Hacking Perl in nightclubs
November 9, 2009 10:08 AM   Subscribe

 
"http://www.toplap.org/index.php/Hacking_perl_in_nightclubs"

And they said no one uses perl anymore ...
posted by cotterpin at 10:16 AM on November 9, 2009 [6 favorites]


I can't get the page to load.
posted by mathowie at 10:17 AM on November 9, 2009 [1 favorite]


Here is perhaps a mirror
posted by where u at dawg at 10:24 AM on November 9, 2009


Here are some links that should have been provided in the post.
posted by demiurge at 10:25 AM on November 9, 2009 [2 favorites]


When I was young this is exactly what I imagined Depeche Mode doing on stage at their concerts.
posted by brain_drain at 10:31 AM on November 9, 2009 [1 favorite]


Really young.
posted by brain_drain at 10:32 AM on November 9, 2009




Sorry I don't read web pages (or even wait for them to finish loading) if they don't come up in 5 seconds or less.
posted by cbecker333 at 10:53 AM on November 9, 2009


There's a chap in London who does livecoded music; i.e., he has an environment with some sort of editor containing a Perl script tied in to various homebrewed sound synthesis APIs, and edits the script, changing the music as he does so.

Actually, as his site's having trouble loading as well, I suspect we may be talking about the same guy.
posted by acb at 10:56 AM on November 9, 2009


I've found the experiences of dancing and programming to have a great deal in common.

I think he may be doing it wrong.

With both I am immersed in an abstract world of animated structures, building up and breaking down many times before finally reaching a conclusion.

Okay, I'm not a good dancer, and maybe those who are can chime in, but do dancers spend a lot of time visualizing what they are going to do, while they do it? It seems like most complex physical activities that a human does are done without the conscious mind needing to "think" about them very much, certainly not visualize anything. You just practice a move over and over again until your body gets it down.
posted by delmoi at 11:01 AM on November 9, 2009


Speaking of composing on stage, check out video of Imogen Heap doing a live multi-track recording.
posted by delmoi at 11:04 AM on November 9, 2009 [3 favorites]


boo_radley (me too ;-)
posted by bitdamaged at 11:13 AM on November 9, 2009


[News flash for the impatient: many web pages which normally come up in 5 seconds or less will fail to meet that standard when their server is under heavy loads. This is a feature of webservers, not a moral failing on the part of the site owner.]
posted by lodurr at 11:38 AM on November 9, 2009


Kids these days. Rupert Hine hacked 16k Z80 BASIC live in the early eighties. Couldn't find any videos of them typing RUN over and over, but you can see his ABC80 computer sitting next to the keyboard in this classic video, which also features a somewhat confused Phil Collins.
posted by effbot at 11:43 AM on November 9, 2009


You just practice a move over and over again until your body gets it down.

I never practice anything to do with dancing. Of course, people can tell that when they look at me dancing, but practicing moves would absolutely negate any fun-value in the act, for me.

though I do think you're right that he's a little over-wrought in his analogies. Musicianship is maybe a better metaphor for what he's trying to get at: You really will be noticeably better at it and will in most cases have more fun if you do practice, at least some. Same is true of coding.
posted by lodurr at 11:43 AM on November 9, 2009


I've tried combining work and pleasure by doing homework/coding projects/stuff at bars or nightclubs. It's only really worked on lounge nights, although I'll bet an un-crowded club with a dubstep/garage playlist would work as well. Unfortunately, such places seem hard to come by in the Tampa area; anyone know of any?
posted by khafra at 1:16 PM on November 9, 2009


You just practice a move over and over again until your body gets it down.

I think this is where dancing is kind of an outlier to other physical activities. Even practicing is doing the activity. A lot of people who take dance lessons enjoy it and don't feel the need to go beyond that and perform or showcase. Not that other physical activities can't be fun while practicing, but it is often just a means to an end. Martial Arts would be another outlier in a different way but the same sense.
I can see what the author is getting at, but I'm glad they moved past programming/dancing on to programming/music analogy.
posted by P.o.B. at 1:34 PM on November 9, 2009


Haskell is usually a better language choice when describing structures (see Haskore)
posted by jeffburdges at 3:28 AM on November 10, 2009


could be (I know nothing of Haskell but what I hear from folks like you), but there's a certain social aesthetic to using PERL that comes from what people have traditionally used PERL for, and the ways they've used it. PERL has a social dimension that more precise languages don't have. Maybe a little like using a multitool instead of real tools, because you can and because you know people who enjoy the challenge -- even if you don't really ever articulate it that way.
posted by lodurr at 4:28 AM on November 10, 2009


There's a chap in London who does livecoded music; , he has an environment with some sort of editor containing a Perl script tied in to various homebrewed sound synthesis APIs, and edits the script, changing the music as he does so...I suspect we may be talking about the same guy.

It is.

I have seen him demonstrate the environment you mentioned. (It was part of his thesis work). IIRC It is based upon Konakkol / Bol (the vocal performance of percussive rhythms) commonly associated with (learning) Tabla music. It consisted of a command line that you could type various 'syllables' on, each syllable relating to a techno sound. This would loop and could be edited live.

His most recent project is Acid Sketching: drawing on a white board to make music. (source code).

full dislosure: I know him, I let him know he is on here.
posted by tallus at 12:03 PM on November 10, 2009


Hello, I'm the author of the article, and the administrator of the web server you broke earlier (er, sorry about that, probably memory problems).

I wrote that article five years ago, and like a lot of people have largely moved on from Perl. I mostly use Haskell these days, although not Haskore, which AFAICT is designed for off-line, MIDI based compositions. I made my own pattern library and use that as part of slub.

That stuff about dancing - sure everyone has their own metaphor for coding and indeed for dancing. But that one worked for me, dancing for me is certainly not automatic but very active. When it's good I get in the flow and don't worry about what I'm doing, but that's true of coding too. Also, unlike certain lisp haskers I was careful to not generalise beyond myself.
posted by yaxu at 1:24 PM on November 10, 2009 [2 favorites]


thanks for coming around.
posted by lodurr at 1:28 PM on November 10, 2009


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