Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
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
100
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
80
Taking Rails beyond the asset pipeline (Workshop at RubyDay Italia)
myabc
0
57
Rails: beyond the asset pipeline (RubyC)
myabc
0
130
Frontend Choices (Tropical Ruby)
myabc
1
760
Frontend Choices (RubyConf Portugal)
myabc
1
450
Frontend Choices
myabc
0
56
Frontend Choices
myabc
0
270
Putting the Hype back in Hypermedia
myabc
1
230
DataMapper
myabc
2
220
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
[2025-09-30] Databricks Genie を利用した分析基盤とデータモデリングの IVRy の現在地
wxyzzz
0
460
実装で解き明かす並行処理の歴史
zozotech
PRO
1
310
M5製品で作るポン置きセルラー対応カメラ
sayacom
0
130
From Prompt to Product @ How to Web 2025, Bucharest, Romania
janwerner
0
110
ユニットテストに対する考え方の変遷 / Everyone should watch his live coding
mdstoy
0
120
PLaMoの事後学習を支える技術 / PFN LLMセミナー
pfn
PRO
9
3.8k
OpenAI gpt-oss ファインチューニング入門
kmotohas
2
930
「Verify with Wallet API」を アプリに導入するために
hinakko
1
230
「AI駆動PO」を考えてみる - 作る速さから価値のスループットへ:検査・適応で未来を開発 / AI-driven product owner. scrummat2025
yosuke_nagai
4
560
AI駆動開発を推進するためにサービス開発チームで 取り組んでいること
noayaoshiro
0
100
o11yで育てる、強い内製開発組織
_awache
3
110
Oracle Base Database Service 技術詳細
oracle4engineer
PRO
11
77k
Featured
See All Featured
Automating Front-end Workflow
addyosmani
1371
200k
Improving Core Web Vitals using Speculation Rules API
sergeychernyshev
19
1.2k
How to Create Impact in a Changing Tech Landscape [PerfNow 2023]
tammyeverts
54
3k
The Straight Up "How To Draw Better" Workshop
denniskardys
237
140k
KATA
mclloyd
32
15k
For a Future-Friendly Web
brad_frost
180
9.9k
Optimizing for Happiness
mojombo
379
70k
実際に使うSQLの書き方 徹底解説 / pgcon21j-tutorial
soudai
PRO
188
55k
Practical Orchestrator
shlominoach
190
11k
Done Done
chrislema
185
16k
Documentation Writing (for coders)
carmenintech
75
5k
Dealing with People You Can't Stand - Big Design 2015
cassininazir
367
27k
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