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Comment by webnrrd2k | Hacker News Reader

I don't experience writing code as similar to writing prose. Code has a lot of technical constraints, and prose is much more about emotion.

I'm not saying they have nothing in common. Code and prose are both written in languages, and prose has certain technical requirements like good grammar, etc... There are very creative prose stories that play with the rules of language. But the primary focus of prose is it's effect on people and that has a different requirements than a program which has to run, run correctly, be understandable, and be maintained.

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I agree with you and disagree with this article.

The assertions are quite generic to the point you could apply them to most pursuits or hobbies.

I think there is definitely an interesting link between coding and creative writing, but to me it's the way it scratches the same itch of producing something out of nothing, of the planning and different approaches you can take. They are similarly rewarding to me. In all other ways beyond the surface level of yes, both involve writing words, I think they're wildly different. My anecdotal evidence is I find it very difficult to swap between writing code and writing fiction on the same day - I am either doing one or the other, and I feel it's because of how differently the brain works in these 2 modes. If anything, I think coding has stronger similarities to maths, and it's just interesting that many coders also do creative writing - which I'd attribute it mostly to an intersection of people who like science fiction and also like making things.

> I don't experience writing code as similar to writing prose. Code has a lot of technical constraints, and prose is much more about emotion.

Emotional constraints. You need to play those emotions in the right way to obtain desired outcome in the reader.

> There are very creative prose stories that play with the rules of language.

Just like demoscene, iocc or quines. Some stories/programs play with the rules of language/language to obtain desired awe inspiring result in reader/machine, some are more direct to obtain desired novel idea/calculation in reader/machine.

> But the primary focus of prose is it's effect on people and that has a different requirements than a program which has to run, run correctly, be understandable, and be maintained.

Not all programs need to be maintained, some are pretty good as is for their intended purpose. The rest is also a requirement for prose. It has to be read and understood for it to be usable.

Quote of the day:

"Debugging is like being the detective in a crime movie where you are also the murderer." - Filipe Fortes.

I think that you're saying that writing code is the same as writing prose. My experience is that, if I write both in the same way, I will fail at both. People just don't read prose to bask in it's technical correctness. Programming, at least the kind people get paid for, has strict technical requirements. They may get met in a creative manner, but they must be met. The primary output needs to be workable, runnable code. Programmers get paid to solve problems. But so do, e.g., surgeons. It doesn't mean that surgery is the same as programming, even if some people are called "code surgeons".

It's not the same, but there are some similarities. They have different purposes, so it's enough to say that they are not the same. I was just playing devil advocate and wanted to show that the set of arguments presented by original commenter was not that good.

> Code has a lot of technical constraints, and prose is much more about emotion.

Don't you like your variables? Are you not heart-broken when you need to let some dead code go?

:-)

Not to mention that feeling of emptiness and irrecoverable loss when a beloved binding goes out of scope. The passing of this local function left me with the existential dread of utter oblivion!

"mov pc, lr: a moving story of time passing's irreversibility" soon in your local bookstore.

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