[4619] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Code-As-Speech
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Fri May 7 12:07:21 1999
To: cryptography@c2.net
Reply-To: perry@piermont.com
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: 07 May 1999 11:57:34 -0400
I hate to say this, because it sounds "convenient" and "weird", but I
really believe that much source code *is* expression in the first
amendment sense that the 9th circuit held.
It isn't for nothing that for decades, students of computer science
have had beaten into their skulls "remember, code is not primarily for
computers -- it is for *people*. Someone else will have to read what
you write. Make it clear, make it possible for them to understand it,
use comments, use descriptive variable names, etc." Why did we create
comments if humans weren't a primary target of code? Why did Knuth
waste all that time on exercises like "literate programming"?
One of the bigger pains in the buttocks the whole EAR regime has
given me is the inability to freely communicate with colleagues. If I
want to tell someone how something is done, I can't send them code. I
have to use a less expressive, less precise method of
communication.
Anyway, enough of a rant...
Perry
