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> i don't generally buy the argument that coding is drastically different from writing, insofar as it's laying out symbols in a way that can be understood (and
by tra3 6y ago
> i don't generally buy the argument that coding is drastically different from writing, insofar as it's laying out symbols in a way that can be understood (and followed) by another actor. that's a technical skill that's fairly transferable between the two
That's a great observation. A bit of a tangent, but I enjoy writing code with a tight feedback loop. Either with a debugger, a set of unit tests.
With writing, the feedback loop is not there. It's not clear whether the message achieves the desired effect.
Framing writing this way, explains why it's such a challenging activity. At least in my mind.
- clairity 6y agoyes, another good point. you have to be your own feedback loop, simulating as many other minds in your head as you can, as @munificent laid out. it seems that proofreaders and editors came about to help in that regard.
- BurningFrog 6y agoIf you write code intending it to have good human readability - and you really should - you have the same problem writing code. I spend a lot of time rereading my code imagining I'm someone else who's never seen it before. Not sure everyone does.