In Massachusetts did RMS
a stateful automaton decree,
Where PDP, the sacred hardware ran
through programs measureless to man.
So twice five megs of fertile ram
with bytes and code were girdled round.
And there were files bright with sinuous #s,
where blossom'd many a patch-bearing editor.
And here were commands as ancient as the buildings,
enfolding swift spots of stability.
But O! That deep corridor which slanted
down the green stairs athwart a plastic glistening.
A savage place! As holy and enchanted
as a'er beneath a howling screen was haunted programmer
wailing for his demonic listing.
In from that chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
as if this building in fast thick suits were breathing,
a mighty visage was forced,
amid whose swift half-intermitted burst,
huge legal documents vaulted like rebounding hail
or rotten grain 'neath the thresher's flail,
and 'mid these dancing lists at once and ever,
it flung up momently the sacred Editor.
Five years meandering with a mazy motion
through terminal and station the sacred editor ran.
Then reach'd the hard drives measureless to man,
and sank in confusion and tumult to incompatibility
And 'mid this tumult RMS heard from afar
ancestral voices prophesying war!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs-
proprietary printer drivers.
The shadow of the code of pleasure
floated midway on the core
Where was heard the mingled measure
from the server and the clients.
It was a miracle of rare hacking-
a real-time editor with Lisp its backing!
Once a damsel with a CVS
in a vision once I saw.
It was an Abyssinian maid,
and on her CVS she coded,
singing of Mt. Alpha.
Could I but revive within me
her architecture and code.
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
that with keyboard-clacking loud and long,
I would write that editor in Lisp!
Thy realtime screen! Those languages of Lisp!
and all who heard should download them there!
and all should cry, Beware! Beware!
his flashing eyes! his long hair!
Weave coffee round him thrice,
and close your eyes with holy awe!
for he on Lambda hath fed,
and drunk the milk of Von Neumann!