codeless_code 0.1.2

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-43.txt

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+Number: 43
+Title: Holes
+Geekiness: 2
+Date: 2011-06-08
+Names: Jinyu, Laughing Monkey Clan
+Topics: hardening
+
+The Abbess [[Jinyu]] was inspecting the state of the
+[[Laughing Monkey Clan]].  In the hall she came upon a half-drowned monk,
+soaked and shivering.
+
+"Explain," said the Abbess.
+
+"The m-m-master commanded me to t-take his coracle out onto
+the r-r-river," said the monk through chattering teeth.
+"When I was far from shore I discovered that it had m-m-many
+holes in the sides.  M-most were plugged with corks but
+t-t-t-two had been overlooked.  Had I not stopped them with
+my f-f-fingers I would have p-perished."
+
+The Abbess bowed and went in to see the Java master.
+
+"Explain," said the Abbess, indicating the monk.
+
+"That monk was given the task of implementing the Shopping
+Cart for our new site," said the master.  "He discovered
+that if a particular database entry was not initialized,
+attempts to display the Shopping Cart would fail.  So the
+monk found every page that offered a /link/ to the Shopping
+Cart and attempted to initialize the database entry
+/there./ There were over a dozen such pages.  Lamentably,
+two were overlooked."
+
+The Abbess struck the master with her cane.
+
+"Next time," she said, "Drill more holes."

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-44.txt

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+Number: 44
+Date: 2012-07-04
+Title: The Backwards Monk
+Geekiness: 1
+Topics: testing, automated testing
+Names: Banzen, Luohou, The Backwards Monk
+Illus.0.par: last
+Illus.0.src: backward.jpg
+Illus.0.title: The inner tube's warranty doesn't cover punctures from sharp rocks.  Neither does the temple's health plan.
+
+
+A certain monk had an odd method of writing code.  When
+presented with a problem, he would first write many
+automated tests to verify that the yet-unwritten code was
+correct.  These would of course fail, as there was nothing
+yet to test.  Only when the tests were done would the monk
+work on the desired code itself, proceeding diligently until
+all tests passed.
+
+His brothers ridiculed this process, which caused the monk
+to produce only half as much application code as his peers
+-- and even then only after a long delay.
+They called him /Luohou/, the Backwards Monk.
+
+Java master [[Banzen]] heard of this.
+"I will investigate," he declared.
+
+Upon his return, the master decreed that all members of the
+clan who were done with the week's assignments could
+accompany him to the swimming hole as reward for their
+efficiency.  The Backwards Monk stayed behind, alone.
+
+At the top of the diving cliff, the eldest of the monks
+peered over the edge and shrank back.
+
+"Master!" he cried.  "Someone has scattered the stones
+of the dam!  The swimming hole is empty of water.
+Only weeds and sharp rocks await us below!"
+
+With his staff Banzen prodded the youth forward towards the
+precipice.
+
+"Surely," said the master, "you can solve that problem when
+you reach the bottom."

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-45.txt

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+Number: 45
+Title: Full Circle
+Date: 2012-07-08
+Geekiness: 3
+Topics: elegance, design patterns
+Names: Zjing, Laughing Monkey Clan
+Illus.0.par: 4
+Illus.0.src: FullCircle-033.jpg
+Illus.0.alt: Two nuns watching the fight
+Illus.0.title: That's gotta hurt.
+Illus.0.caption: Wow... a roundhouse kick right to the copy constructor.
+
+It happened that two monks of the [[Laughing Monkey Clan]]
+were quarreling at such volume in the Great Hall that they had
+attracted an audience.
+
+"If I wish to know a customer's billing address," said
+the first monk, "then /Customer/ should have a
+/getBillingAddress/ method, just as it has /getName/! How
+can you reject the elegance of my design?"
+
+"Because your method silently loads the address from the
+database!" countered the second.  "That is not the Pattern
+for Value Objects!  They exist only to contain the data
+fetched by a DAO.  You should have an /AddressDAO/ for
+querying the Address table, fronted by a Service method.
+The billing address should be obtained directly from there."
+
+"But we have lost the Way of Object-Orientation!" shouted the
+first.  "Have we come full circle back to the days of C?
+Our Value Objects are little more than /structs/, our
+stateless DAOs and Services are merely collections of
+related functions, and we pass around integer IDs instead of
+the objects they represent!  Shall we next run about
+on all fours and bay at the moon?"
+
+"The Way of Enterprise Design Patterns is an advancement
+towards ideal simplicity, not a regression to the
+primitive!" said the second.  "A domain object is not
+intended to work as its namesake, any more than a picture of
+a shovel is meant to dig a ditch!  You must set aside
+appearances and focus on /purpose/!"
+
+"Purpose is /inherent/ in the name chosen!" said the first.
+"Domain objects should model the real world!"
+
+The second monk responded with a fist to the first monk's
+stomach, doubling him up.  "Tell me," said the second monk,
+"in which instance variable did I hit you?"
+
+The first monk leapt forward and boxed his opponent's ears.
+"And here I thought those appendanges were for listening!"
+said the first, as the second staggered aside in pain.
+"How fortunate that I set aside appearances and discovered
+their true purpose!"  His gloating was cut short by an uppercut
+to the jaw.
+
+A young nun -- a novice -- noticed that several of the Java
+masters were at the edge of the crowd, silently watching the
+proceedings.  She ran to them.
+
+"The two monks will kill each other before long!" said the
+novice.  "Why do you not settle their dispute and tell us
+which philosophy is superior?"
+
+The masters ignored her.  But the nun [[Zjing]]
+heard, and whispered to the novice:
+
+"If I were the monk who prefers the Way of Enterprise Design
+Patterns, I would say that you have committed the same error
+as the ditch-digger.  There is a question to be settled, but
+you have mistaken the purposes of those present."
+
+"Are you saying that the masters intend to conceal the
+answer from us?" asked the novice.
+
+/"Wú,"/ said Zjing.  "If I were the monk who prefers the Way
+of Object-Orientation, I would call your attention to the
+Unwritten Hierarchy, in which /Master/ is but a
+subclass of /Student/."

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-46.txt

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+Number: 46
+Title: The Greatest Aspiration
+Date: 2012-07-09
+Geekiness: 1
+Names: Banzen
+Topic: infinity, philosophy, improvement
+Illus.0.par: last
+Illus.0.src: bonsai.jpg
+Illus.0.title: No, that's not the bonsai tree.  The temple just uses really big paperclips.
+
+
+On Monday a novice asked master [[Banzen]]: What is the
+greatest aspiration?
+
+Banzen replied: to know all that can be known, so that
+one's code may never be improved upon.
+
+On Tuesday another novice asked Banzen: What is the greatest
+aspiration?
+
+Banzen replied: to be surrounded always by
+colleagues whose knowledge is more extensive,
+so that one may be in a continual state of improvement.
+
+On Wednesday a third novice observed that the answers
+were mutually exclusive; indeed, they were almost exact opposites.
+
+Banzen replied: that is so.
+
+The novice, thinking he had the upper hand, then asked Banzen
+how one should set about attaining the greatest aspiration.
+
+Irritated, Banzen replied: on Monday I was asked the greatest
+positive number; on Tuesday, the number half its size.  I
+answered each question in one breath.  But if I must show
+you how to count to either, the moon will turn to sand
+before we have barely begun.
+
+The novice bowed in shame and left.
+
+A gardener -- who had been pruning the bonsai tree on Banzen's
+table -- confessed that he did not understand how the
+novice could be found in error, for the questions on Monday
+and Tuesday were indeed identical.
+
+Banzen replied: that bonsai needs water, as does the
+oak outside my window.

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-47.txt

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+Title: The Origin of All
+Number: 47
+Geekiness: 2
+Date: 2012-07-15
+Names: Bawan
+Topics: binary numbers, zero, one
+Illus.0.par: 1
+Illus.0.src: binary.jpg
+Illus.0.alt: The text 'Where binary numbers really come from', over a picture of many digital 1s swimming up to fertilize a large digital 0.
+Illus.0.title: 'One' really is the loneliest number.
+Illus.0.class: illus-center
+
+Painted on the tiles of a lavatory near Java
+master [[Bawan]]'s office: <sup>*</sup>
+
+<div class="footnotes" style="margin-top:8ex">
+<div class="footnote"><sup>*</sup> Some observations by the Editor:</div>
+<ul>
+<li>This means that every
+    binary number has both sex chromosomes, except for numbers
+    of the form (2^n)-1 where n&nbsp;&gt;=&nbsp;0.</li>
+<li>It also means that bitwise complement (~) is the Sex-Change Operation.</li>
+<li>It would be natural to assign gender to binary integers as follows:
+    even numbers (ending in 0) are female, and odd numbers
+    (ending in 1) are male.
+    But speaking personally, I would find it disconcerting if someone
+    referred to the anatomical feature that defines my sexuality as
+    my Least Significant Bit.
+    </li>
+</ul>
+</div>

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-48.txt

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+Number: 48
+Title: Silence
+Geekiness: 1
+Date: 2012-07-20
+Names: Huisheng, Temple of the Morning Brass Gong
+Topics: error handling, monitoring
+Illus.0.par: 2
+Illus.0.src: silence.jpg
+Illus.0.title: There is also a God of the Sudden Silence That Happens at Parties Just As You've Said Something Embarrassing.  He doesn't get many offerings.
+
+The [[Temple of the Morning Brass Gong]] lay nestled in the
+folds of a high mountain forest, shadowy and lush.  Hidden
+among its thick well-tended groves were four shrines,
+dedicated to four different gods of silence.
+
+The monk [[Huisheng]] was paying his respects to the least
+of these when a sandal fell from the sky onto the ground
+before it.  The monk looked up and discovered a learnèd
+brother -- bound, gagged, and hoisted by ropes to dangle
+from the upper limbs of a cypress tree.  The prisoner was
+frantically struggling against his bonds to attract
+Huisheng's attention.
+
+It was the habit of Huisheng <a href="/case/28">not to speak
+unless spoken to;</a> and since the prisoner was indisposed
+to speak at all, Huisheng merely turned away again and knelt at
+the shrine, the better to contemplate the scene.
+
+<i>-- I have heard much today,</i> thought Huisheng,
+<i>concerning the state of a critical nightly batch job.</i>
+
+<i>-- Many praised the design of the job; for it was said
+that if any record could not be processed, a suitable email
+was sent automatically to the Administrator and to all
+Parties Concerned.</i>
+
+<i>-- Many admired the reliability of the job, and how it was
+common for days to pass with no such message being sent.</i>
+
+<i>-- Many remarked upon the reticence of the job, and how
+it sent messages only when it deemed there was some error in
+need of correction.  This trait I find particularly
+virtuous, yet the abbot taking tea beside me spoke of it in
+tones of lament...</i>
+
+Huisheng's thoughts were broken by the sound of muffled cries
+from above.  Irritated, he cupped his hands over his ears.
+
+<i>-- The Protocols tell us of no fewer than Four Silences:
+the Silence Before Words, the Silence Between Words, the
+Silence of the Broken Pipe, and the Silence of Fallen
+Parcels.  To the initiate they are as different as the
+characters for "end" and "not yet," although the outsider
+cannot tell one from the other.</i>{{*}}
+
+The unintelligible cries grew louder.  Huisheng looked up to see
+a snake slithering along the ropes toward the terrified
+prisoner.
+
+<i>-- It is curious,</i> reflected Huisheng.  <i>The brother
+above has not begged to be set free; nor has he entreated me
+to pitch stones at the snake.  Soon he will be dead.  Then
+he will continue to not-ask me these things, albeit in a
+different way.  If I leave this place, he will not-ask
+me in a different way altogether.</i>
+
+<i>-- There is a lesson here in this monk's correction,
+though I have not yet divined what it is.</i>
+
+Thus, whistling a tune, did Huisheng depart the shrine.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+{{*}} 末 and 未.

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-49.txt

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+Number: 49
+Date: 2012-07-28
+Title: Banzen's investigation
+Geekiness: 0
+Names: Laughing Monkey Clan, Banzen, Jinyu
+Topics: neatness
+Illus.0.par: 2
+Illus.0.src: papers.jpg
+Illus.0.title: Basically, this is my filing system.
+
+The abbot of the [[Laughing Monkey Clan]] observed that
+software produced by the abbey's north hall had more defects
+than software produced by any other group of monks.  Java
+master [[Banzen]] was called in to investigate.
+
+The master selected a suitable conference room in the north
+hall.  Seating himself within, he motioned for the abbot to
+join him.  When the abbot was also seated the master
+unpacked his lunch from a paper sack and began eating.  The
+abbot waited silently, with ever-waning patience.
+
+Finally the master finished the last bite of his meal.  He
+crumpled up the paper sack and threw it at the waste bin in
+the corner of the room.  The ball missed the rim by a good
+three feet, bounced off the wall, and rolled to a stop next
+to the bin.  Banzen went out.
+
+The abbot followed, thinking: Banzen's devotion to
+perfection is too much praised in the temple.  Still, the
+rising moon makes an excellent circle but a poor square.
+
+Banzen then bade the abbot to summon the monks of the north
+hall one by one.  Each monk was told to meet the master and
+the abbot outside the selected conference room.  Each was
+also instructed to bring printouts of all code he had
+authored within the past thirty days.
+
+Whenever a monk appeared, Banzen said: "Give me your code
+listings and wait in that room, for I have been asked to
+investigate you."  Each monk entered the conference room as
+he was told, whereupon Banzen closed the door, leaving the
+monk in the room alone.  Banzen then placed the monk's
+papers face-down on an ever-growing pile outside the room.
+When precisely five minutes had passed Banzen would open the
+door and enter, saying, "You have been investigated."  The
+monk would then be dismissed.
+
+The abbot thought: Banzen's moon is lost behind a cloud.
+Still, the night is not yet over.
+
+Banzen repeated this ritual for all twelve monks of the
+north hall.  When the last monk had departed, Banzen left
+the abbey without another word.  Of the listings he had
+examined not a single page.
+
+The abbot said to himself: a wind has scrubbed the sky, and
+Banzen's moon is not even half-full.  I must summon the head
+abbess.
+
+Thus was old [[Jinyu]] called to the conference room. She in
+turn summoned Banzen.
+
+"What is the fault of the north hall?" asked Jinyu.
+
+Banzen pointed.  "That ball of paper still lying in the
+corner."
+
+
+== Qi's commentary
+
+What was done was expected; but what was not done was what mattered.
+If you cannot see the fault, the north hall awaits you.
+
+
+
+== Qi's poem
+
+A mountain of source code towers in the hall: //
+the labor of twelve monks from moon to moon. //
+A merchant's scale may balance fish against coins, //
+but one paper sack defeats it.

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-5.txt

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+Date: 2010-11-09
+Title: Void
+Number: 5
+Geekiness: 2
+Names: Temple of Three Stones, Temple of the White Iron Sky
+Topics: void, philosophy
+Illus.0.src: master.jpg
+Illus.0.par: 2
+
+On a cold autumn day the Java master awoke disquieted.
+He set out alone to clear his mind.
+
+Soon the master found himself at the gates of the Temple of
+Three Stones, where the art of ANSI C was still practiced.
+A learned brother stood guard.
+
+"What is the nature of /void/?" asked the master.
+
+"It has no nature," replied the brother.  "It is the stick
+fetched by the dog that does not fetch sticks.  It is the
+thing pointed to by the hand that may point at anything.  It
+is the perfect absence of value."
+
+The master thought: "The Temple of Three Stones has no need
+of a guard.  There can be nothing of value within."
+
+Further on he came to the [[Temple of the White Iron Sky]], a
+place of theoreticians where only ML was allowed.
+In the withered garden a nun was writing lambda expressions
+in the dust.
+
+"What is the nature of /void/?" asked the master.
+
+"It has the color of air, and the weight of rising fog,"
+replied the sister.  "When struck it makes the sound of a
+new moon slipping behind a cloud.  Every empty bowl contains
+as many as you please."
+
+The master thought: "The sister has said nothing which
+is false, yet nothing which is true either."
+
+Further down the road the master came to a great manor
+house, where an old woman was clipping the hedges.
+
+"What is the nature of /void/?" asked the master.
+
+The old woman bowed and continued her pruning.
+
+The master thought: "Here there is purest wisdom, unless
+there is only the lack of it."
+
+Eventually the master came to an abandoned cemetery.
+
+"What is the nature of /void/?" asked the master.
+
+From the empty courtyard came no reply.
+
+The Java master was contented.

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-50.txt

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+Date: 2013-08-03
+Number: 50
+Title: Adapter
+Geekiness: 2
+Names: Qi
+Topics: naming, philosophy
+Skip: 0
+
+<div class="about">This case had been lost for months.  Fortunately, a copy was recently discovered in the margins of a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.</div>
+
+A novice from the Far West had recently come to the Temple.
+After being assessed by the abbot he was given a new name
+and sent to the scribe [[Qi]] to have it entered into the
+record.
+
+The novice asked the scribe, "Why is every monk and nun given
+a new name after they arrive at the Temple?"
+
+The scribe replied, "How could we name you /before/ you arrived?"
+
+The novice bowed and smiled, but made no motion to leave the
+scribe's company.  Seeing that an explanation was required
+if he wished a return to solitude, the scribe continued:
+
+"Before you came to us, you were as formless in our minds as
+bytes upon the heap.  Now you have been allocated in living
+memory, assigned a shape and a purpose.  We name you
+according to this purpose, as one names a variable or a
+method or an interface.  Such things do not exist until they
+are named."
+
+The novice thought for a moment, then pointed to himself
+with a satisfied smirk:
+
+"Third party code!" declared the novice.
+
+Qi grabbed the novice's wrist and quickly inked the Temple's
+new name for him on the back of the young man's hand.
+
+"Wrapper class," said the scribe.

data/data/the-codeless-code/en-qi/case-52.txt

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+Date: 2012-08-17
+Number: 52
+Title: Buckets
+Geekiness: 0
+Names: Banzen, Laughing Monkey Clan, Spider Clan
+Topics: code rot
+Illus.0.par:   2
+Illus.0.src:   bucket.jpg
+Illus.0.align: right
+
+After breakfast, a novice of the Spider Clan noticed a line
+of six monks leaving the temple with bucket-yokes on their
+shoulders and grim expressions on their faces.  A junior
+abbot followed close behind.  The monks trudged down an
+overgrown stony path that wound down the hillside,
+disappearing into a thicket of pines.
+
+This same novice observed the monks clambering back up to
+the temple after lunch.  Their buckets were now packed full
+of moist earth and stones, yet despite the heavy load every
+brother was laughing and had a spring in his step.
+
+So it went the following day, and the day after, and the day
+after that, piquing the curiosity of the novice.  All six
+monks bore the red waist-cloths of the [[Laughing Monkey Clan]],
+so the novice went to that clan's hall.  The abbot
+was seated on the floor of the common room, preoccupied with
+balancing an egg on its point.
+
+"What of the six monks, and the buckets of earth?" asked the novice.
+
+"They are being corrected," said the abbot, "for their
+perilous mismanagement of a critical software module."  He
+reached into a small bag of salt, put a pinch on the floor,
+set the egg on top, and gently blew the salt away from the
+egg.  The egg toppled.  The abbot sighed, took another
+pinch of salt and began again.
+
+"What flaw did they introduce?" asked the novice.
+
+<i>"Mu,"</i> said the abbot.  "They introduced no flaw.  Not
+a line of code has been touched in many months."
+
+"Then what flaw did they fail to correct?"
+
+<i>"Mu,"</i> repeated the abbot as the egg toppled again.
+"The module functions perfectly, and doubtless will continue
+to do so for many months more."
+
+The novice frowned.  "I do not see how something which is
+flawless and unchanging can be objectionable, or its
+management called perilous."
+
+"You, monk!" shouted a voice behind him.  The novice turned to
+find Java master [[Banzen]] glaring at him.
+
+"Tomorrow, you join the line," said Banzen.
+
+- - -
+
+"The punishment is simple," said the junior abbot as the
+novice took up the yoke. "I'll explain when we get to the
+hollow."
+
+The novice followed the six brothers down the stony
+path, with the junior abbot bringing up the rear behind him.
+They proceeded through the deep forest in silence.
+
+Eventually they came to a broad bright sunlit clearing.  In
+the center a giant spire of rock thrust upward toward the
+heavens: it rose a full four storeys high, and was so wide
+that if twenty men stood fingertip to fingertip they could
+barely encircle it.
+
+"Is it not grand?" said the abbot.  "It has stood since
+the beginning of time."
+
+Approaching, the novice could see that the clearing had been
+dug away all around the spire, so that it was surrounded on
+all sides by a great empty moat.  Peeking above the moat's
+edge was the top rung of a bamboo ladder.  Each monk
+disappeared down the ladder in turn, re-emerging a long
+time later drenched in sweat, with a full yoke and a broad
+smile.
+
+Finally it was the novice's turn.
+
+The moat was several storeys deep.  As the novice climbed
+rung by rung down into the shadows he could see that the
+earth had been removed not just from around the spire, but
+from under its base as well.  The entire massive boulder was
+now balanced precariously on a few yards of packed
+earth.
+
+"Crawl under the spire," the abbot shouted down, "until you
+reach the mound of dirt below the center.  Fill your buckets
+from there.  And if I were you, I'd work slowly and try not
+to sneeze."