CtJ Newswire
Parody City, CA
Jan 22, 2009
In a press conference held near Seattle, a group of jazz musicians urged Microsoft to rebrand its nascent language, F# (pronounced F-Sharp), as Gb (G-Flat).
Said a spokesperson for the group: "It is abundantly clear that Microsoft employees are primarily guitarists or pianists. When horn players look at both F# and C#, we see the vibe: there is no love coming our way here. All those sharps: we just don't think that way."
Another protester recognized the technical details: "Look, we understand that there is a language called D, and that Db might have implied some kind of inferiority. So we stayed silent on C#. But there is no language called G, and so F# is a slap in the face. What's more, if the top-brass at Microsoft want to trumpet support for a functional programming language with monad-like structures, lambda expressions, and strong static typing, then all we ask is that they use an appropriate key for we horn blowers."
At this time, there is no word if Microsoft will comply with the musicians' plea.
I think F# must be behind Microsoft's recent Songsmith work, evidence enough of the consideration they give to true musicianship. If DLR can get on board, trumpeters can quit their bitching or risk being replaced by clever music-generating algorithms.
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