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)

Transcript

1. The Language of
   Programming
   @AnjanaVakil
   

   View Slide

2. @AnjanaVakil
   what is code?
   

   View Slide

3. @AnjanaVakil
   language
   

   View Slide

4. @AnjanaVakil
   language
   for machines?
   

   View Slide

5. @AnjanaVakil
   language
   for machines?
   

   View Slide

6. @AnjanaVakil
   language
   for machines?
   

   View Slide

7. @AnjanaVakil
   “a computer language is not just a
   way of getting a computer to
   perform operations…”
   -Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs
   

   View Slide

8. @AnjanaVakil
   “…it is a novel formal medium for
   expressing ideas about
   methodology.”
   -Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs
   

   View Slide

9. @AnjanaVakil
   “Thus, programs must be written
   for people to read, and only
   incidentally for machines to
   execute.”
   -Structure & Interpretation of Computer Programs
   

   View Slide

10. @AnjanaVakil
    language
    for machines?
    humans
    

    View Slide

11. @AnjanaVakil
    it's all about collaboration
    

    View Slide

12. @AnjanaVakil
    language is power
    

    View Slide

13. @AnjanaVakil
    language
    with many faces
    

    View Slide

14. @AnjanaVakil
    every language matters
    

    View Slide

15. @AnjanaVakil
    every language matters
    Gender distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns
    

    View Slide

16. @AnjanaVakil
    deconstructing language
    

    View Slide

17. @AnjanaVakil
    deconstructing language
    

    View Slide

18. @AnjanaVakil
    deconstructing language
    texts
    words
    syllables
    phrases
    morphemes
    phones
    turns
    sentences
    phonemes
    …etc
    

    View Slide

19. @AnjanaVakil
    deconstructing programs
    modules
    expressions
    statements
    types
    lines
    bytes
    functions
    objects
    instructions
    …etc
    

    View Slide

20. @AnjanaVakil
    “There are no theory-neutral
    structures in linguistics.”
    -Michael Tomasello, Linguist
    

    View Slide

21. @AnjanaVakil
    deconstructing paradigms
    

    View Slide

22. @AnjanaVakil
    “Each paradigm supports a set of
    concepts that make it the best for a
    certain kind of problem.”
    -Peter van Roy, Computer Scientist
    

    View Slide

23. @AnjanaVakil
    prescriptivism
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

26. @AnjanaVakil
    APL ain't no mistake
    

    View Slide

27. @AnjanaVakil
    APL ain't no mistake
    life←{↑1 ⍵∨.∧3 4=+/,¯1 0 1∘.⊖¯1 0 1∘.⌽⊂⍵}
    

    View Slide

28. @AnjanaVakil
    APL ain't no mistake
    life←{↑1 ⍵∨.∧3 4=+/,¯1 0 1∘.⊖¯1 0 1∘.⌽⊂⍵}
    Conway's Game of Life in Dyalog APL
    

    View Slide

29. @AnjanaVakil
    APL ain't no mistake
    MATLAB®
    

    View Slide

30. @AnjanaVakil
    APL ain't no mistake
    

    View Slide

31. @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
    

    View Slide

32. @AnjanaVakil
    language
    in context
    

    View Slide

33. @AnjanaVakil
    language
    

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

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

    View Slide

36. @AnjanaVakil
    gender
    nationality
    power
    family
    status
    oppression
    politics
    --------
    religion
    economics
    ----
    ---
    race
    --------
    -
    -----
    ---- ------
    --
    -
    code
    

    View Slide

37. @AnjanaVakil
    words are actions
    

    View Slide

38. @AnjanaVakil
    words are actions
    

    View Slide

39. @AnjanaVakil
    words are actions
    s/whitelist/safelist
    s/blacklist/blocklist
    s/master/leader
    s/slave/follower
    

    View Slide

40. @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
    

    View Slide

41. @AnjanaVakil
    teaching in context
    Noor:
    a beginner-friendly
    Arabic programming
    language
    by Ahmed Abdalla
    github.com/SimplyAhmazing/noor
    

    View Slide

42. @AnjanaVakil
    language
    to be acquired
    

    View Slide

43. @AnjanaVakil
    we learn through context
    

    View Slide

44. @AnjanaVakil
    we learn through context
    foo = bar('baz')
    

    View Slide

45. @AnjanaVakil
    we learn through context
    result = analyze('data')
    

    View Slide

46. @AnjanaVakil
    we learn out loud
    result = analyze('data')
    

    View Slide

47. @AnjanaVakil
    result = analyze('data')
    “result equals analyze data” ?
    “set result to analyze of data” ?
    “analyze string data becomes result” ?
    … ?
    we learn out loud
    

    View Slide

48. @AnjanaVakil
    “… can we really comprehend and
    communicate source code if we cannot
    vocalise it?”
    - Felienne Hermans, Computer Scientist
    we learn out loud
    

    View Slide

49. @AnjanaVakil
    we can't learn alone
    

    View Slide

50. @AnjanaVakil
    we can't learn alone
    The
    Recurse
    Center
    recurse.com
    

    View Slide

51. @AnjanaVakil
    we can't learn alone
    The
    Recurse
    Center outreachy.org
    recurse.com
    

    View Slide

52. @AnjanaVakil
    we can't learn alone
    The
    Recurse
    Center outreachy.org
    recurse.com
    mapbox.com/careers
    

    View Slide

53. @AnjanaVakil
    code
    is
    language
    is
    collaboration
    is
    power
    

    View Slide

54. @AnjanaVakil
    what will we
    do with it?
    

    View Slide

55. @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
    

    View Slide

56. @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
    

    View Slide