Sunday, April 12, 2009

Major justification.

I forgot to write about how my Latin teacher inspired me the other day. We were talking about the life of Vergil, and my professor expressed her dislike for the "Georgics." She compared the didactic farming poetry to a computer programming manual written in dactyllic hexameter.
Well...
You know where that went.
No, I did not write a computer programming manual in dactyllic hexameter. I'm terrible with meter.
I wrote a few Javascript programming "tips" in Latin. They really aren't helpful, but hopefully they'll get a smile out of everyone who has had the wonderful experience of learning (and fighting with) Javascript. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to write them in Latin dactyllic hexameter, but that's a long way off :)
So, here we go:

Javascript Programming Tips (I don't feel like making up a word for "Javascript".)
IN LINGUA LATINA (In Latin)

Tene has in memoria: (Keep these things in mind:)
I. Est perculsus, sed noli desistere. (It is demoralizing, but don't give up.)
II. Desine cum semicolo, aut persaepe plorabis. (End with a semicolon, or you will cry very often.)
III. Annotationes utiles et festivae sunt. (Comments are helpful and fun.)
IV. Assuesce cimices-errores. (Get used to "bug-errors.")
V. Bonus somnus infimis est. (Good sleep is for the weak.)
VI. Aliquando de id somniabis. Noli sollicitari! (Eventually you will dream about it. Don't worry!)

I'm willing to bet that I did a bit of unintentional language-butchering, but that's okay. I'm learning. This was good practice with the imperative!
Do you like the computer term that I invented? "Cimices" was the accusative plural for the word "bug," but the word was actually referring to an insect and not an irritating coding mistake. Therefore, I added the accusative plural "errores" for "errors." I like it better than using either word alone.
Anyone have a good idea for putting the word "Javascript" into Latin? I was thinking "Javascriptum," simply enough.

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