"Can Code Be Like Literature" - Jeremy Ashkenas

gistfile1.txt

Jeremy
    Absolutely brilliant
        both technically
        and oratorically
    He wrote CoffeeScript
    1st place 5k 
    21 min, 3 seconds
    <7min mile

Big picture
    Codeconf - opportunity to talk about code in general

"What makes code strange?"
    Laptop: 50 years of code running at one time

base of code culture
    taken for granted
    review what we take for granted
    fresh eyes
    cultural artifact
    take it to the surface

Minor miracles
    What
        Ruby
        Python
        JS
    Why
        "Fit the way you think"
        We use them in a way that resembles literature
        Ruby - existence proof against code as math

Dijkstra & Knuth
    Angel and Devil

Dijkstra
    "I do not know of any other tech covering ratio of 10^10"
        from indiv bits through hadoop cloud

"Is it bigger than a breadbox?"

Dijkstra
    "By evoking the need for deep conceptual hierarchies, the automatic ocmputer confronts us with a radically new intellectual challenge that has no precedent in our history."
    Code as FUNDAMENTALLY new thing

Code as Logic
    1s and 0s
    art, film, books, music
    Knuth's Defn
        Finiteness
        Definiteness
        Input
        Output 
        Effectiveness
    Semantic gap
        code
        AST
        Bytecode
        Machine Instructions
        Electricity & gates

Code as Law
    in machine, code is only possible law

Code as Art
    Knuth: The Outer Paren
        "Science is knowledge which we understand so well that we cna teach it to a computer, and if we don't understand something, it is an art to deal with it." - Donald Knuth
        "Even the most perfect repoduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be." - Walter Benjamin
        diffs make it interesting
    Concrete vs Abstract art
        Concrete: Art Object / Event
            exist in single space & time
            can be copied, but no longer original
        Abstract: Architecture, composition
            Need to be executed to become real

Code has a dual audience
    machine
    reader

"the competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull; therefore he approaches the programming task in full humility" - Dijkstra
    "complexity grows with the square of the program length"
    "Abstraction... most vital activities"
    "New semantic level where one can be absolutely precise"

Dijkstra -> Anti-scripting
Matsumoto: "pseudo-code that runs"

Dijkstra's Structured Programming vs Knuth's Literate Programming
    "GOTO Considered Harmful"
    Structured: limited to 3 methods:
        sequencing
        selection
        repetition
    Literate: 
        "Structured Programming w/ GOTO Statements"
        Knuth's Literate Programming as alternate to Structured Programming

Code as Literature
    Not fancy fiction
    Instead,
        a book is a program that runs in the mind of the reader
    meaning belongs to a text or program to the extent that it acts upon intelligence in a consistent/particular way
    "literary" if it contains a high density of meaning
        as opposed to art, which has a high density of emotion

"In a culture whose already classical dilemma is hte hypertrophy of the intellect at the expense of energy and sensual capability, interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art" - Susas Sontag
"the battles here are fought, won or lost, on how much power or meaning lies under the syntactic forms."-Alan Kay

Code is writing
    testament to power of the written word

Literary abstractions
    Metaphor
        Class Circle < Ellipse
    Simile
        class rose include fragrant
    Synecdoche
        tree = nodes.root
    in C:
        int *ptr
        ptr = &array[0]
    Metonymy
        documents.map &:id
    Personification
        #this buffers knows how to clear its own cache
        "Never personify a program" - Dijkstra 
        OOP is a Biological Metaphor
            Alan Kay was inspired by biological cells

Code is a Commons
    participate as a citizen
    express yourself clearly

"Some programs are elegant, some are exquisite, some are sparkling. My claim is that it is possible to write grand programs, noble programs, truly magnificent ones!" - Knuth

man you know how to take notes

Thanks!