tough-to-explain Python

[John O'Hagan]

On Fri, 10 Jul 2009, Hendrik van Rooyen wrote:
> "Steven D'Aprano" <steve at REMOVE-THIS-cy....e.com.au> wrote:
> >On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:05:57 -0700, Simon Forman wrote:

[...]

> >> Programming is not like any other human activity.
> >
> >In practice? In principle? Programming in principle is not the same as it
> >is performed in practice.
> >
> >But in either case, programming requires both the logical reasoning of
> >mathematics and the creativity of the arts. Funnily enough,
>
> I do not buy this arty creativity stuff. - or are you talking about
> making a website look pretty?
>
> >mathematicians will tell you that mathematics requires the same, and so
> >will the best artists. I think mathematicians, engineers, artists, even
> >great chefs, will pour scorn on your claim that programming is not like
> >any other human activity.
>
> So a chef is now an authority on programming?
>
> Programming is actually kind of different - almost everything else is
> just done, at the time that you do it.
>
> Programming is creating stuff that is completely useless until it is
> fed into something that uses it, to do something else, in conjuction
> with the thing it is fed into, at a later time.
>
> This is a highly significant difference, IMHO.

[...]

The drawings produced by an architect, the script of a play, the score of a 
piece of music, and the draft of a piece of legislation are all examples of 
other things which are "useless" until they are interpreted in some way. 

There are countless human activities which require a program, i.e. a conscious 
plan or strategy, formed at least partly by a creative process, and a computer 
program is just a special case of this. 

I use Python as a tool for writing music, but I find I need both logical 
reasoning and creativity to do either. In fact, I find programming very similar 
to writing music in a rigorous contrapuntal style, where each set of choices 
constrains each other, and there is a deep aesthetic satisfaction in getting 
it right.

Regards,

John




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