veyepar: Two Kinds of Scripting: What Writing Plays Has Taught Me About Writing Python Programs

Author(s):	Marissa Skudlarek
Location	Reis River Ranch
Date	jul Sun 30	Days Raw Files
Start	15:40	First Raw Start	15:21
Duration	00:25:00	Offset	0:18:58
End	16:05	Last Raw End	16:21
Chapters	00:00 0:08:19
Total cuts_time	24 min.

https://pretalx.northbaypython.org/nbpy-2023/talk/SQ8USX
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It’s a set of instructions, describing a series of actions to be taken or events that should happen. It’s written with specialized syntax and formatting. You want it to be efficient; you don’t want it to bog down. It doesn’t reach its full potential until you run through it, start to finish, without error.

Am I talking about a play script, or a Python program?

"Two Kinds of Scripting" will explore the surprising and thought-provoking connections between writing code and writing plays, from the perspective of a Bay Area software engineer with a degree in drama from a liberal arts college and 15+ years of playwriting experience. It will focus on the following topics:

- How structuring and plotting a play is like structuring a computer program. David Ball’s book _Backwards and Forwards_, which instructs playwrights and directors to trace the events of a play backwards in order to figure out its chain of cause and effect, is also an excellent manual for software engineers!
- The similarities between docstrings and stage directions, and why both playwrights and programmers can find them difficult and frustrating.
- Nomenclature: programmers aren’t the only people who think that naming things is one of the hardest parts of their job.

Finally, the talk will discuss the biggest difference between the two kinds of scripts: debugging a failing computer program might be frustrating, but “debugging” (editing and improving) a play is exponentially more difficult. A good play is designed to give the audience an emotionally satisfying experience; but from the perspective of the writer, there is great emotional satisfaction to be found in programming as well.

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