DN581006163

Subject: Python Poetry (why indentation?) - DN [1]

Jaap Spies <j.spies@hccnet.nl> - 02 Feb 2000 - comp.lang.python

 # Contribution to the forever lasting discussion on indentation!

 # After Petrarca, Shakespeare, Milton, Drs. P and many, many others,
 # a sonnet has 14 lines and a certain rhyme scheme.

 # Jacques Bens presented in 1965 in Paris the pi-sonnet with
 # 3,1,4,1 and 5 lines, but the ultimate pi-poem I found in
 # Brown's Python Annotated Archives p. 12:

 # Based on a algorithm of Lambert Meertens (remember those days of the
 # B -> ABC-programming language!!!)

 import sys

 def main():
     k, a, b, a1, b1 = 2L, 4L, 1L, 12L, 4L
     while 1:
         p, q, k = k*k, 2L*k+1L, k+1L
         a, b, a1, b1 = a1, b1, p*a+q*a1, p*b+q*b1
         d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1
         while d == d1:
             output(d)
             a, a1 = 10L*(a%b), 10L*(a1%b1)
             d, d1 = a/b, a1/b1

 def output(d):
     sys.stdout.write(`int(d)`)
     sys.stdout.flush()

 main()

 # Reading/writing Python source often gives me the impression of
 # reading/writing a poem!
 # Layout, indentation, rythm, I like the look and feel!

 # What does this tiny program do? It is not a sonnet, even not a
 # pi-sonnet, but it surely produces Pi!

 # The poem ( sorry, the program) needs some explanation.
 # As a mathematician I recognize the continued fraction, odd/even,
 # squares and all that matters.
 # But it is a miracle! A few lines of Python code producing
 # a infinity of pi-digits!

 # Jaap Spies
 # Hogeschool Drenthe

 # Keep Peace in Mind