Change Vector

[bnewman]

A meditation on change, from computer code to creativity, creation, and evolution.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Hearthfire" by Ada Palmer

listen to this song

 

/ Am - G - / / / F - E - /

 

Coding up late in the night

Doing research that might shed some light

On the question of how code can evolve

I was tracing a bug that I couldn't quite solve

 

/ " / / Am - G E / Am - E - /

 

Then I thought of a fix I'd not thought of before

And I coded like mad until quarter past four

And the source code compiled and tested correct

Time to check in my work -- yes, but not the whole text, just the

 

/ " / / / F - G Am /

 

Change vector, change vector, diff every class header

Merge and refactor and fold

Track the code's trail by the, read the whole tale by the

Difference between the new text and the old

 

Work done, I committed the patch but the

Push failed, some bytes didn't match

A bad checksum, somewhere in the disk

And I sighed to myself, well that's always a risk

 

But then, that's the reason we always equip

The server that stores all our sources and diffs

With multiple hard drives, their bytes overlaid

And a journal that tracks every mod that's been made, by its

 

Change vector, data integrity inspector

Redundant, reliable byte

Back up the disk for me, mitigate risk for me

Roll back the changes that aren't written right

 

So I rolled back, but again was betrayed

The corruption caused some kind of cascade

While at first I'd been merely annoyed

Now I looked and I saw the week's work was destroyed

 

And behind my reflection that sobbed on the screen

The face of a lady could dimly be seen

And I turned to her, asking, my countenance numb

Why we live in a world where file systems succumb to the

 

Change vector, name wrecker, can't read bad disk sector

Thought spiller, dream killer, dead

Page tearer, rage bearer, dare you to say there's a

Reason it's right when a file's wrongly read

 

Rant spent, I sank in my chair as the

Lady said: You're being unfair

When a build fails, you learn and move on

You can still learn a truth when the data is gone

 

/ " / Am - G E / 1st / Am - E - /

 

For your code updates the way all code updates

Change itself is the one thing that cannot be changed

As the tempfiles get purged, as your lives fork and merge

Not exactly supported, but always maintained thanks to

 

Change vector, plain in the DNA chain  

Innovation, mutation, design

Blind Mother gene-dancer, ask Her and She'll answer

Accidents happen, and you're one of Mine!

 

Then She just smiled and laughed

And said: Show me all the crumpled-up drafts

Things half-written, that you keep in your soul

And I'll show you what I keep in version control

 

And although details differed, the same pattern whispered

In each one of Hers and in each one of mine

In each bug and feature, song, story and creature

They're all born the same, and they all bear some sign of the

 

Change vector, shape bender, splatter of strange nectar

Dream trickster, meme mixer, Muse

All change is dissolving, so keep on evolving

But back up the data you don't want to lose!