|
|
|
|
Additional requests for the full achievement
(image above
emblazoned
by Lorrie LeJeune)
|
|
The phœnix in the style of an
O’Reilly animal.
|
| Motto above: Ave, Mundus |
| Motto below: Computo Ergo Sum |
|
| The symbolism (if you really care) |
|
C and C++ are computer programming languages.
Unfortunately, it’s Really Bad Form to put text on a shield since it can’t
be read easily in the heat of battle. Luckily, the crescent moon
is a recognized heraldic device; and with the horns pointing to
sinister,
it suggests the letter C. Also, a cross is an
honourable
ordinary; and drawn humetty, it looks just like a plus sign.
|
|
Azure
charging
Argent is intended to suggest the blue-on-white “C” on the cover of
the first edition of
Kernighan &
Ritchie’s
The
C Programming Language. It’s hoped that Or charging Azure
suggests the yellow-green on mostly blue cover of the third edition of
Stroustrup’s
The
C++ Programming Language, although that might be a bit of a stretch.
|
|
I’m a wires-and-pliers guy by training and early vocation;
but about thirty years ago, I discovered that I was pretty good
at coding; so I began a new life as a programmer. That’s
the phœnix; but you probably already guessed that. It’s
explicitly
blazoned
“Sable feathered Argent” to make it possible for the emblazon to pay homage to the
O’Reilly animal books,
some of which have also been a source of information for me.
|
|
The motto above the crest is an allusion to the first sample program in
K&R
which writes “hello, world” on the user’s terminal.
This has become iconic for one’s first program.
|
|
The primary motto is taken from
Descartes’
famous line.
Luckily, “computo”
is a real Latin verb that has approximately
the meaning that a native English speaker would expect.
I actually prefer “codeo ergo sum”
after the recent English verb, to code
(to write part or all of a computer program);
but it has been suggested that, because it might seem
that I’m trying to make a verb out of “codex”,
someone looking only at the Latin might think that
I’m becomming a blockhead.
|
|
|
Not part of the symbolism (about which you probably care even less)
|
| From the point of view of a C ideologue, C++ is sinister and beyond the pale. |
|
