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Ok, guess I am the dumb one here.
What the hell is coding, and what does it involve?
Bob.
Its like learning a language. Essentially a language that computers speak. And theres various languages for code.
Such as python, C#(c-sharp), C++, CSS, Javascript.
Some are similar. But each have their advantages and their difficulties. They’re used to tell the computer what to do.
So for example, say that your making a game with a ball and you die if the ball falls to the bottom.
So you’ll code it like this:
if (ball_Obj.posY>floor.posY)
{
ballDeath=true;
restart();
}
So its basically saying “if the ball’s vertical position (posY) is lower than the floor’s vertical position, set ballDeath to true, and restart the game in that order.
ballDeath is the variable, false means its off true means its on. Like a switch. So when its on that means you “died”.
The brackets “{}” represent the block of code being used. The “;” represents the endof a function.
One joke about programming is
“My mom sent me to get a carton of eggs, and if I see milk, get two, so I came home with two cartons of eggs after seeing milk”
What the hell is coding, and what does it involve?
depending on who you ask, it is:
1. writing code
2. formal/professional software development
3. expertise in math, as well as the above
the last two cause many people to write off the first and most vital. depending on who you ask, the first is actually the least important. coding is a divine expression of digital fact, it is best left to experts, and laymen should not meddle with it without a proper initiation.
based on this amount of bias, it should be obvious im not in that camp. but that camp doesnt present all the facts either way. people in that camp dont tell you that some experts start out naive and do absolutely fine. the old idea of being tainted forever by "bad ideas." its dogma, its not really too well supported by any scientific study (at best its like survivorship bias) but it persists.
what is writing code, then?
what is playing the piano? pressing lots of keys in a way that produce a desired result.
can it be more complicated than that? it will most likely prove to be, and it typically is.
but thats what it is fundamentally, and that isnt going to change much until ai does it for you.
then there is syntax.
theres nothing fundamental about the syntax, there are some conventions at least.
people will always tell you its not about the syntax. but either way its unavoidable, because even if they believe you when you say "its not about syntax" as soon as you show people actual code-- the syntax is what they will probably be forced to deal with first.
thank grace hopper (a math professor and compiler pioneer) for making that about as painless as it could practically be.
Should at least have an introductory course or two so that kids can at least get some exposure to it to see if they wanna pursue that as a career.
Not all people can program, it's not something that just everyone can do, you have to have a certain aptitude. Lower level stuff yeah, everyone can create a program that spits out a message on a screen, such as the famous "hi world" or what ever it was, I forget as it's been so long.
Should at least have an introductory course or two so that kids can at least get some exposure to it to see if they wanna pursue that as a career.
Not all people can program, it's not something that just everyone can do, you have to have a certain aptitude. Lower level stuff yeah, everyone can create a program that spits out a message on a screen, such as the famous "hi world" or what ever it was, I forget as it's been so long.
There are definitely degrees of difficulty, some of the AI stuff I've done was extremely math heavy, in addition to some radio signal triangulation stuff estimating general location of radio signals... also pretty math heavy. Something like a small business website selling some kind of consumer goods is not that hard conceptually though.
I apologize for being a Luddite, but what’s to prevent a coder from writing a program that translates what I want a computer to do from plain english into code? I could make my own game or whatever.
The input from myself could be as simple as this.
What do you want to do? Triangulate Radio Signals
What Computer language do you want to use? C++.
Do you want to share this program? Yes/No. No.
Will you be available to answer design questions about this program? Yes/No. Yes.
(Estimated time to completion 30 minutes)
Begin coding? Yes/No. Yes
If someone as dumb as myself thinks this could happen in the near future, I’m sure some entrepreneur is already on it.
what’s to prevent a coder from writing a program that translates what I want a computer to do from plain english into code? I could make my own game or whatever.
ambiguity. each english word can mean different things-- it lends itself to coding better if each word has a precise meaning.
for example, "print" is a common command name. it refers to writing out text, which was once done on a printer as often as a screen. it is quick to type, like unix commands (which are often shorter) and easy to read, like more modern commands (which are often more trouble to type.)
print pretty much always means the same thing-- but its up to you in many instances.
cobol was designed to be based on english words. this was probably too far in that direction for now. its just too wordy. while it was designed to make coding (business, accounting) accessible to customers who werent all computer science experts, its effort towards being as much like english as possible probably went too far.
applescript was another really good effort at english-based coding. it loses out on ambiguity. terse code (at least a little terse) tends to be easier once youve learned it.
Quote:
The input from myself could be as simple as this.
What do you want to do? Triangulate Radio Signals
to some degree, yes, you can get your computer to do that.
and other people will prefer triangulaters, trs, or just triangulate. the winner will be decided by politics, authors and even fashion. but also by influence from other existing computer languages.
Quote:
What Computer language do you want to use? C++.
Do you want to share this program? Yes/No. No.
Will you be available to answer design questions about this program? Yes/No. Yes.
(Estimated time to completion 30 minutes)
Begin coding? Yes/No. Yes
If someone as dumb as myself thinks this could happen in the near future, I’m sure some entrepreneur is already on it.
its not that new of an idea, its not a stupid idea, its a little bit impractical for the moment.
ai could conceivably take things more in that direction. dont count on it yet.
look to cobol and appletalk for prime examples of less ai-related efforts. also one i started writing-- but abandoned for something more terse and conventional when that became tedious. the concept is really not that ideal-- at least so far.
also you left out most of what the program does. if you learn coding, by any existing means-- you will definitely learn more about that.
if an existing "library" does that already, you could easily call it with about as much effort. but someone has to write that, and it doesnt really tell you how the library works-- its just a call to something already there. which is often an important part of doing this stuff, but doing it that way doesnt actually answer your question. it just sort of avoids your question, even if it is the practical and conventional solution in many instances.
the worst part of not learning to code? its a lot harder for anybody to answer these questions (or follow the answers) unless you just do some of it. we can describe all of this in english, to you, but it takes longer and ultimately, its easier for both you and us if you get to the code instead of trying to avoid it.
thats why i dont think "computational thinking" is the answer either. its a way of teaching the subject while avoiding it. perfectly reasonable for teachers afraid of the subject, and impractical for everybody involved. probably better than nothing, just harder to teach and learn than the computing itself.
Last edited by dynamicjson; 03-08-2019 at 01:40 PM..
What makes a computer recognize these codes?
Is code a universal language?
Who is responsible for coming up with the language?
How does the computer know what the code is, that you are asking it to do?
How do people making code know what letter or symbol to use for any given command?
This is enough for now.
Gotta get back to work, lunch time is over.
i dont think you have the slightest concept of what youre talking about.
If you're a liberal, of course you don't.
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