About some computer things:
void main() is how one might declare the main function of a computer
programme written in the language C (or C++). Functions generally receive a
list of parameters, and return a single value, for instance:
int square(int a) { return a * a; }
("int" is short for "integer"). This means: the function "square" takes an
integer as a parameter (the "int" between the brackets), and returns an
integer as its result (the "int" at the start of the declaration). The bit
between the curvy braces, "{" and "}", says that the value returned is the
value of the expression "a * a", or "a" squared.
In the declaration "void main()", "void" means that no value is returned by
the function "main"; and the empty brackets mean that no parameters are
passed to it. You can see this as a sort of pithy encapsulation of nihilism:
the universe accepts no parameters, and returns no ultimate value (think of
Douglas Adams' running joke about the earth being a giant computer intended
to calculate the ultimate Question to which the ultimate Answer, 42, is the
answer).
I remember Alan Sokal being especially disparaging about the inability of
the editors of Social Text to distinguish between a variable and a constant
(such as c, the speed of light). Well, in C(++) you can declare variables as
constant. So there. Even the nihilist universe defined within void main()
{...} can have constants in it. They just have to be declared right.
I believe I was referring to my own 14-month old son as "our gold-shipment
of beloved argument" - but have it your way, too. Incidentally, and for
reasons I don't quite understand, while a function *takes* parameters, the
entity calling the function *supplies* arguments. I suppose the arguments
are the content that fill the form given by the parameters (which are all of
rigidly defined "types"). The exact semantics are probably defined
somewhere.
I regret that I resorted to Babelfish, the translatron, in the first
instance because I don't speak Italian. It's a lot of fun, though (and also
of course takes its name from another conceit of Douglas Adams'...)
- Dom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin J. Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2001 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: Where is Dominique?
> That poem has your usual grave hilarity, Dominic (-que?) I understand it
as
> a "delirious" reflection on the theme of self and other mediated by
> "computer language" (I suppose that was a translation machine you used for
> the hilariously grave transfer from the Italian), a reflection of some of
> the preoccupations of this list ("our gold shipment of beloved argument"~
> pretty specious!) & one's (vain?) longing for "constants" ~ which may be
> death, "the rest" pressing its point after the "delirious" dance of the
da
> Da da dah rhythm commencing with "parameters". I wish I knew what the sign
> after "main" means.
> Martin
