On 24/07/2010 01:21, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
On Friday 23 July 2010 11:46:47 Nick Sabalausky wrote:
It's always bugged me when people use the term "invent" in relaton to a
programming language. It's like saying that a musician "invented" a song,
or that Mark Twain "invented" a book. Wrong word.
Actully, I believe that invent _is_ the right word here. You write a book or a
song. With a book or a song, you're actually physically writing something (well,
in the past anyway - now it may be typing or involve a mouse, but people used
pen and paper before). With a computer program, you are again writing it (again
likely typing it, but for pretty much the same reasons, the word write applies).
However, a programming _language_ is a tool, not something that you write with
pen and paper. Tools aren't written. They're invented. So, a programming
language is invented, not written. The compiler itself - being a program - is
written, but the language itself is invented.
- Jonathan M Davis
As both a programmer and an artist, I completely disagree.
When you craft/create a song/painting/statue, you use techniques that
you learned over time and the experience that comes with using them
again and again. These techniques have been discovered/invented by
someone at some point, however the the piece of art hasn't.
The same holds true for a programming language.
To go with your analogy: the compiler is the tool that allows you to
apply the art, not the other way around. The language then is the piece
of art and the skill of creating a language is the art itself.
/Max
