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

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.

Hi Nobody...
I completely agree with your comments about programming. I've written a few games myself (I'm not yet at college, but I hope to program for a living when I'm older) and yes, when you're doing it you know every little detail - and coming back to something later it's like someone else has written it. Especially if, like me, you neglect to put comments throughout your work while you write it.

As for novel writing... yeah, I think I would have trouble with the slightly loose structure of a novel.

So... what sort of programming do you do?

Hi researcher nr 29861,
I hope you don't mind Nobody doesn't answer, but Someone Else does.
It's a very good idea to include comment in your program text, as well as including a structured scheme in a novel...

I am so very, very sorry, researcher nr 26199 because I wrote "nr 29861", which in fact is Nobody's number.

For work : in C++ for internet websites
For pleasure : in Eiffel to maintain a music collection. I am trying to make a standalone MP3 player

Cool. My programming is almost entirely in C for the purpose of avoiding working during IT lessons. And to impress my friends.

Does it work?

Tim

Sure it does. Provided the computers are switched on in IT we can usually play some games... and my friends have several times come round my house after school to play Tron Fortress Classic.

Why has this conversation, like so many others, turned into a discussion of computing? I am a non-computing literary critic, novels are among the few things I understand and care about. Go on, tell me who your favourite novelist is - maybe we can pull this round to literature after all.

http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?thread=9048&forum=12428
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