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The Language of Programming

The Language of Programming

Humans use language to communicate with one another; humans use programming to communicate with machines (or do they?). In this talk we’ll look at the practice and culture of programming from the perspective of linguistics, the scientific study of the form, meaning, and function of language. We’ll explore what lessons we as programmers can learn from subfields as varied as grammar theory, language acquisition, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics.

(Presented at Deconstruct 2018, GOTO Chicago 2019)

Anjana Sofia Vakil

May 22, 2018
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  1. @AnjanaVakil “a computer language is not just a way of

    getting a computer to perform operations…” -Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs
  2. @AnjanaVakil “…it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas

    about methodology.” -Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs
  3. @AnjanaVakil “Thus, programs must be written for people to read,

    and only incidentally for machines to execute.” -Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs
  4. @AnjanaVakil “Each paradigm supports a set of concepts that make

    it the best for a certain kind of problem.” -Peter van Roy, Computer Scientist
  5. @AnjanaVakil prescriptivism “FORTRAN [is an] ‘infantile disorder’” “BASIC [coders are]

    ‘mentally mutilated’” “COBOL … cripples the mind” “APL is a mistake” -Edsger Dijkstra, Curmudgeon
  6. @AnjanaVakil prescriptivism “FORTRAN [is an] ‘infantile disorder’” “BASIC [coders are]

    ‘mentally mutilated’” “COBOL … cripples the mind” “APL is a mistake” -Edsger Dijkstra, Curmudgeon NOPE
  7. @AnjanaVakil APL ain't no mistake life←{↑1 ⍵∨.∧3 4=+/,¯1 0 1∘.⊖¯1

    0 1∘.⌽⊂⍵} Conway's Game of Life in Dyalog APL
  8. @AnjanaVakil “Languages are cultural artifacts that differ radically among different

    cultures, and languages change in important ways as the communicative needs of their speakers evolve over time.” -Michael Tomasello, Linguist
  9. @AnjanaVakil gender nationality power family status oppression politics -------- religion

    economics ---- --- race -------- - ----- ---- ------ -- - language
  10. @AnjanaVakil gender nationality power family status oppression politics -------- religion

    economics ---- --- race -------- - ----- ---- ------ -- - code
  11. @AnjanaVakil “If we're going to teach programming around the world,

    we have to be aware of what the cultural biases are.” -Ramsey Nasser, Creator of بﻠﻗ
  12. @AnjanaVakil result = analyze('data') “result equals analyze data” ? “set

    result to analyze of data” ? “analyze string data becomes result” ? … ? we learn out loud
  13. @AnjanaVakil “… can we really comprehend and communicate source code

    if we cannot vocalise it?” - Felienne Hermans, Computer Scientist we learn out loud
  14. @AnjanaVakil Thank you! GOTO Chicago team István "Flaki" Szmozsánszky, Perry

    Eising, Nicole Orchard, Max Rabkin, John Sylak-Glassman & everyone else who let me talk their ear off The Recurse Center Mapbox
  15. @AnjanaVakil - H. Abelson, G.J. Sussman, & J. Sussman, Structure

    and Interpretation of Computer Programs (1996), via mitpress.mit.edu/sicp - World Atlas of Language Structures, "Gender distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns", via wals.info/feature/44A - M. Tomasello, "Language is Not an Instinct", in Cognitive Development 10 (1995) - P. van Roy, "Programming Paradigms for Dummies: What Every Programmer Should Know", in New Computational Paradigms for Computer Music (2009), via UCL - E. Dijkstra, "How do we tell truths that might hurt?" (1975), cited in V. Chandra, Geek Sublime (2014) - K.E. Iverson, "Notation as a tool of thought" (awarded 1979), in ACM Turing award lectures (2007), via ACM - Conway's Game of Life in Dyalog APL, from "APL (programming language)", Wikipedia - K. Thomas tweet (2015) via Twitter, via A. van Kesteren, "Avoid whitelist/blacklist" on Github - R. Nasser, "Arabic Programming Language at Eyebeam" (2013) via nas.sr/بﻠﻗ - A. Abdalla, "Creating an Arabic Programming Language!", !!Con 2018 - F. Hermans, "Code Phonology" (2018), via felienne.com/archives/5947 Image Credits - Icons by EmojiOne - "The Tower of Babel" painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563), via Wikimedia - "Syntax tree diagram of a sentence from Syntactic Structures (1957) by N. Chomsky" by Gringer, via Wikipedia/Wikimedia - Figure from Peter van Roy, "Programming Paradigms for Dummies: What Every Programmer Should Know" - Image from "Conway's Game of Life" via Cornell Math Explorers' Club - MATLAB logo image via MathWorks, R logo image via The R Foundation - Poster for Tron ©1982 Disney, image via IMDb References