Ancestors

Written by Sophia J. Turner on 2024-09-12 at 17:23

I asked myself this morning what might get me interested in programming again, and the answer came back "if we could talk about emotions". For a while now, there's been a gulf between my programming life, and my need for emotional intimacy. For a time, I mixed both by being really close to the people I worked with, which was easier working with close friends with a good emotional bond.

But programming, the solving of problems, doesn't really scratch that itch for me.

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Written by Sophia J. Turner on 2024-09-12 at 17:26

Trying to navigate a different set of needs is certainly interesting and also very difficult. Perhaps there's a way to make programming more emotional and more engaging in a wider way.

There have been experiments in social styles of coding, pair programming, etc, which I've done, but the coding itself in its current incarnations doesn't really hit those buttons.

Maybe there are new ways of programming that do? What would they look like?

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Written by Sophia J. Turner on 2024-09-12 at 17:27

The end state, I think is similar, to create something collaboratively that meets a need or creates something interesting.

I just wish I had a grasp on what that would look like.

I dabbled again recently with text adventure programming languages like Inform. Being able to use a language closer to English does feel a little better. In the end, it's still often similar to programming in other languages, but the process feels a bit more creative.

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Written by Sophia J. Turner on 2024-09-12 at 17:30

I think one fundamental shift is that I don't want to sit and solve puzzles. That doesn't really do much for me anymore. I've kinda proven I can do that, but more importantly, it doesn't really give me a happy brain chemical to solve a logic puzzle.

But feeling through something and sharing does. It's a different kind of thing.

Perhaps there's a way for programming to be more about feeling than logic? I haven't a clue what that would look like. It seems to go against the fundamentals.

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Written by Sophia J. Turner on 2024-09-12 at 17:32

I'm reminded of the book The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles, that goes from NAND to recreating Tetris (iirc). Even at it's most fundamental, grain-of-sand level, programming is about switches and building switches that do something more, and using those to build something more.

The building up sounds appealing, but it needs more humanity to it. Compared to painting, where every bit of pressure or brush stroke all get recorded in self-expression..

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Written by Sophia J. Turner on 2024-09-12 at 17:34

Programming often last these markers. You build a component that does a job, then build components from those components which themselves do a job.

In some ways, you can find ways you can have self-expression in code, but often instead you're looking for some kind of ideal - from make-it-work to an aim towards efficiency.

There are cool code-as-art projects, like some of the original experiments in live-coding in front of an audience where the audience can see code and feel the result.

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Written by Sophia J. Turner on 2024-09-12 at 17:36

There have been multiple music programming languages with this explicit purpose, to be things you can write an manipulate in realtime, perhaps even with a live audience.

I suspect, if I dive back into languages, I'm going to draw more inspiration from these kinds of languages as a starting point. I want to get to the point of having a conversation much earlier than we traditionally do, I want to be able to experience the results much more quickly and much more interactively.

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Written by Sophia J. Turner on 2024-09-12 at 17:38

And I want code to make you feel. I want that to be part of the conversation about what we're creating.

One of the beautiful things about writing is that it's both technical/structural and emotional. You have the mechanical parts of how writing works, how plots are structured, etc. And the emotional components of how the artistry around that structure makes you feel.

What if code could be like that?

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Toot

Written by Dirkjan Ochtman on 2024-09-12 at 18:56

@sophiajt I wonder if, say, the design aspects of mobile apps might be more feeling-adjacent than programming languages or compiler code. Or maybe accessibility…

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