What are the limits of expressing thoughts in Twitter?
Here’s a powerful but inefficient (when run) thought that can be expressed on Twitter, a quick sort in Erlang in 126 characters.
qsort([]) -> []; qsort([Pivot|T]) -> qsort([X || X <- T, X < Pivot]) ++ [Pivot] ++ qsort([X || X <- T, X >= Pivot]).
Also strcmp implemented in C can be tweeted:
int bstrcmp(char *s1,char *s2) { while(*s1 == *s2++) {if(*s1++ == 0){return 0;} }
return (*(unsigned char *)s1 - *(unsigned char*)--s2);}
A lot of Perl one-liners can fit into a tweet – powerful and useful ones.
You can also propose the concept of a hash tag in a tweet:
However, there are many thoughts that seem to be difficult to fit into a tweet:
The Pythagorean Theorem and one of its many proofs
Anselm’s Ontological Proof for God’s Existence
Merge Sort in Ruby
Merge Sort in PHP
Why you should or shouldn’t outsource
What qualities make a great tech hire
The logical fallacy in another person’s tweet
How to subtly tell someone something in an indirect way with the only others knowing being those in the know
Twitter encourages the laconic expression of thought.