The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
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Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#2> But the overall synesthesia? I have no idea. I assume that most people have some form of it? As unfounded as that is.
I don't get the physical reactions that the author describes, but when I'm in the zone, I literally stop seeing or being aware of the screen, keyboard, etc. and start "seeing" groups of geometric shapes that interact with each other in my mind.
The nature of that doesn't change according to the language I happen to be using, but the language choice can absolutely affect how easy it is to get in the zone. Some languages are better suited to certain kinds of tasks than others, and if I'm using one that isn't well-suited then entering the zone is simply impossible. Instead, I just feel like I'm fighting the language.
Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#3I'd have to think more about the synesthetic experience, but I'll never forget that my fingers hurt when I wrote Objective-C. I could never locate what the source was; I could have been pressing harder on the keyboard, or I could have been holding tension in my hands. But the language quite literally felt different in a very real, physical way.
edit: it could also have just been me typing with more frustration due to XCode :p
Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#4> But the overall synesthesia? I have no idea. I assume that most people have some form of it? As unfounded as that is. I don't get the physical reactions that the author describes, but when I'm in the zone, I literally stop seeing or being aware of the screen, keyboard, etc. and start "seeing" groups of geometric shapes that interact with each other in my mind. The nature of that doesn't change according to the lang…
Yes, I start visualising the machinery too.
Similarly to reading a novel. At one point the text becomes background and I start seeing the scenes in my mind.
Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#5> But the overall synesthesia? I have no idea. I assume that most people have some form of it? As unfounded as that is. I don't get the physical reactions that the author describes, but when I'm in the zone, I literally stop seeing or being aware of the screen, keyboard, etc. and start "seeing" groups of geometric shapes that interact with each other in my mind. The nature of that doesn't change according to the lang…
Which languages do you code in? Because for me the available mental structures I can use to think are radically different when I code in golang as compared to elixir, just because they have radically different paradigms for approaching data transformation.
Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#6I'd have to think more about the synesthetic experience, but I'll never forget that my fingers hurt when I wrote Objective-C. I could never locate what the source was; I could have been pressing harder on the keyboard, or I could have been holding tension in my hands. But the language quite literally felt different in a very real, physical way. edit: it could also have just been me typing with more frustration due to…
Great observation. Definitely something about those square brackets which puts my right hand in tension
Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#7> But the overall synesthesia? I have no idea. I assume that most people have some form of it? As unfounded as that is. I don't get the physical reactions that the author describes, but when I'm in the zone, I literally stop seeing or being aware of the screen, keyboard, etc. and start "seeing" groups of geometric shapes that interact with each other in my mind. The nature of that doesn't change according to the lang…
Fascinating! Is the mental picture a side effect, or do you feel like it helps you reason about/manipulate the shape of the code?
Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#8For me it's more about "feeling" badly written code, as if it stinks and is unpleasant to look at,
and conversely enjoying nicely written one, and seeing its elegance and beauty.
Especially when I have to familiarize with code written by someone else, I usually start by "cleaning" it - small refactorings such as splitting overlong functions and simplifying expressions, that are trivial to prove as correct even without a deep knowledge of the code purpose.
Only when the code looks sufficiently clean and familiar, I start adding the requested new features
Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#9For me it's more about "feeling" badly written code, as if it stinks and is unpleasant to look at, and conversely enjoying nicely written one, and seeing its elegance and beauty. Especially when I have to familiarize with code written by someone else, I usually start by "cleaning" it - small refactorings such as splitting overlong functions and simplifying expressions, that are trivial to prove as correct even withou…
I also do this sort of restless refactoring. I find interacting with a new codebase is a kind of brain hack that (subjectively) helps me get up to speed faster.
Re: The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023)
#10For others that found the website design made it difficult to read the post: there's a "quiet mode" button at the top right.