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What Is Code?

bloomberg.com

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Re: What Is Code?

#71

Post by davidgerard »

bladecatcher wrote: post #68
ForHackernews wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just the right-brained. I want that as a professional software developer. I want a computer that will do what I thought, instead of what I foolishly typed. Basically, I want a computer as smart as a good junior dev so I can just yell my brilliant ideas at it, and it will do the dirty work for me.

I remember someone referring to this as "intent driven programming". I once worked for a company that made a business rules engine. The idea was to describe a flowchart to the system and the software would ask what you wanted to do at each step of the flowchart in a top down manner till you fleshed out the whole program ..

Top-down programming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-down_and_bottom-up_design - the Silver Bullet programming methodology of the 1970s.

Re: What Is Code?

#72

Post by NoMoreNicksLeft »

philh wrote: post #65
murbard2 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only because you think your thought exists and is correct. Programming forces you to confront the fact that it isn't, and that there are many aspects of it that you've overlooked.

So ve wants a computer that can ask for clarification and point out edge cases, like a good junior dev can.

Also one that can figure out the edge cases on its own, because fuck that shit... it's a really simple idea, why can't you make it work?

Re: What Is Code?

#73

Post by ianphughes »

booleanbetrayal wrote: post #70

> “No,” I said. “First of all, I’m not good at the math. I’m a programmer, yes, but I’m an East Coast programmer, not one of these serious platform people from the Bay Area.” seriously?

That jumped out at me too. It colored the remainder of my reading experience.

Re: What Is Code?

#74

Post by nawitus »

ForHackernews wrote: post #61
arxpoetica wrote: post #49

> There have been countless attempts to make software easier to write...Decades of efforts have gone into helping civilians write code...Nothing yet has done away with developers, developers, developers, developers. I still believe. Someday, somewhere, something incredible will emerge for the right-brained bourgeoisie and literati.

Not just the right-brained. I want that as a professional software developer. I want a computer that will do what I thought, instead of what I foolishly typed. Basically, I want a computer as smart as a good junior dev so I can just yell my brilliant ideas at it, and it will do the dirty work for me.

That's likely AI-complete.

Re: What Is Code?

#76

Post by PLenz »

markbnj wrote: post #43
apaprocki wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth noting -- it is roughly 38k words and is the longest piece ever published by Bloomberg.

Yes, it will tell you that at the end, and mock you if you arrive there too quickly to have read it all :).

It mocked me for having spent too much time reading it!

Re: What Is Code?

#77

Post by MrOrelliOReilly »

aswanson wrote: post #53
danso wrote: post #41

Part of me looks at this and thinks, "This is preaching to the choir"...because while the engineer in me appreciates all the layers and explorations...It must be incredibly bewildering to anyone who is not a coder, which is the ostensible audience given that the story starts off with, 'We are here because the editor of this magazine asked me, “Can you tell me what code is?”' But then I see the interactive circuit sim…

One of the few worthy things I felt I got out of school was the moment I grokked the whole stack from sequential logic to the program counter and control logic from a cpu, how each clock tick formed a new circuit. That was really mentally expanding. I got it from reading a prescribed book for a class I wasn't taking from a professor who was a tool, so it is possible to learn these things outside of class. In fact, th…

What book? For those of us not there yet :)

Re: What Is Code?

#78

Post by iamcurious »

booleanbetrayal wrote: post #70

> “No,” I said. “First of all, I’m not good at the math. I’m a programmer, yes, but I’m an East Coast programmer, not one of these serious platform people from the Bay Area.” seriously?

Well, in the same article he says "A computer is a clock with benefits." So I believe that no, he isn't serious.

Re: What Is Code?

#79

Post by booleanbetrayal »

ianphughes wrote: post #73
booleanbetrayal wrote: post #70

> “No,” I said. “First of all, I’m not good at the math. I’m a programmer, yes, but I’m an East Coast programmer, not one of these serious platform people from the Bay Area.” seriously?

That jumped out at me too. It colored the remainder of my reading experience.

yeah ... trying to put it behind me. this has otherwise been a great high-level introduction to coding.

Re: What Is Code?

#80

Post by mathattack »

arxpoetica wrote: post #49

> There have been countless attempts to make software easier to write...Decades of efforts have gone into helping civilians write code...Nothing yet has done away with developers, developers, developers, developers. I still believe. Someday, somewhere, something incredible will emerge for the right-brained bourgeoisie and literati.

The precision required in programming makes it hard for the right brained person who won't meet the computer at least part of the way.
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