toxic thought waste site

Theological whimsy, metaphysical larks, and other spiritually radioactive waste products.

Monday, October 08, 2007

The Programming and Belief Challenge

So ruby is a language for Mormons. Really. Go look it up, I'll wait. Matz is a Mormon and if you read the fine print when you down load the binaries you'll see that you are agreeing to all the precepts of the Mormon faith if you use ruby in any fashion. Additionally perl is for post-modern Christians. Really. Go look it up, I'll wait. Programming in perl is a tacit admission that Jesus is real and that all your coding is for the glory of god. Of course if you consider code that looks like swearing cartoon characters to be a worthy gift to the almighty then more power to you.

This got me thinking about the relationship between programming languages (users and designers) and the various faiths. So here is your challenge: tell me what languages work best (or are incompatible with) which faiths.

Here's a start:

- Java is for christians since it was created specifically to prevent people from thinking bold thoughts. And you have to be sort of a sheep to think that this is in any way a good language. And yet people blather on about it as if it's the second coming.

- perl is for atheists since it's impossible to believe in a benevolent deity while staring at perl code.

PS. For extra credit, what other religion programming links do you know of? The two above are the only ones I know. Does anyone else know the religious predilections of any other famous language designers or programmers?

Labels: ,

[digg]

3 Comments:

Blogger nullifidian said...

Python, of course, is very Zen...

Perl, with its motto of "there's more than one way to do it" doesn't seem to fit very well with the christian mind-set. Or perhaps it does, if the number of individual sects is anything to go by. ;-)

VisualBasic (and its derivatives) are just satanic. Or possibly guilt-ridden celice-wearing catholic.

COBOL is truly catholic: there's so much ritual and tradition there to sink any other language.

C is the suicide bomber of programming. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to associate a religion with it. ;-)

Can I suggest Lisp as an example of an atheist, or at least a sceptical, programming language?

Tue Oct 09, 01:10:00 AM  
Blogger evtujo said...

Nice list null. I have to say I'm a little embarrassed I didn't think of the python/zen link.

Tue Oct 09, 05:47:00 AM  
Blogger nullifidian said...

I have to say I'm a little embarrassed I didn't think of the python/zen link.

D'oh! :-)

Tue Oct 09, 01:53:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home