1. Code as Language
Prof Alvarado
MDST 3705
22 January 2013

2. Business
• Synthetic posts by Friday, Response posts
by Monday at 9.
• Is logging on from off grounds an issue?
• WordPress tricks
– How to make links
– Edit Mode
– Adding Media
– Adding Code

3. Review
• Knowledge and Media
– Knowledge is embedded in a social process
mediated by literacy and other forms of media
– This social process takes place within a
network of people and artifacts
– As this network changes, so does what counts
as knowledge
• Hello World!
– Your entrance into the knowledge network
called the Web …

4. If PHP is a language, then who is the
speaker and who is the listener?

5. From Ferdinand Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics (1916)

6. The computers are here!
Mediated communication

7. When we write code, we are speaking to
the computer, who then speaks to us
We are also writing to others who will
read the code (including ourselves)

8. This is what writing is too …

9. The difference is that a computer is a
machine – it harnesses and transfers
energy

11. com⋅put⋅er
/kəm-pyutər/ [kuhm-pyoo-ter]
–noun
1. Also called processor. An electronic device
designed to accept data, perform prescribed
mathematical and logical operations at high
speed, and display the results of these
operations. Compare analog computer, digital
computer.
2. A person who computes; computist.
Origin:
1640–50; compute + -er 1 ; cf. MF computeur

12. Computer languages encode a kind of
labor
Programming is about creating and
controlling this new kind of labor
It is writing in the imperative mode

13. To perform work, a computer must have
a representation of the world
But a programmer must first represent
that world for the computer

14. What does
Kirschenbaum
mean by “world”?

17. Texts “contain” worlds
That is, part of the shared code
between writer and intended
reader is a world

18. “We hold these truths to be self-
evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.”

20. The cultural logic of worlds is expressed
in novels in the form of
plots, characters, and an other symbolic
devices
What about code?

21. 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)) : GOTO 10

22. What world does this line of code
express?

23. It also creates a world …

27. Other Examples
• Conway’s Game of Life
• Barricelli’s Universe

29. Code is language in the sense language
both represent and create worlds

30. PHP as a language

31. Variables
• Variables are like nouns
• Locations in memory (pigeon holes)

32. Values
• Values are like meanings
• Strings and numbers

33. Expressions
• Expressions, e.g. $x + 1, are like clauses
• Expressions always “return” a value

34. Sentences
• Code is written in sentences
– Imperative and inquisitive modes
• Imperative
– $x = $y; // Like saying, “Let $x = $y”
– $x = 1 * 50 + $z;
• Inquisitive
– If ($x == 1) {} // Like asking, “Is $x equal to 1?”

35. Sigils
• E.g. $ as a prefix to variables
• In CS and Magic
• Mnemonic devices
• Hungarian notation
• Use in other languages
• Philosophical differences

36. Plato’s Cave

38. The Role of Programming
Programming
Programs and Files
Operating System
Hardware (storage, input, output)
Users interact via input and output devices