Resizing my browser window (Firefox 38) in the middle of reading causes a section of the story to loop infinitely.
What Is Code?
81–90 of 368 posts
Re: What Is Code?
#82I'm glad I came here to read the comments that urged me to read on, because I stopped at the point where the VP was whining that his job was on the line and the software guy's wasn't. Made me a little sick to my stomach. In what company is that ever the case? Even if the VP's job is lost (rare occurrence in my experience), the severance package is more than the software person's salary for a year is.
Re: What Is Code?
#83> 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.
I believe one area of improvement for the excessive need for precision (most of us can agree that it is excessive) is that our current tools don't use context information enough. Humans deal a lot in uncertain areas and context is what helps us.
Re: What Is Code?
#84tldr; watch the video: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2015-06-10/invisible-co...
Re: What Is Code?
#85Part 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…
> 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?”'
I completely agree. I got a third of the way through it before I just couldn't stand the obfuscation and decoration any further.
What's sad (as I [tweeted][1]) was that there's a 1972 article by Stewart Brand, published in Rolling Stone of all places, that does a better job of actually explaining what computers can do, without resorting to jargon and jive: http://stuartpb.github.io/spacewar-article/spacewar.html
Re: What Is Code?
#86"That’s how change enters into this world. Slowly at first, then on the front page of Hacker News."
How meta.
Re: What Is Code?
#87> 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.
I'm reminded of rms's anecdote about secretarial staff learning to write Emacs macros at MIT because they didn't realise it was programming.
This suggests that current, important and well-meaning attempts to get non-programmers to meet code head-on as code may be misguided. Programming is generally easier if you're not thinking about how much it isn't something you do.
Re: What Is Code?
#88I did not expect this good of an article on this subject from a business publication. Well done.
bloomberg is mainly a technology company
Re: What Is Code?
#89Earlier 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_(fallacy) And, related... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_(computer_science)
That's not exactly it though. The mistake is in thinking that your idea is detailed when it merely feels detailed.
Somewhat similarly, entheogens do not really give you profound ideas so much as the feeling that the ideas you are contemplating are profound.
Re: What Is Code?
#90I'm glad I came here to read the comments that urged me to read on, because I stopped at the point where the VP was whining that his job was on the line and the software guy's wasn't. Made me a little sick to my stomach. In what company is that ever the case? Even if the VP's job is lost (rare occurrence in my experience), the severance package is more than the software person's salary for a year is.
My understanding was that the development manager in the taup blazer was an IT consultant brought in to run the project making it a little easier for that person to disappear to the next gig no matter how disastrous the project turned out.