Editing 312: With Apologies to Robert Frost

{{comic
| number    = 312
| date      = September 5, 2007
| title     = With Apologies to Robert Frost
| image     = with apologies to robert frost.png
| titletext = Some say the world will end in fire; some say in segfaults.
}}

==Explanation==
This comic presents a poem about a {{w|god}}'s dilemma of whether to create the world using {{w|Perl}} or {{w|Lisp (programming language)|Lisp}}, two popular computer programming languages. The god has chosen to write it in Perl, but since then appears to lament the choice, apparently expressing that if given the chance to write the world's code again, they would use Lisp instead.

The implication is that a universe created by Lisp would look better under close examination, the 'founding myth' referred to in the poem.  Instead of an incomprehensible {{w|big bang}}, {{w|Inflationary epoch|inflation}}, {{w|dark matter}}, and {{w|dark energy}}, the elegance of Lisp may have led to more elegantly framed laws of nature.

The grammar of Lisp as a language requires the programmer to use a multitude of parentheses and, in many cases, it can be difficult to determine whether all of the parentheses have been properly matched up to one another. The last two lines of the poem refer to the plentiful parentheses in Lisp, and the image at the bottom of the panel shows a close-parenthesis at the supposed end of the Universe. See [[859: (]].

A segmentation fault, also commonly called a segfault, is an error that occurs when a computer program attempts to access computer memory to which it should not have access.  This is a fatal error that will cause the program to stop executing.

This comic deals with similar subject matter to [[224: Lisp]], in which one of "the gods" claims that although the Universe may appear to have been written in Lisp, it was actually written mostly using Perl.

The poem itself and the title text are a parody of "[http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fire-and-ice/ Fire and Ice]," written by the American poet {{w|Robert Frost}} and first published in 1920. In this poem, the speaker discusses his stance in the debate on whether the world will be destroyed in fire or in ice. "A God's Lament" has a rhyme scheme that is nearly identical to that of Frost's poem. However, it differs in that "Lisp" does not rhyme with "men," "again," and "paren," while the corresponding four lines in Frost's poem do rhyme. (That said, "Lisp" does have a near-rhyme in "myth" and "with," especially if you say "Lisp" with a lisp.)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon. needs to talk about the drawing in the back.}}
:A God's Lament
:Some said the world should be in Perl;
:Some said in Lisp.
:Now, having given both a whirl,
:I held with those who favored Perl.
:But I fear we passed to men
:A disappointing founding myth,
:And should we write it all again,
:I'd end it with
:A close-paren.

:[A multitude of planets, black holes, etc. followed by:] <span style="font-size:300%">)</span>


{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Programming]]