Pete

What a tease!

Before I even got to end of your post I was searching the archive for that

URL. Remind me not to read any of your emails around April 1st. Back to

studying tuples...

regards

Stuart Hurley

----- Original Message -----

From: "Pete Theisen" <petet@acun.com>

To: <profox@leafe.com>; <prolinux@leafe.com>; <propython@leafe.com>

Sent: Friday, December 05, 2003 6:40 AM

Subject: [ProPython] Holiday Gift from Paul McNett and Ed Leafe

> Hi Everybody!

>

> Found myself reading email yesterday AM after work, well past my bedtime,

> when I saw this evocative post: "Holiday Gift from Paul McNett and Ed

> Leafe". I was thinking I have to break off and get some sleep to be at

> least *awake* for my afternoon appointment, but, oh, I have to read this

> one . . .

>

> It was a URL. It loaded like the wind - no graphics, all text. It was a

web

> app called "The Thing". A little text description was to the effect that

> Paul and Ed hoped we would like this holiday gift to the community - an

> online application checker/translator, along with the holiday wish that

> this would help people get work done, understand all the stuff we have to

> understand and maybe even make money. All thought of sleep suddenly

vanished.

>

> There was an "input box" labeled "paste your code or text here", a

dropdown

> "identify the best description of your input" the choices were FoxPro

code,

> .net code, Python code, pseudocode, other code, text, [OT] and Sheep.

>

> Then there was an "output" dropdown labeled "select your desired output"

> and those choices were correct FoxPro code, correct .net code, correct

> Python code, correct other code, good text, logical, intelligent [OT] and

> Sheep. Then there was an "output display window".

>

> Finally there were a series of controls, test, create .exe, create Windows

> setup file, create Linux package, create web application. I thought, I

have

> to *try* this right now.

>

> So I did! First I plunked in my eight year's work of failed FoxPro code,

> chose correct Python code and out it came, in seconds! I pressed the test

> control and the program sprang upon the screen, just as I had always

> dreamed that it someday would. I played with it for a few minutes and

found

> to my delight that it was just what I had always wanted, everything worked

> and worked ever so well.

>

> Then, I popped in one of the most overbearing ad-hominem [OT] posts I

could

> find on my hard drive, chose logical, intelligent [OT] and out came a most

> reasoned, objective version. Remarkable considering that Paul avoids [OT]

> and Ed has a point of view that is usually to the D side, but there it

was.

>

> Then I popped in the Gettysburg address, and it came back unchanged. I got

> to thinking, this is not just software, this is *artificial intelligence*

> and they are just giving it to the world for a holiday present!

>

> Well, before I did anything else I created a directory to receive my

> completed project, courtesy of Paul and Ed. Just as I was about to press

> "create web application" the power to the house went out long enough to

> crash the old clunker. I don't use my home computer very often and I

> haven't bothered with a UPS, bad me. When I rebooted and got back to

> Eudora, the post, the URL, all of it was gone, checked the archives - no

> sign. I started to post a message about "what was that URL . . . " Then I

> woke up in bed, I'd dreamed the whole thing.

>

> Regards,

>

> Pete

>