Code as Language

Prof Alvarado

MDST 3705

22 January 2013

Business

• Synthetic posts by Friday, Response posts by Monday at 9.

• Is logging on from off grounds an issue?• WordPress tricks

– How to make links– Edit Mode– Adding Media– Adding Code

Review

• Knowledge and Media– Knowledge is embedded in a social process

mediated by literacy and other forms of media– This social process takes place within a

network of people and artifacts– As this network changes, so does what

counts as knowledge

• Hello World!– Your entrance into the knowledge network

called the Web …

If PHP is a language, then who is the speaker and who is the

listener?

From Ferdinand Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics (1916)

The computers are here!

Mediated communication

When we write code, we are speaking to the computer, who then speaks to us

We are also writing to others who will read the code (including ourselves)

This is what writing is too …

The difference is that a computer is a machine – it harnesses and transfers

energy

com⋅put⋅er  /kəm-pyutər/ [kuhm-pyoo-ter]–noun1. Also called processor. An electronic

device designed to accept data, perform prescribed mathematical and logical operations at high speed, and display the results of these operations. Compare analog computer, digital computer.

2. A person who computes; computist.Origin:1640–50; compute + -er 1 ; cf. MF computeur

Computer languages encode a kind of labor

Programming is about creating and controlling this new kind of labor

It is writing in the imperative mode

To perform work, a computer must have a representation of the world

But a programmer must first represent that world for the computer

What does Kirschenbaum

mean by “world”?

Texts “contain” worlds

That is, part of the shared code between writer and intended

reader is a world

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created

equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable

Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of

Happiness.”

The cultural logic of worlds is expressed in novels in the form of plots, characters,

and an other symbolic devices

What about code?

10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)) : GOTO 10

What world does this line of code express?

It also creates a world …

Other Examples

• Conway’s Game of Life• Barricelli’s Universe

Code is language in the sense language both represent and create

worlds

PHP as a language

Variables

• Variables are like nouns• Locations in memory (pigeon holes)

Values

• Values are like meanings• Strings and numbers

Expressions

• Expressions, e.g. $x + 1, are like clauses• Expressions always “return” a value

Sentences

• Code is written in sentences – Imperative and inquisitive modes

• Imperative– $x = $y; // Like saying, “Let $x = $y”– $x = 1 * 50 + $z;

• Inquisitive– If ($x == 1) {} // Like asking, “Is $x equal to 1?”

Sigils

• E.g. $ as a prefix to variables• In CS and Magic• Mnemonic devices• Hungarian notation• Use in other languages• Philosophical differences

Plato’s Cave

The Role of Programming

Programming

Programs and Files

Operating System

Hardware (storage, input, output)

Users interact via input and output devices