Definitions of Code
This is the type of pedantic nonsense that rarely if ever matters in the real world, and that’s ok.
What is the definition of code?
This discussion happened to me most recently when prompted by a friend saying-
“What’s your opinion on Ada Lovelace? Do you think she really wrote the first computer program?”
My response:
I don’t think about it much. That is the version of the story that I have heard. But when you get into definitions… I mean, someday “write code” will not involve typing on keyboards. Will it still be code, or writing? Maybe code is that which is executable and has a syntax tree, regardless of origins? Or maybe “code” is “letters stored via electronic media that can be executed and have a syntax tree” but I believe that there is “code” which is encoded not in electronic media. for example: loom patterns and Magic the Gathering are both Turing complete 1 2 3 Therefore, stacks of MtG cards can be “code”. It gets complicated around the edges. Arguably, maybe what Ada made wasn’t “code” as we know it because that didn’t exist yet, never mind that the concept can be retroactively extrapolated to include those artifacts.
All “programs” are developed to run on something. A laptop which has the python language installed, or a loom- all the same. A lot of “programming” is the equivalent of sorting your socks, just for a lot more money and a longer-lasting sorted-socks-equivalent