TITLE: 95:1
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: January 07, 2018 10:25 AM
DESC: 
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BODY:

 This morning, I read the first few pages of
<A HREF="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Blink_of_an_Eye_(book)">
   In the Blink of an Eye</A>,
 an essay on film editing by Walter Murch.  He starts by talking
 about his work on <EM>Apocalypse Now</EM>, which took well over
 a year in large part because of the massive amount of film
 Coppola shot: 1,250,000 linear feet, enough for 230 hours of
 running time.  The movie ended up being about two hours and
 twenty-five minutes, so Murch and his colleagues culled 95
 minutes of footage for every minute that made it into the final
 product.  A more typical project, Murch says, has a ratio of
 20:1.

 Even at 20:1, Murch's story puts into clearer light the amount
 of raw material I create when designing a typical session for
 one of my courses.  The typical session mixes exposition,
 examples, student exercises, and (less than I'd like to admit)
 discussion.  Now, whenever I feel like a session comes up short
 of my goal, I will think back on Murch's 20:1 ratio and realize
 how much harder I might work to produce enough material to
 assemble a good session.  If I want one of my sessions to be
 an <EM>Apocalypse Now</EM>, maybe I'll need to shoot higher.

 This motivation comes at a favorable time.  Yesterday I had a
 burst of what felt like inspiration for a new first day to my
 Programming Languages course.  At the end of the brainstorm
 came what is now the working version of my opening line in the
 course: "In the beginning, there was assembly language.".
 Let's see if I have enough inspiration -- and make enough time
 -- to turn the idea into what I hope it can be: a session that
 fuels my students' imagination for a semester's journey through
 Racket, functional programming, and examining language ideas
 with interpreters.

 I do hope, though, that the journey itself does not bring to
 mind <EM>Apocalypse Now</EM>.
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