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I read the "Why This Matters" section twice, but I still don't get why the etymology of the word "program" rather than the history of the concept of a "program"
by jsnell 5y ago
I read the "Why This Matters" section twice, but I still don't get why the etymology of the word "program" rather than the history of the concept of a "program" is of any importance. Does somebody think they understood the argument, and can explain it in a less convoluted manner?
- jfengel 5y agoThe idea is that the etymology points to a previously unrecognized bit of history. The word comes from some parts of engineering that aren't usually thought of as programming history. It's not that we should study that instead of the concept of program, but that it adds a new thing to study in addition. Is that actually important? Only in the sense that history is important at all. They trot out the "doomed to repeat it" cliché, which is true enough if a little scattershot. I mean, sure, all history is good history to study and we never really know what's going to inspire somebody to think in a particular helpful way. So rather than try to justify it as "No, seriously, this is important", I'd say that it's better as "Hey, here's this cool thing we just realized." Which is probably more like finding an easter egg than anything of really cosmic importance.