Comment by egypturnash a day ago
This reads like a vague idea of a spellbook from someone who has never even looked at a caricature of a grimoire, let alone a real one.
I think you should read some actual grimoires before developing this further. I suggest the Picatrix or the PGM as starting points. Maybe a copy of 777 as well.
Abstraction is at the core of programming. I get your point — but obsessive adherence to baroque complexity has rarely been the M.O. of computer science in rational circles. More often, an elegant simplification that captures the essence has sufficed.
That said, perhaps something like this would be more thematically appropriate:
'O Master of sublime name and great power, O Saturn: Cold, Sterile, Mournful, Pernicious; Sage and Solitary, Impenetrable and Sure; Thou who knowest no joy, bringest prosperity or ruin, deceivest wisely, judgest truly— I conjure thee, Supreme Father, by thy bounty and ancient cunning, to do as I ask: print("hello world")'
Fellow occultist here. Yep! Still a cool idea worth pursuing, though.
Absolutely incredible to see a snarky nit on a project like this. Hackernews never fails haha.
I appreciate your intention, of course, but please don't respond by breaking the site guidelines yourself. It only makes things worse.
Besides "Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), this guideline is relevant:
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."
I doubt that egypturnash intended a "snarky nit". More likely this is someone who's passionate about the underlying topic (grimoires!), naturally got excited when seeing the OP, and then was disappointed when it didn't go as deep as someone with their level of knowledge would expect.
It's bad, of course, to express that by putting down the OP or their work; much better to respond by sharing some of what one knows, as I explained at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45561740.
Halloween is connected to the religious festivals, All Hallow's Eve and Día de Muertos. Whilst commercialism may have overtaken the holiday today, it is still a deeply sacred event to some, and can cause offense when it isn't treated that way.
In the same way some Christians are offended by the commercialisation of Easter and Christmas.
Can you please make your substantive comments without putting down others?
If you know more than someone else does, that's great! Please do share some of what you know so the rest of us can learn. But don't put down the other person. That never helps, and it tarnishes your positive contribution in a way that is bad for the community.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html