I know it when I see it.
What Is Code? (2015)
31–40 of 54 posts
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#32TIL that I should specialize in security research.
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#33This is a somewhat myopic and outdated description of what "code" or "software" is. I'm writing an article on this, but software is a much broader idea and domain than just getting computers to do something. At a minimum, it includes getting a computer to do something, communicating between humans and not humans and computers, and encoding a domain. All this adds up to software being "executable knowledge", which mak…
Are you equating "computer science" with "coding"? Because it's really not. CS studies systems, complexity, requirements, domain knowledge, etc. I'm not arguing against people from other fields bringing valuable insight; I'm disputing that CS doesn't also involve the study of complex heterogeneous systems or that it is about "coding". Seems like you're describing a bootcamp or coding school instead.
CS doesn't. At least not in any useful way.
Systems Analysis and Knowledge Engineering typically assume corporate/industrial philosophies and goals.
Broader human considerations - political, social, cultural - are very peripheral in CS. They get some token attention but they're always subservient to business values.
The idea that software is primarily about human relations of all kinds is novel and rather subversive.
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#34A great all around introduction to programming. It poses an interesting question which I think it doesn't really answer well: "What Is the Relationship Between Code and Data?" I can easily understand what a "program" is. It is a set of instructions we give to the computer for it to do something we want it to do. But what is "data"?
Data is information about things and code is information about how to transform data. Every program transforms input data to output data. Code is interpreted by the computer. Data and code are encoded to bits for the digital computer.
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#35No post body was provided.
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But what is "data"? It's a sequence of bits. You take reality (or whatever you want) and represent it as bits. That sequence of bits is called "data".
In the computer science world yes. But the word also exists outside of that context (and did so long before computers). Data is the plural of datum. A datum is a piece of information. Of course not any piece information is automatically a datum, as that noun implies a certain structured nature or a normative perspective on that piece of information. Certain information only became commonplace because it became a datu…
No post body was provided.
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#37If anyone has a the print issue of this I’d like to buy it. One was on EBay a little while ago for about $60 I think
I was also looking for one (well, two) yesterday... even sent bloomberg a mail to ask if backorder was still possible (they said no and to check amazon/ebay/etc).
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you equating "computer science" with "coding"? Because it's really not. CS studies systems, complexity, requirements, domain knowledge, etc. I'm not arguing against people from other fields bringing valuable insight; I'm disputing that CS doesn't also involve the study of complex heterogeneous systems or that it is about "coding". Seems like you're describing a bootcamp or coding school instead.
CS doesn't. At least not in any useful way. Systems Analysis and Knowledge Engineering typically assume corporate/industrial philosophies and goals. Broader human considerations - political, social, cultural - are very peripheral in CS. They get some token attention but they're always subservient to business values. The idea that software is primarily about human relations of all kinds is novel and rather subversive.
> "They get some token attention but they're always subservient to business values"
Hard disagree. CS education doesn't have business at its core, but science. It's all about systems design, theory, formal verification, requirements gathering, math, logic, etc. It's neither about (primarily) business nor coding concerns. You probably don't need CS for those.
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#39First, bear in mind this isn't written for a technical audience. Nevertheless, it's worth the time if you finish it.
Case in point: when this was first published, I was just starting out my career writing software, and knew very little about the industry I was entering. 7ish years later, I still think about it often.
Re: What Is Code? (2015)
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
CS doesn't. At least not in any useful way. Systems Analysis and Knowledge Engineering typically assume corporate/industrial philosophies and goals. Broader human considerations - political, social, cultural - are very peripheral in CS. They get some token attention but they're always subservient to business values. The idea that software is primarily about human relations of all kinds is novel and rather subversive.
> "They get some token attention but they're always subservient to business values" Hard disagree. CS education doesn't have business at its core, but science . It's all about systems design, theory, formal verification, requirements gathering, math, logic, etc. It's neither about (primarily) business nor coding concerns. You probably don't need CS for those.
Isn't the core problem that universities have started offering far too much under the "Computer Science" umbrella. If they where to split it up into 5 or 6 different degrees, like Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, Business Systems design etc. then many of these problems of definition and meaning would disappear.