3 ms·
Because we use the same word to describe both.
by bendmorris 16y ago
Because we use the same word to describe both.
- mahmud 16y agoIf you want to take this to its logical conclusion, then language is nothing but a fixed set of "alphabet", and a set of rules that generate infinite strings from this alphabet in some meaningful combination. Alright, I will start: I am fluent in the language of traffic signs.
- bendmorris 16y agoThe confusion isn't coming from conceptual similarity, though. It's coming from the use of the word "language" which has multiple, distinct connotations. Traffic signs are never referred to as "language." Both spoken and programming languages are.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- barrkel 16y agoI'll bet that if you talk to designers and road layout experts, they'll freely talk about the "language of traffic signs". I'd also hazard a guess that people who are not programmers or familiar with how it all works would not refer to what we work with as a language, but as "code", "mathematics", "bits and bytes" etc.
- mahmud 16y agoThe numerical-analysis community refers to software as "codes" :-) I have recently seen a SIAM book that even had it in the title.
- gruseom 16y agoOops, misclick downvote. I agree with you. It's an unfortunate human cognitive weakness to assume that things with the same label are the same.
- mahmud 16y agoYou don't know how ironic that comment is. I'm all jumpy with glee reading it. "misclick downvote" .. Do you realize the up and down buttons are IDENTICAL in "syntax" but different in "semantics"? Isometry :-)