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This made me wonder: which side would other activities fall on, if event handling was the defining characteristic of "code"? Not code - Excel, SQL, HTML, CSS

This made me wonder: which side would other activities fall on, if event handling was the defining characteristic of "code"? Not code - Excel, SQL, HTML, CSS Code - Email inbox rules, IFTTT. Alarm clock?

jimbokun 7y ago
> Not code - Excel, SQL, HTML, CSS > Code - Email inbox rules, IFTTT. Alarm clock? All of those are code, just varying in their level of Turing-completeness.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
Hmm, y'know what, I'm now reconsidering that part of my post. Setting an alarm clock is definitely not coding. All the instructions are built into the clock: if (currentTime == alarmTime) { soundAlarm(); } All the user does is set the value of alarmTime, a single variable. But, what if the user can choose from a set of alarm sounds? I feel like that's still not coding, but I also can't describe how it's different from IFTTT. There's a spectrum here for sure—any time you interact with a computer, you're giving it instructions. I was thinking about this in terms of the mindset required. When I volunteer at GWC, there's a very specific skill that I see the students coming to grips with over the course of the class. I don't have a word to describe it.
- satyrnein 7y ago
  Yeah, I was thinking of the alarm clock app on your phone rather than a hardware clock by the bedside, so you're practically hitting "add rule, set trigger, define action" much like IFTTT or email inbox rules. When I've taught (adults) some basic coding, it's typically been state that's the challenging concept. You have a bunch of logic, but what was the state of your program (or the world) when the logic executed? If it's not what you expected, how did it get into that state? These questions seems fundamentally different to me compared to working on an Excel spreadsheet (which of course can still be complicated and have bugs).

jimbokun 7y ago

> Not code - Excel, SQL, HTML, CSS > Code - Email inbox rules, IFTTT. Alarm clock? All of those are code, just varying in their level of Turing-completeness.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

Hmm, y'know what, I'm now reconsidering that part of my post. Setting an alarm clock is definitely not coding. All the instructions are built into the clock: if (currentTime == alarmTime) { soundAlarm(); } All the user does is set the value of alarmTime, a single variable. But, what if the user can choose from a set of alarm sounds? I feel like that's still not coding, but I also can't describe how it's different from IFTTT. There's a spectrum here for sure—any time you interact with a computer, you're giving it instructions. I was thinking about this in terms of the mindset required. When I volunteer at GWC, there's a very specific skill that I see the students coming to grips with over the course of the class. I don't have a word to describe it.

satyrnein 7y ago
Yeah, I was thinking of the alarm clock app on your phone rather than a hardware clock by the bedside, so you're practically hitting "add rule, set trigger, define action" much like IFTTT or email inbox rules. When I've taught (adults) some basic coding, it's typically been state that's the challenging concept. You have a bunch of logic, but what was the state of your program (or the world) when the logic executed? If it's not what you expected, how did it get into that state? These questions seems fundamentally different to me compared to working on an Excel spreadsheet (which of course can still be complicated and have bugs).