Trainspotting
Scottish writer Irvine Welsh's first novel, Trainspotting, is a collection of short-stories revolving around a group of friends, their drug use, and struggles in the city of Edinburgh.
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What Hacker News says
- The first of Irvine Welsh's "Trainspotting" books, the prequel "Skagboys", has that factory as a core component of a few of its story lines. I though Skagboys was at least as good as Trainspotting, and I'm glad I read it first.
- Ditto here, but not a pilot. I almost always lunge outside when I hear an unusual (usually military) aircraft. A few years ago, a Ford TriMotor was making frequent passes overhead and I got some good photos of it, due to hearing it from afar. I almost always accurately distinguish the mid-range hum of the Sheriff's Bell from the more thumpy Coast Guard helicopters that often pass by. I have seen many neat aircraft as result of my aerial curiosities, including WWII bombers, various fighters, re-fuelers, cargo planes, mil helicopters that made trains seem mute, meteoroids/incoming space debris, and a few celestial anomalies. Yeah, I used to get some strange looks (and comments) when I had my Leica Ultravid, Zeiss Victory, and Orion 15x70 binoculars. Be glad you weren't into astronomy; folks come up with all sorts of big ideas when they see some "creepy" guy staring at the night sky, "undoubtedly" searching for any insignificant gap in the miniblinds of person x,y,z while completely indifferent to the rest of the Universe. If looking up was held in half the esteem of watching telly, it might be a much more interesting world. On another note, maybe Irvine Welsh will do something with the title of this article. Apparently, a sequel to Trainspotting is due next year.
- > Code is written with two kinds of readers in mind: the computer and other humans. Prose is written just for humans.
I don't think the fact that code is also meant to be read by a computer is relevant in this context. But let's take another example if that doesn't work for you: the novel Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. It's written in a phonetic Edinburgh style. By 'normal' english standards, it doesn't make any sense. If someone was to write in the same style way without any knowledge of English grammar and spelling, you would just assume they couldn't spell. But that's why, in the context of a novel written by a talented author, it's actually a great bit of prose. I could give thousands of other examples.
