[HN Gopher] Roots of 'Program' Revisited
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Roots of 'Program' Revisited
Author : rbanffy
Score : 13 points
Date : 2021-05-27 09:23 UTC (13 hours ago)
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| kragen wrote:
| It never occurred to me that the "pro" in "program" referred to
| the future!
|
| So, if "program" (programma) means "pre-written", like a royal
| edict that is posted publicly before it is to be obeyed, should
| we rename the field of "programming by demonstration" (for
| example, editor keyboard macros, spreadsheet formulas, or
| GeoGebra constructions) to "postgramming" or "epigramming"? (I
| suppose "epigram" already has a conflicting meaning.)
|
| Because, in programming by example, the "program" is a log of the
| sequence of operations that were carried out, and perhaps why, so
| that we can repeat them, rather than being a prospective future
| plan for a sequence of operations to carry out in the future.
| 4ad wrote:
| Of course that computers, computer programs, and computer science
| all evolved from previous machines, techniques and concepts. But
| that's almost meaningless, a truism, (almost?) everything can be
| traced back historically from something else.
|
| The abstractions that underlie computers, computer programs, and
| computer science were discovered by analyzing and playing with
| concrete objects that had a historical lineage, but the
| abstraction exists independent of the objects. It is the
| abstraction that's important, not the objects.
|
| When we talk about the first computer and the first program we
| are talking about the first physical realization of an abstract
| idea.
| qsort wrote:
| I am very confused by this article.
|
| When we use the word 'program' in computing, we pretty much
| always mean 'a program for a (previously or implicitly defined)
| computational model', I don't see in what sense this is
| comparable to 'program clocks', which are basically timers/alarm
| clocks, if I understand that paragraph correctly.
|
| Similarly, when we say 'code' we mean 'textual representation of
| the concrete syntax', clearly distinct from 'code' as in 'morse
| code', which we would also call 'encoding'.
|
| > This strengthens a computing discipline where one often cares
| more about formalism than about actual programming
|
| This is (perhaps) a (somewhat) fair criticism of (parts of)
| computer science as an academic field of study, but I don't get
| how the pieces fit toghether.
| kragen wrote:
| > _When we use the word 'program' in computing, we pretty much
| always mean 'a program for a (previously or implicitly defined)
| computational model', I don't see in what sense this is
| comparable to 'program clocks', which are basically
| timers/alarm clocks, if I understand that paragraph correctly._
|
| It seems that a "program clock" was a clock that you could,
| more or less in the modern sense, program; you could put a plan
| into it, and then it would carry out the plan. Like those
| electromechanical outlet timers that you can set to turn on
| your floor lamps at certain times of day when you're not home.
| The "program" for those is the little slidy things around the
| dial that define when to turn the light on or off.
|
| In the same way, a computer program is a plan that you can put
| into a computer, thus programming the computer to carry out the
| program. That concept isn't just _comparable_ to that of the
| program you put into a program clock; it 's _identical_ ,
| though there are some things the program clock can't do.
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| > Similarly, when we say 'code' we mean 'textual representation
| of the concrete syntax', clearly distinct from 'code' as in
| 'morse code', which we would also call 'encoding'.
|
| You're thinking in modern terms. When you had to program in
| octal, "encoding" was exactly what you were doing. Assemblers
| and, later, compilers made that less true, but originally that
| was in fact the meaning.
| leetcrew wrote:
| it's worth teasing apart where words come from. the term
| "dynamic programming" does not make a lot of sense until you
| understand the historical context.
| tonyle wrote:
| Someone non technical once told me they "programmed as well" and
| proceed to talk about planning and scheduling things.
| jsnell wrote:
| I read the "Why This Matters" section twice, but I still don't
| get why the etymology of the word "program" rather than the
| history of the concept of a "program" is of any importance. Does
| somebody think they understood the argument, and can explain it
| in a less convoluted manner?
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