They want to emphasise a point. But think of what is indispensible. If the program was unreadable -- maybe the source is lost -- you still have a running, usefu

They want to emphasise a point. But think of what is indispensible. If the program was unreadable -- maybe the source is lost -- you still have a running, useful, device. But if you do not have execution, you do not really have software anymore. Software as function -- for execution -- and software as representation -- for humans -- must be pretty much equally important, in the end. But surely the key constraint, the definitive matter is what software does, what it is as an artifact. We can communicate about anything, but software is software because it performs some action.