Thursday, August 05, 2010

Songs as Computer Programs

If you are a Facebook friend of mine you recently witnessed my ability to pull the scattered thoughts of my sleep cycle into the real world.  "Ellemenopie" (for those of you who were in on that extended conversation) was an example of the fruit of that process.

Here's the latest. Can you name this popular anthemic song rendered (with some imaginary commands) in BASIC?
10 FOR Q = 1 to 2
20 STOMP
30 NEXT Q
40 CLAP
50 PAUSE
60 GOTO 10
Naturally the guitar and vocals are absent, but that's "We Will Rock You."

Anyone else want to take a run at a song?

Here are some "rules":
  •  Any song is fair game, but pointing out that "The Body Electric" already features a chorus made up significantly of binary (Yes, Geddy Lee's lyric consists of "1001001."  No, Rush isn't pretentious.) is cheap and kind of misses the point.
  • Adding a few made up commands that help illustrate the sing is (of course) accepted, even expected.
  • Any programming language is fair game so long as it helps serve the song and/or the use of said language is clever in it's own right.
Anyone got what it takes?

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