@nightpool@cybre.space be it to the hardware directly or to the software intermediaries that go between us and the hardware, we are communicating to a computer what we want it to do. communication with other humans about what we want the computer to do is equally important but i would hesitate to call it primary

@typhlosion @nightpool I didn't see it (typing our toots about the same time?) but the point still stands.

You are not communicating to a computer what you want to do when you write C. You are communicating to yourself what you want the compiler to translate into instructions for the computer.

Absent the compiler (which is not the computer, but another expression of human want-to-do), the C source file has zero communicative value to the computer.

@beadsland @nightpool@cybre.space "absent the compiler", you're just writing text into a document when you're writing code, so yeah, i guess i agree that in that strange vacuum you've constructed the primary utility of code is communication with other humans

@typhlosion @nightpool Computing is definitely a strange vacuum, but not unprecedented.

Consider the analogous case of building construction. An architect draws up plans that communicate the structural features of a building, but those plans take too may shortcuts to instruct a crew responsible for assembling that building.

Instead, those plans are translated, at multiple points, to communicate to various stakeholders and gatekeepers and suppliers and contractors as needed for comprehension.

@beadsland @nightpool@cybre.space just because the workers can't directly use the original plans doesn't mean the goal of the plans isn't for the house to be built

@typhlosion @nightpool Just because the computer can't directly use the C source file doesn't mean the goal of the code isn't for the program to run.

But that's the goal of the person drawing the plans / writing the source file. The goal of the computer is to follow instructions involving memory addresses and registers. The goal of the work crew is to follow instructions involving materials and specialized equipment.

The goals at the higher level of abstraction organize the goals at the lower.

@beadsland @nightpool@cybre.space you're still communicating to the computer what you want to happen! even if there's indirection involved! if im at a restaurant in barcelona with an english to german translator, a german to polish translator, a polish to mandarin translator, and a mandarin to spanish translator, my intent is still to get some fucking soup eventually

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@beadsland @nightpool@cybre.space i genuinely can't follow your logic at all at this point and i'm getting agitated so i need to step away

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