honestly i think half the reason i stick around in software is that it's the closest thing to magic that incontrovertibly exists and is a thing mortals can do
hot take
@KitRedgrave this is true of all writing, not just writing code
hot take
@Lady true, but computer code has the exciting distinction of being interpreted by something that isn't us
re: hot take
@KitRedgrave hmm is being interpreted by a system designed by humans really that different from being interpreted by humans though
granted it’s being interpreted by humans on a delay, and potentially by the ghosts of dead humans, and certainly by humans not presently in the room, and without their knowledge…
re: hot take
@Lady and being interpreted orders of magnitude faster than humans, untiringly forever, though with absolutely zero room for ambiguity that wasn't explicitly designed in...
it does start to look like literal sorcery
re: hot take
@KitRedgrave ……but this is also possible with all writing. if you write a comprehensive enough specification, the correct interpretation can be determined without an implementation in software