Food for thought: The intelligent weblog of Dave McCusker, notable for its stylistic discipline of stanzas. This discussion of Gates' infelicities seems to gain a Shakespearean flavour from the rhythm. A gimmick? Not according to Jon Udell: We (that is, we technical types) focus intensely on form when we write software. Poets aside, who else but programmers could seriously debate the merits of Python's significant whitespace? So it has always seemed odd to me that these same people (with some notable exceptions, including McCusker and the Wiki tribe) pay scant attention to form when writing email or other kinds of purposeful communication. Why not? The reasons are the same. Knuth found it natural to study digital typography betwixt volumes of The Art of Computer Programming. Other examples abound. |