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You are right. (I did at least think of Mel after writing that!) Though some of those are more industry business lore than programming lore (maybe a quibble).

You are right. (I did at least think of Mel after writing that!) Though some of those are more industry business lore than programming lore (maybe a quibble). BTW: A universal can be an element within a story, rather than the subject. For example, anti-authoritarianism is a universal concept, and a strong theme in many of the stories. Folklore.org - how more perfect a counter to "we have no lore"? Also, reminded me of the pay-per-LoC one, and the guy who removed several thousand. This one speaks directly to a technical aspect of programming, as well as being anti-authoritarian.

dalke 11y ago
I feel like you are trying to make a bigger point than is available from the evidence. The Icelandic sagas are surely part of lore, do you agree? They are prose history, and not stories of mythology. It say that Flóki Vilgerðarson climbed the mountain Hornatær, looked out, and only saw ice, which is why he named it Iceland. This and many other stories in the sagas do not try to express some universal concept, other than being how people lived. They don't all describe some sort of hero's journey or quest. I see no reason to imbue the term lore with that extra meaning. Certainly some of the stories describe anti-authoritarianism. But that it not unique to myths and legend. Real people can also be anti-authoritarian, so histories will also include accounts of anti-authoritarianism.
- hyperpallium 11y ago
  I agree Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces is not quite compelling, but I do find it interesting. Another approach to it is: what makes stories memorable, stirring etc? Why are some stories forgetable, boring, unengaging? It has a similar perspective to the question: what makes a tune catchy? It's not about the story or tune, but the human processing system, as lossy image compression algorithms model the HVS. Though of course there's extrinsic factors as in market success: the need it fulfills (e.g. identification with a particular cultural group), surface factors, fashion, luck etc, I do think there's something to the story/tune itself. Getting back to "lore", my last resort is to look up its meaning: a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth. Not stories or personages at all! For coding, it could include rules of thumbs and aphorisms like the first rule of optimisation, premature optimisation, divide and conquer, YAGNI, etc. The analogous coders of lore might be the implicit originator of those aphorisms (like the sage of the tao te ching), and attributed authors like Knuth are just a connecting link. This would be in a similar category to folk wisdom and old wive's tales, that often turn out to have something to them, even when their explicit reasoning is illogical or clearly wrong. It's often passed on because - for whatever reason - things turn out better when following it.

dalke 11y ago

I feel like you are trying to make a bigger point than is available from the evidence. The Icelandic sagas are surely part of lore, do you agree? They are prose history, and not stories of mythology. It say that Flóki Vilgerðarson climbed the mountain Hornatær, looked out, and only saw ice, which is why he named it Iceland. This and many other stories in the sagas do not try to express some universal concept, other than being how people lived. They don't all describe some sort of hero's journey or quest. I see no reason to imbue the term lore with that extra meaning. Certainly some of the stories describe anti-authoritarianism. But that it not unique to myths and legend. Real people can also be anti-authoritarian, so histories will also include accounts of anti-authoritarianism.

hyperpallium 11y ago
I agree Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces is not quite compelling, but I do find it interesting. Another approach to it is: what makes stories memorable, stirring etc? Why are some stories forgetable, boring, unengaging? It has a similar perspective to the question: what makes a tune catchy? It's not about the story or tune, but the human processing system, as lossy image compression algorithms model the HVS. Though of course there's extrinsic factors as in market success: the need it fulfills (e.g. identification with a particular cultural group), surface factors, fashion, luck etc, I do think there's something to the story/tune itself. Getting back to "lore", my last resort is to look up its meaning: a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth. Not stories or personages at all! For coding, it could include rules of thumbs and aphorisms like the first rule of optimisation, premature optimisation, divide and conquer, YAGNI, etc. The analogous coders of lore might be the implicit originator of those aphorisms (like the sage of the tao te ching), and attributed authors like Knuth are just a connecting link. This would be in a similar category to folk wisdom and old wive's tales, that often turn out to have something to them, even when their explicit reasoning is illogical or clearly wrong. It's often passed on because - for whatever reason - things turn out better when following it.