[~ot] why is programming so fun?

[Georg Wrede]

BCS wrote:
> Reply to Simen,
>> On Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:40:15 +0200, BCS <ao at pathlink.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Cool. In one way that might give you an advantage over many people;
>>> when  you converse in English you are forced to construct a concept
>>> in both  languages. To do that I suspect that you will need to
>>> consider it more  carefully than many people do.
>>>
>> I'm from Norway, and I speak a lot of english with my friends, as most
>> programming books, articles, and whatnot we read, are in english, and
>> there's little reason (except to exercise my language muscles) to
>> translate when we all speak english pretty well. This use of english,
>> and the fact 90% of what I read is in english (books, articles on the
>> web, text in games, etc), has lead to english being a language I can
>> think in. No translation to/from norwegian, no need to construct
>> concepts in both languages, it's just there. The same thing goes for
>> programming languages, I think. "Real programmers write FORTRAN in
>> any language" accurately describes what happens when you don't know
>> how to program effectively in a new language.
> 
> Interesting. Have you ever tried using that ability (to think an several 
> languages) while solving problems? "I'm stuck, lets switch to another 
> language and see if anything happens". I known for instance that the 
> Navaho (it might be some other tribe's) language is well suited for 
> talking about relativity (or some other type of physics)

When I'm with friends who all can speak Finnish, Swedish and English, it 
is pretty common to switch languages temporarily to express something 
that is cumbersome in the current language. But I must stress, it is 
considered sloppy, unless one is tired or drunk. :P

When I get stuck writing something, it sometimes helps to try to 
formulate the phrase in several languages. But in general I've begun to 
think that "everyday thinking", like "hmm, I wonder what Peter thinks 
about this", really originates below the level of words and sentences, 
and you become conscious of the thought only after you've formulated it 
and "heard" yourself thinking it. You're already wondering what Peter 
thinks before you can hear your thoughts saying it.

It is quite likely that you'd have thought the same thing even if you'd 
never learnt any language at all. This can be seen with toddlers. Their 
actions are clearly based on thinking (sometimes even quite advanced 
thinking, if you observe carefully), before they have a language to 
formulate it in.

Then again some kinds of thinking simply cannot be done without a 
language. Non-trivial problems relating to math, for example, can't be 
tackled at all without the "language of mathematics". And inventing 
algorithms needs a notation, a language. It may not necessarily be any 
specific or existing language, but you at least create an on-the-fly 
language. So, in general, whenever you need a pencil and paper, there is 
some kind of language involved. It may not always be a grammatical 
language, it can be pictorial, conceptual, or even something else.