7, 2005, 9:44:44 AM9/7/05

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pine and/or mutt. both support alternate editors.

cheers.