The "other" way to look at source code

Rob Orsini wrote on an internal O'Reilly mailing list:

Over the weekend, I was un-tar'ing the Kernel source for my Chumby when my son looked over at my screen. He said, "Buildings!" It took me a moment to realize why he would use that word to describe the green text flying up the back of my terminal window. He was refering to the silhouette of a cityscape. (Reminds me of the background of the old video game "Defender"; where the background mountains would fly by as you piloted your spaceship in the foreground.)

The result is that I was reminded that I should be exploring Nick's imagination, rather then my Chumby--at least until he doesn't want to hang out with me anymore.

The buildings:

Tim Allwine responded: "Stay with it, all that little green text will start to mean something. You'll be amazed at what your son will learn from you." (Tim's own son did indeed grow up to be a programmer too!)