Poetry Jam 05: A Ruby Octet

[Devin Mullins]

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]

Cute... but do they run?

 

[Devin Mullins]

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.

See also:
http://redhanded.hobix.com/bits/haikuRb.html
http://redhanded.hobix.com/bits/rehaikurb.html

(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]

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]

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]

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]

Death-defying! Particularly:

$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]

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.

;-)

-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]

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]

What mailer do you use?

pine and/or mutt. both support alternate editors.

cheers.

-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
===============================================================================