Programming Is Glorified Bookkeeping

caffeinatedwonders.com

3 pointsm_sahaf3 comments

Perhaps certain types of programming or paradigms could amount to bookkeeping, but in general, programming is the technical art of abstracting information processing.

> but the realization of the stack being infinitely zoomable means the post will never be complete and never published

This construction of the abstraction tower IS programming... not just the development of each level. At the higher abstraction levels we're looking at type theory, and beautiful abstractions that read like poetry. This whole stack was built through programming, so while the lower levels could in essence amount to bookkeeping, the higher levels allow for complex programming that looks like mathematical equations. Is math just bookkeeping? (of course not) Furthermore, I think it can be argued that math arrises from the computational features of the Universe that allows DNA to be computed (described by Quantum Physics) up to the level of our brains that compute on a much higher level and allow for math to exist.

> abstracting information processing

Information processing is bookkeeping.

> Is math just bookkeeping? (of course not)

Why "of course not" though?

Depends on the meaning bookkeeping? My interpretation is that compared to programming, bookkeeping is just copying symbols, while programming involves higher level of problem solving. The article compares each level of abstraction to bookkeeping, but not the connection between levels, or the "architecting" of multiple levels at a time, as is usually done in programming.

> Why "of course not" though?

Well I'd think if anything bookkeeping is a form of math. This is also depends on the definition of math which makes the comparison more challenging without going into too much semantics.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com