TITLE: Programming as Performance Art
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: January 28, 2005  9:49 AM
DESC: A software dojo and my own class have me thinking about what it's like to enjoy programming as a live performance.
-----
BODY:
I've been following the development of Laurent Bossavit's
software development dojo.  He wrote about the idea in
his blog a few times last year and then created a separate
blog for it at this month at
<A HREF="http://bossavit.com/dojo/">
   http://bossavit.com/dojo/</A>.

The most recent article there speculates about programming
as a
<A HREF="http://bossavit.com/dojo/archives/000790.html">
   performance art</A>.
It seems that the guys in the dojo have been presenting
their code to one another and doing some of the programming
live in front of the group.  The experience has caused the
author to re-think his artistic sense of programming:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
Had I to choose earlier an art form which I felt connected
to the act of programming, I would have picked book writing
without hesitation.  Something static, written at some time,
read at another.  Few dojo sessions later, I am not so
positive anymore.  I speculate the act of programming is
also about the here and the now: how you currently live
through the problem up to a satisfying conclusion, and how
I feel engaged, watching your sharing techniques and insights.
No cathartic experience so far -- hold your horses, this is
sill embryonic stage -- although this could become a personal
quest.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

I feel a kinship here after the first three week of my CS
II class, in which my students and I have been "gang
programming" Ron Jeffries's bowling game using TDD.  I've
spent very little time expounding <EM>ex cathedra</EM>;
most of my remarks have been made in the flow of programming,
with only an occasional impromptu mini-lecture of a few
minutes.  If you know me, you probably don't think of me
as a natural performer, but I've felt myself slipping into
the gentle drama of programming.  New requirements puzzle
us, then worry us.  A test fails.  Programming ideas
compete for attention.  Code grows and shrinks.  Green
bar.  Relief.

I hope that most of the students in the class are getting
a sense of what it's like to make software.  I also hope
that they are enjoying the low drama of course.

My recent experience has brought to mind my favorite article
on this topic, Bill Wake's
<A HREF="http://www.xp123.com/xplor/xp0009/index.shtml">
   Programming as Performance Art</A>.
He tells of seeing a particularly stirring performance
by Kent Beck and Jim Newkirk:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
They tackled the chestnut "Sieve of Eratosthenes."  The
4-hand arrangement worked well, and let us see not only
"programmer against complexity" but also "programmer
against self" (when they started to make mistakes) and
"programmer against programmer" (when they resolved their
differences).  The audience appreciated the show, but we
should have applauded more enthusiastically. 
</BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't know what I'd do if my students ever applauded.
But even if they never do, I like the feel of our live
programming sessions.  We'll see how effective they are
as learning episodes as the semester progresses.
-----