Everything as Compiler
Henry Zhu, @left_pad
links in speaker notes below
Vue as Compiler
epistemology
how do we know?
what can we know?
can we know?
frequency illusion:
once something has been noticed, then every instance of that thing is noticed
We know more than we can tell
― Michael Polanyi
backwards compatibility
babel <-> lebab
Babel as a translator
Conceptual metaphors
also shape the way
we think
time is money
This framework will save me hours
I need to budget my time this sprint
I've invested a lot of time configuring..
I can’t parse what you’re saying
I’m compiling my thoughts
Let’s generate some ideas
understanding as compiling
knowledge as insight,
ways of seeing
learning x to
see the world
through x
to -> from
“bicycles for the mind”
Why does this matter?
Why does this matter?
"I believe in Christianity
as I believe that the Sun has risen,
not only because I see it
but because by it, I see everything else"
C.S. Lewis
“Isn’t the whole point to abstract away people?”
Q: Who is behind
the code?
abstraction hides information details
open source hides dependencies
Driving a car
Using a framework
creating it
fixing it
maintaining it
vs.
What can happen in the deferral of responsibility to our tools?
Distance can breed ignorance of the ecosystems and individual animal lives that feed us.
are not the program
results
docs
APIs
types
the map is not the territory
-Alfred Korzybski
are (by themselves), not enough
results
docs
APIs
types
100% test coverage
standards
top companies
open source projects
..
will have bugs
What can we gain by doing things ourselves?
Should we rely on anything? Should we always start from scratch?
Should we trust?
“I think, therefore I am”
objectivity
certainty
“best”
“right”
doubt
what are the consequences of seeking..
"The medium
is the
message
massage"
“Technology is neither good nor bad;
nor is it neutral”
-Kranzberg’s First Law
(technology as artifact)
But we can’t “question everything”,
We must think, act, live.. without certainty
"All models are wrong,
but some are useful"
-George Box
“Programming as Theory Building”
(Naur, 1985) - also the N in BNF
what appears to be a more common notion, ..a production of a program and certain other texts.
“open source is code"
Q: What is programming?
What about reading?
“reading is remembering statements”
How else can we think about knowing?
Stages of Cultivation
Stages of (Programming) Cultivation
1: Primitive (intuition, yolo)
2: Mechanical (principles, DRY!!)
3: Artlessness (it depends**)
What are the tradeoffs?
test everything
no awareness of “testing”
A: an activity by which the programmers form a certain kind of insight, mental model
“an essential part of programming is the theory of it”
..could not conceivably be expressed, but is inextricably bound to human beings
people don’t just matter, but are essential
“It is the persistent theme of this book that all technologies are extensions of our physical and nervous systems to increase power and speed”
"indwelling"
If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot..
be water, my friend.
at the Ise Grand Shrine, Japanese caretakers tear down and rebuild anew every generation. -Dan Wang
think of technology as a living product, which has to be practiced for knowledge even to be maintained at its current level..
During the program life a programmer team possessing its theory remains in active control of the program.
🌱 program life
The death of a program happens when the programmer team possessing its theory is dissolved.
program death
Revival of a program is the rebuilding of its theory by a new programmer team.
“The Life and Death of Great Programs”
programmers are not substitutable “resources”
know-that / know-how
reason / experience
dead / living
static / dynamic
artifact / infrastructure
detached / personal
message / medium
what are we dealing with?
Is what we’re dealing with a cat or a toaster?
“city as buildings”
“environment as resources”
“open source as code”
How are we seeing the world?
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. - Rilke
the point is, to live everything.. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. -Rilke
2 years!