h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Writing novels or computer programs

Posted May 2, 1999

I just followed an interview of Salman Rushdie on the TV.
I couldn't help noticing some similarities between the things he was telling about writing a novel and my own ideas about writing a computer program.
For instance the way in which an author has to be concentrated to keep all the characters and events in his head, and how when the book is finished he suddenly forgets a lot about the details. I feel the same way about programming, while you write a program you seem to know every detail of this huge structure and once it is finished you quickly forget the details of this world you created.
Salman Rushdie quoted someone in that a novel is a long writing with an error in it (or something like that), because no matter how many people edited and read the book, it always ends up with a few minor glitches. Isn't this true for a well tested computer program ?
The funny thing is that probably most computer programmers would make very bad novel writers and vice versa because of the difference between the highly structured computer language and the free art of good writing.
That is why I'll stop writing on this entry right now, because after all I'm just a programmer.

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Latest reply: May 2, 1999