Shaun Lee shaunplee

## programming-as-theory-building.md

      
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                Programming as Theory Building - Peter Naur
              
          
    Programming as Theory Building

Peter Naur


Peter Naur's classic 1985 essay "Programming as Theory Building" argues that
a program is not its source code. A program is a shared mental
construct (he uses the word theory) that lives in the minds of the people who
work on it. If you lose the people, you lose the program. The code is merely a
written representation of the program, and it's lossy, so you can't reconstruct