Love Poem: Programmer's Love Defined
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Written by: Brian Johnston

Programmer's Love Defined

(Proving Once And For All Time That Love Is Not Binary)

Definition of Variables 
X, PATH, JOHN, JOHNJOHN, MARSHA, MARSHAMARSHA, ALPHA, OMEGA

Initial Values
SET X=0, SET PATH = 1, SET JOHN = .5, JOHNJOHN = 1000,
MARSHA = .5, MARSHAMARSHA = 1000

Program Start:
LOVE101: LET ALPHA = JOHN + MARSHA
   ;John And Marsha Equals 1 means
   ;that the couple feels like they
   ;are united. However John’s and
   ;Marsha’s values range from 0-1
LET OMEGA= JOHNJOHN – MARSHAMARSHA
   ;John Without Marsha Equals 0 
   ;means that the couple wants to
   ;stay together.
LOOP1: LET X= X+1
DOES ALPHA = 1, THEN CONTINUE, ELSE END
DOES OMEGA = O, THEN CONTINUE, ELSE END

FLIPFLOP: DOES PATH = 1, THEN CONTINUE, ELSE PATH2

PATH1: LET JOHN = FUNCTION (RANDOM NUMBER)
LET JOHNJOHN = FUNCTION (RANDOM NUMBER)
LET MARSHA = FUNCTION (MARSHA’S UNITARY CHOICE)*
LET MARSHAMARSHA = FUNCTION (MARSHAMARSHA’s NULL CHOICE)*
FLIPFLOP1: SET PATH = 2
GO TO CHECKTIME

PATH2: LET MARSHA = FUNCTION (RANDOM NUMBER)
LET MARSHAMARSHA = FUNCTION (RANDOM NUMBER)
LET JOHN = FUNCTION (JOHN’S UNITARY CHOICE)*
LET JOHNJOHN = FUNCTION (JOHNJOHN’S NULL CHOICE)*
FLIPFLOP2: SET PATH = 1

CHECKTIME: DOES X = INFINITY** THEN END, ELSE GO TO LOVE101
END: FULL STOP

 
Poet/Programmer’s Notes:

1. *   If there is a fly in the ointment, (a bug in the program) this is it!
There is some humor in the setting of the initial values here too. Please note
that the initial values for both John and Marsha are less than zero, and yet 
both JohnJohn and MarshaMarsha are batting 1000!? 
    **  Also a no no is the fact that no computer can handle an infinite number (or a woman perhaps?)

The moral of this program/blank verse poem is….

KISS (AND OFTEN)

2. In other places I have suggested that a ‘model of reality’ presented in
Physics can be very much like a poem. I think that I have proven here that
a computer program can also be very poem like! : -) 

For those not familiar with the acronym, KISS means 'Keep It Simple Stupid!'
This is not some veiled sexual reference! Heck, we are talking about 'Programmers' here!?

3. Is there anyone besides me who remembers a satire of soap opera melodramatics, “John & Marsha’’ that consisted of a man and a woman (both
voices performed by Stan Freberg in 1951) decalring their passion for each
other by repeating their names over and over while organ music played in the
background? Check it out if you can!