3 ms·
The big difference between programmers and non-programmers is that the latter seem to fail to grasp that computers are universal machines/tools. That you can ma
by cesare 17y ago
The big difference between programmers and non-programmers is that the latter seem to fail to grasp that computers are universal machines/tools. That you can make them do almost anything you want and simulate entire universes inside them. Or use them to solve any kind of problem.
How can't you love this?
Non programmers, on the other hand, tend to identify the computer with the software already available and known by them.
Programming also means (at least ideally) being able to talk directly with the computer. It means being able to perform boring and time consuming tasks in a fraction of the time.
Non-programmer users get frustrated so easily with computers because they're in a foreign land and they don't know the language. They can go to the station and take a bus if they know which one would bring them wherever they need to go. But they can't ask for directions.
Compare, for instance, the expressiveness of the unix shell with GUIs when you want to perform a specific task on a particular subset of files/data.
That's why I think that programming should be something available to (and acknowledged by) every user.
- berntb 17y agoI don't think that is strictly limited to programmers. When I was a student, I heard even law students and economists make more or less tha same arguments about their subjects. That is, there are collections of rules you could handle like games and/or machines, pulling different strings and adjusting to make them do what you want. (Chemistry and physics are other obvious subjects.) Of course, the non-programmers' wimpy systems aren't real Turing machines... :-)
- shard 17y agoWell, people doing genetic modification work are working with Turing complete machines, though writing code is still a bit of a problem..
- berntb 17y agoHmm... you have a point. I should have noted that myself. During the IT death, I did some bio-/organic chemistry courses for fun. It seemed so interesting to modify prokaryotes. Like the people programming logical circuits with the game of Life, but with proteins. I got ill for a while and had to stop studying, otherwise I might be working with bioinformatics now. On the other hand, biochemical lab work was boring (organic chemistry lab was incredibly fun.)