Computer Programming in 5 Minutes

Ressources about programming which are not primarily meant for programmers are always interesting to read/watch. The recipe metaphor reminds me of this (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0429/122429...) article which distinguishes between cooking recipes and mathematical formulae.

I program and don't get this explanation. I'd be completely confused if I watched this before I learned to program. Can't say I'd do better.

Perhaps programming is like riding a bike by typing move left pedal to -10 Y and + 5 X, move right pedal +10 Y and -5 X. Then type repeat action. Same idea for steering. If you want it to get some place, you have to specify the path by GPS coordinates and pray nothing gets in your way.

And abstraction would be categorizing these various actions so you could possibly use the bike steering code on a car with some modification.

Makes it sound like torture at the wrong level of abstraction though.

I think it was a pretty good attempt, and I'm not sure I could do better, but I'm going to say: "Swing and a miss"