About Computer Programming

[t3knomanser]

I'm trying to run a short, informal survey. What are some things that come to mind when you think about computer programming? What do you think it involves? What do you think it's like? If you have programming experience, feel free to reply anyway, but please note that.

Comments

[apples491]

basic programing experience.

3 parts

1. Conceptualizing highly abstract functions of a piece of software, such as, how does data get from a to b

2. Staring at a computer screen, translating your concept into one of several arcane languages

3. When you inevitably screw up said arcane language, figuring out where the screw up is.

3a. Hoping you don't screw up enough that your job gets outsourced.

They should really call programmers, authors. At a basic level, that's what they do. They have to understand grammar and syntax just as much as any author. They also have to have the story/program mapped out in their head before they start.

Honestly, I didn't go into a computer related field out of high school because I thought programing was all there was. I find it boring and prone to giving me headaches.

[t3knomanser]

It's funny you break out the author analogy- I'm trying to write a thing on how "Everyone Can Program", and one of the main focuses is going to be on programming as communication- you're "telling a story", so to speak.

[crazymaxwell]

language, talking to computers with language. i think about loglan from "the moon is a harsh mistress."

[krinndnz]

Abstraction, abstraction, abstraction. While it is very useful to be able to think of a computer program that you're writing as a narrative, it is not a usual human kind of narrative, and good computer programs cover all kinds of fiddly corner cases and obscure cases and counter-intuitively desirable results and so on. You must first say "how will it work?" and make a narrative based on that - and then for it to work well, go back and consider a zillion ways it could go wrong, and make some more or less elaborate allowance for them. That is my experience of programming.