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>“I realized that to program in a feminist way, one would ideally want to use a feminist programming language.” Tell that to Admiral Hopper. Programming langu

by drcube 13y ago

>“I realized that to program in a feminist way, one would ideally want to use a feminist programming language.” Tell that to Admiral Hopper. Programming languages aren't masculine or feminine. Programming is hard because you're a human trying to express yourself in the language of a computer. Not because you're a woman trying to express yourself in the language of a man. There are barriers to women in tech, for sure, but those are social and cultural barriers, not "sexist tools".

derleth 13y ago
I'm almost afraid to ask if they think there needs to be a "feminist mathematics" as well. Because, really, the division between "mathematical notation" and "programming language" is somewhat arbitrary, especially with languages such as Prolog and Metamath. http://us.metamath.org/ http://us.metamath.org/
- schnevets 13y ago
  And thus the mathematical perspective of "Herithmetic" was born.
adambard 13y ago
I read a dozen dumb ideas a day without feeling the need to comment. What about this one incited you to compose this (well-worded) comment about it? Methinks thou dost protest too much. I, personally, am curious to see what comes of it. I'm not familiar enough with the feminist philosophies mentioned to really understand what she's talking about, or to tell whether or not she's just making things up. But, I'll certainly be qualified to comment when I see a code sample, and I think it might be interesting either way.
deleted 13y ago
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chc 13y ago
I don't feel like you actually stopped to understand what the author was saying before disagreeing with it. To me, the piece reads more as sort of whimsical, preliminary musing about different ways of viewing interactions and how they can be enshrined in programming paradigms (e.g. OO, functional and logic programming all have different ways of expressing the relationships between program entities and have different ways of deciding what to do with those relationships). It doesn't sound to me like Arielle's hypothesis is "Programming languages are sexist," but rather that it might be interesting to see what a programming language would look like that subscribes to certain philosophies derived from feminist thinking. I don't know enough about feminist philosophy to say what this means in specific terms, but it doesn't strike me as necessarily less reasonable than, say, Clojure's attempt to implement Rich Hickey's philosophies about complexity and identity.

by drcube 13y ago

derleth 13y ago

I'm almost afraid to ask if they think there needs to be a "feminist mathematics" as well. Because, really, the division between "mathematical notation" and "programming language" is somewhat arbitrary, especially with languages such as Prolog and Metamath. http://us.metamath.org/ http://us.metamath.org/

schnevets 13y ago
And thus the mathematical perspective of "Herithmetic" was born.

adambard 13y ago

I read a dozen dumb ideas a day without feeling the need to comment. What about this one incited you to compose this (well-worded) comment about it? Methinks thou dost protest too much. I, personally, am curious to see what comes of it. I'm not familiar enough with the feminist philosophies mentioned to really understand what she's talking about, or to tell whether or not she's just making things up. But, I'll certainly be qualified to comment when I see a code sample, and I think it might be interesting either way.

deleted 13y ago

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chc 13y ago

I don't feel like you actually stopped to understand what the author was saying before disagreeing with it. To me, the piece reads more as sort of whimsical, preliminary musing about different ways of viewing interactions and how they can be enshrined in programming paradigms (e.g. OO, functional and logic programming all have different ways of expressing the relationships between program entities and have different ways of deciding what to do with those relationships). It doesn't sound to me like Arielle's hypothesis is "Programming languages are sexist," but rather that it might be interesting to see what a programming language would look like that subscribes to certain philosophies derived from feminist thinking. I don't know enough about feminist philosophy to say what this means in specific terms, but it doesn't strike me as necessarily less reasonable than, say, Clojure's attempt to implement Rich Hickey's philosophies about complexity and identity.