I need better words
12-Mar-06
I've been thinking a lot recently about the language I use to talk about and think about software development.
I've spent a lot of time in my life developing a critical apparatus — in language — for the discussion of literary texts and of the cultural reception of those literary texts. By comparison, my critical apparatus for talking about code is less developed.
This critical language is distinct from coding itself. Coding is much easier: most of the time it comes fairly easily, and works fairly well. It's also pretty easy to explain the purpose and operations of code, particularly to a non-technical audience.
It's situated criticism of code — in a context of software development culture, of software development methodologies — that challenges me sometimes. But I've thrown a lot of energy behind the idea that this sort of situated criticism is essential to moving a field of thinking forward.
So, my long-term goal is to beef up my critical muscles for talking about software. I'm planning to write more about software here: some of that writing may be weaker than I'd like. But that's the point of exercise.