A Meta for Computers

I find this interesting how natural it comes to use people as a metaphor to explain programs.

I found sometime ago that i could read an actual code like a prose to someone who knows nothing about programming if i replace just one word - "function" with almost any word for a person - worker, agent, operator etc. (maybe just not a specific occupation like an actor).

Notice that only in programming you can call a function, and a function can take and return something. Everywhere else you call a person who can take and return something and a function is a purpose of someone or something.

This unusual use of the word makes non programmers imagination stumble. And i found that my imagination also stumbles on it. I know what "function" means in context of programming but it does not paint a clear picture in my head. Just like a bad prose.

I think we have a good metaphor for computation hidden by a wrong word.