Ryan Boren, WordPress Lead Developer and Bug Whisperer, decided to create a poem on the importance of eliminating trailing whitespace in his latest commit to the WordPress codebase.
The Pinking Shears stir from their slumber, awakened by what may seem, to those
innocent in the ways of The Shears, a triviality, a nothing-of-consequence. But there are consequences indeed for recklessly trailing your whitespace. Naturally, they a dire!One, two! One, two! And through and through
The Pinking Shears went snicker-snack!
They plucked your tail and with your space
They went sniksnuking back.Let me tell you, that can be uncomfortable, so always pre-sniksnuk your trailing whites. May The Shears be with you.
Well done, sir. Well done.
Ryan Boren: Lewis Carroll fan. White space as the Jabberwock? Well-played, Ryan. Well-played.
For anyone unfamiliar with the little bit of literary brilliance that inspired Ryan, here is the text of Jabberwocky, from Alice Through the Looking Glass:
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Oh my goodness, that’s awesome. Love it.