Upgrade to PRO for Only $50/Year—Limited-Time Offer! 🔥
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
How a language reflects its people (Brighton Ruby)
Search
Alex Coles
July 07, 2017
Technology
0
110
How a language reflects its people (Brighton Ruby)
> The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
– Wittgenstein
Alex Coles
July 07, 2017
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Alex Coles
See All by Alex Coles
How a language reflects its people
myabc
0
81
Taking Rails beyond the asset pipeline (Workshop at RubyDay Italia)
myabc
0
64
Rails: beyond the asset pipeline (RubyC)
myabc
0
130
Frontend Choices (Tropical Ruby)
myabc
1
770
Frontend Choices (RubyConf Portugal)
myabc
1
460
Frontend Choices
myabc
0
58
Frontend Choices
myabc
0
280
Putting the Hype back in Hypermedia
myabc
1
230
DataMapper
myabc
2
220
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
Oracle Database@Azure:サービス概要のご紹介
oracle4engineer
PRO
2
190
特別捜査官等研修会
nomizone
0
550
AWS運用を効率化する!AWS Organizationsを軸にした一元管理の実践/nikkei-tech-talk-202512
nikkei_engineer_recruiting
0
170
AWS re:Invent 2025~初参加の成果と学び~
kubomasataka
0
180
Authlete で実装する MCP OAuth 認可サーバー #CIMD の実装を添えて
watahani
0
160
ソフトウェアエンジニアとAIエンジニアの役割分担についてのある事例
kworkdev
PRO
0
210
AIエージェント開発と活用を加速するワークフロー自動生成への挑戦
shibuiwilliam
4
830
障害対応訓練、その前に
coconala_engineer
0
190
シニアソフトウェアエンジニアになるためには
kworkdev
PRO
3
270
202512_AIoT.pdf
iotcomjpadmin
0
140
ハッカソンから社内プロダクトへ AIエージェント ko☆shi 開発で学んだ4つの重要要素
leveragestech
0
110
AI駆動開発ライフサイクル(AI-DLC)の始め方
ryansbcho79
0
150
Featured
See All Featured
The Spectacular Lies of Maps
axbom
PRO
1
400
Information Architects: The Missing Link in Design Systems
soysaucechin
0
710
Leveraging LLMs for student feedback in introductory data science courses - posit::conf(2025)
minecr
0
88
Tips & Tricks on How to Get Your First Job In Tech
honzajavorek
0
400
Neural Spatial Audio Processing for Sound Field Analysis and Control
skoyamalab
0
130
Practical Orchestrator
shlominoach
190
11k
Dealing with People You Can't Stand - Big Design 2015
cassininazir
367
27k
Put a Button on it: Removing Barriers to Going Fast.
kastner
60
4.1k
Unlocking the hidden potential of vector embeddings in international SEO
frankvandijk
0
130
Creating an realtime collaboration tool: Agile Flush - .NET Oxford
marcduiker
35
2.3k
The Curious Case for Waylosing
cassininazir
0
190
SEOcharity - Dark patterns in SEO and UX: How to avoid them and build a more ethical web
sarafernandez
0
88
Transcript
“ Die Grenzen meiner Sprache bedeuten die Grenzen meiner Welt.
– Wittgenstein
“ The limits of my language mean the limits of
my world. – Wittgenstein
HOW A LANGUAGE REFLECTS ITS PEOPLE Alex Coles | Brighton
Ruby July 2017
WHY RUBY?
WE LIKE RUBY
WE ❤ RUBY
HUMAN
Language People World
None
Language People World Computing
PEOPLE TO LANGUAGE LANGUAGE TO PEOPLE LANGUAGE TO LANGUAGE PEOPLE
TO COMPUTING COMPUTING TO PEOPLE PEOPLE TO COMPUTING TO PEOPLE
HELLO BRIGHTON
ABOUT ME
@MYABC Alex Coles Oxford, England
EURUCAMP.ORG JRUBYCONF.EU
TRAILBLAZER.IO
None
PEOPLE TO LANGUAGE
LANGUAGES ➤ Natural - e.g. English, Spanish ➤ Constructed -
e.g. Esperanto ➤ Formal - e.g. Algebra, JavaScript
NATURAL
HISTORY
None
None
POLITICS AND COMMERCE
POST-TRUTH BREXIT FLAT WHITE
REFORM AND PLANNING
תירבע
None
KAURNA
None
None
INDIVIDUALS
THE BARD Creator of many words
HAPAX LEGOMENON
MATZ Creator of Ruby
COMMUNITY
LANGUAGE TO PEOPLE
SHADES OF GREY
None
None
WELTANSCHAUUNG
Edward Sapir | Benjamin Lee Whorf
LANGUAGE AFFECTS WORLD VIEW
LANGUAGE DETERMINES WORLD VIEW
Wilhelm von Humboldt
RUBY SYNTAX
None
RSpec.describe 'my Ruby code' do it_behaves_like 'the English language' end
RSpec.describe Boomerang do subject(:boomerang) { Boomerang.new } it_behaves_like 'a hunting tool' it_behaves_like 'a percussion instrument' it 'is designed to be thrown' do expect(boomerang).to be_throwable end end
PUNCTUATION
WHAT THERE IS ➤ ? question mark ➤ ! bang
(exclamation mark)
WHAT THERE ISN’T ➤ ; semi-colons ➤ () parentheses (sometimes)
➤ {} braces (sometimes)
UNICODE
None
None
LTR VS RTL
None
WORD ORDER
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
➤ The man eats fish ➤ L'homme mange le poisson
➤ a = 2 ➤ a = 2 + 2 SUBJECT VERB ORDER
VERB SUBJECT OBJECT
LOGIC AND ARITHMETIC NOTATION prefix + 2 2 “Polish” infix
2 + 2 postfix 2 2 + “Reverse Polish”
➤ (def x 5) ➤ (+ 2 4)
OPERATORS
Logical Operators ➤ and ➤ or ➤ not Special Operators
➤ defined?
LANGUAGE TO LANGUAGE
LANGUAGES IN THE FIFTIES ➤ Short Code ➤ Autocode ➤
FORTRAN ➤ FLOW-MATIC
LANGUAGES IN THE SIXTIES ➤ ALGOL ➤ LISP ➤ C
RUBY PRIOR ART ➤ Perl ➤ Smalltalk ➤ Eiffel ➤
Ada ➤ LISP
PEOPLE TO COMPUTING
LOW-LEVEL LANGUAGES ➤ Machine Code ➤ Assembly
None
NO CONCEPTS
SIGNALS AND NEURONS
HIGHER
COMPUTING TO PEOPLE
TECHNOLOGY
PERSIST
AI
HUMAN EFFECT
…
PEOPLE TO COMPUTING TO PEOPLE
SOFTWARE = CODE + DOCUMENTATION
SELF-DOCUMENTING CODE
CONCLUSION
WHY RUBY?
MINSWAN
THANK YOU
@MYABC