Ask HN: What language do you think in? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What language do you think in?

#51

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 4:38 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What language do you think in?

#52

Post by jules » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 4:39 PM UTC

I usually think in math or visually about a programming problem. When thinking about a person I usually think in the language that person speaks.

Re: Ask HN: What language do you think in?

#53

Post by polos » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 4:51 PM UTC

Often I let my brain work out the problem, and simply wait until it's finished.

For example, last night I awoke about 5 times, every single time with a new solution to a current problem.

But before that, I always try to really relax in the evening, for some hour, preferably in nature (and nothing beats the sea).

Re: Ask HN: What language do you think in?

#54

Post by der_ketzer » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 4:58 PM UTC

nathanb wrote: post #6

I think in English. Whenever I'm thinking about a problem, my solutions are immediately described in my head at a high level. This allows me to rapidly iterate over the solution space without having to venture down into the pseudocode or code level until I've found something I'm convinced will actually work.

My native language is spanish but I think in german (my partner is from Switzerland) so I read and speak (not always) in german.

In programming languages I think in Python and then translate according to my needs.

Re: Ask HN: What language do you think in?

#55

Post by clistctrl » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 4:59 PM UTC

I think in the language i'm currently working on

Re: Ask HN: What language do you think in?

#56

Post by eldenbishop » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 5:08 PM UTC

Interesting. I'm surprised to hear people can effectively think about code in a language at all. Code is an abstraction of an essentially physical process (the computer doing things) so it seems rather odd to think about the problem at one level removed. I don't think in language generally unless I am intending to speak to someone. I tend to think in terms of motion through a physical space. Imagine yourself playing tennis and feeling your motion across the court. The algorithms in my head work the same way. All the pieces are sort of thrown on a table and I feel the paths between them, the 'forces' of contention and flow. The closest I've seen to describing it is when really advanced chess players talk about how they see the chess board as lines of force and weight.

Re: Ask HN: What language do you think in?

#57

Post by bballant » Thu, Sep 03, 2009, 5:12 PM UTC

I think in messy pictures. Strangely, the pictures are as poorly drawn in my sloppy style as they are on the page. For example, a loop is an ugly circle with a downward facing arrow on the right side and it looks just like something I would have drawn. Object stuff tends to look UML-like and functional stuff tends to look flowchart-like. And they are messy whether in my head or on the paper. When I need words, they usually look like/start to follow the conventions of the language I'm planning to write the code in.